Wahluke School District starting Dual Language program

MATTAWA — The Wahluke School District is starting a new program this school year. They are will be offering a Dual Language program at the kindergarten level.

“Dual Language has long been a goal for Wahluke School District,” said Bethany Martinez, Wahluke School District’s Migrant and Bilingual TOSA. “With Chris Reykdal’s focus on dual language at the state level came increased opportunities and resources for districts to begin the process of implementing Dual Language.”

The district was awarded a Dual Language Implementation grant.

“We were awarded it for the 2018-2019 school year,” Martinez said. “This allowed us to take staff to trainings and visit other Dual Language schools as well as purchase supplemental materials for the upcoming kindergarten classrooms. We have worked for over a year to make sure we are prepared to start our Dual Language program off right.”

The new Dual Language program will be a two-way 50/50 model. Instructional time will be split with 50 percent in English and 50 percent in Spanish.

“We have two teachers, one who will teach in English and one who will teach in Spanish with students switching between them,” said Martinez. “Students will receive mathematics in English, science in Spanish, and language arts will be taught in both languages. This year we will start with two kindergarten classes and then add a grade each year until we have made it all the way through fifth grade.”

Currently, the school district is limiting the Dual Language program to two classes per grade at Mattawa Elementary School.

“Once we have established this first strand then we may consider additional classes, should we have enough interest and bilingual teachers,” Martinez said. “Class sizes can be larger at the upper grades which does allow us to add students who may transfer to our district from another DL program or any students arriving to our district who are new to the United States and speak Spanish.”

Teachers Amy Bare and Rosa Tapia will be teaching the Dual Language kindergartners this year.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email rpinkerton@suntribunenews.com.