French Immersion Schools Visit in New York
I had the opportunity to visit three French immersion schools the last week of October: PS 20, PS 110, and the NY French American Charter School in Harlem. The selection of these schools was quite arbitrary; I emailed the entire list of schools provided on FACE Foundation and went to the ones that responded. I did not get to see PS 84 and PS 113 like I had planned though, due to some changes in my scheduling.
PS 20
I was greeted by Mr. Enroth at PS 20 in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning. He was a parent of the inaugural class and witnessed the development of the program. Even though both of his children have grown out of the program, he still helps the school with meeting visitors. His benevolence reminds me of the awesome parents at Franklin and their dedication.
For the visit, we peeked into a few classrooms. I didn’t want to intrude on teachers and their teaching time, so if they were in the middle of a lesson, we peeked from the door instead. Those with open doors welcomed us in graciously. The kindergarten teacher was running centers so we entered. I’m stealing one of her ideas:
Sight words on popsicle sticks
Foam letters
White board marker
Students choose a popsicle stick. Read the word if they can or ask a partner for help. Use the foam letters to form the word. Use the white board marker to write the word.
After the visit around the building, Mr. Enroth and I talked in the hallway. The discussion with him addressed many issues and it made me realize that most dual immersion programs encounter the same issues: Program/curriculum development, testing in English, teacher shortage, attrition, middle school development, and some gentrification in a diverse community. I assured him that LA has the same issues and it was nice to hear that we weren’t alone. He was glad to hear that these issues were not unique to PS20 as well.
New York French American Charter School
I went to the New York French American Charter School in Harlem in the afternoon. It was a long trek from Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Nevertheless, the visit was amazing. Raphaelle Etoundi Essomba, an intern at the French Consulate and assistant to Fabrice Jaumont, joined me for the visit. We were greeted by Stephanie, the office manager. Contrary to PS20, the population at this school was mostly students of color. They serve a lot of African and Haitian families who have French roots. The teachers were dynamic and proud of their students. They were also ready to share and talk. It was obvious that they were used to visitors at their school as the students weren’t phased by our presence at all.
Stephanie guided us through all of their classes. For those in the middle of lessons, they welcomed us to sit and the ones who had centers, we walked around talking to students where they shared their narratives and activities. The thing that set NY French American Charter School apart is their pull out French as a Second Language class due to the number of students who join them after Kinder and 1st grade. They also have ESL pullout for the Francophone students who are new arrivals. Like the rest of our schools though, the SPED support providers are English speakers. It is also hard for them to have French speakers as academic support staff. Mr. Maurice, the principal, joined us in the middle of the tour. He was such a welcoming man and accompanied us the rest of the way. We finished the afternoon by meeting in his office and figuring out ways to form a symbiotic relationship. Speaking of which, I need to send him some information!
Thank you Raphaelle for taking the picture of us!
PS 110
Fabrice Jaumont’s children attend PS 110, so he was happy to take me in for a visit. After getting lost and going to the wrong café, I finally found him. Oops! I got a tad turned around. In the upper grades, it was school elections time, so there were campagne posters galore. The halls were decorated with student work in both French and English. I was surprised to see Geralynne and Ben, teachers who were part of the Utah training over the summer. I had forgotten that they taught there! As the principal took us around, we got to know a bit more about the school, its history and development. In this 50-50 program, the French teachers also teach the kids in English for a portion of the day. Like all other public immersion schools, there’s a big push for good scores in testing that is done in English. So voilà. We talked about how to minimize testing for our students and the issues that the school is currently encountering. First and foremost, finding a French dual-immersion teacher is not easy. Apparently, the teacher who was hired to teach second grade French gave up on the complicated paperwork process as a transfer from a midwest state. I suppose, NY’s bureaucracy is just as complicated as that of LAUSD’s, if not more complex. Moreover, parents add extra stress to the process, too, feeling uninformed despite the principal providing all the information that she has. Quick shoutout: If you’re in the NY area and would like to teach second grade French, they’re hiring. RIGHT NOW!! I assured her that California has the same issues, too, including the massive bureaucracy that can deter out of state teachers from completing the process. I even mentioned that she could share that with the parents who feel like this is a solely a PS 110 issue so that they don’t feel so alone.
My Takeaways
I was inspired and motivated by visiting these three schools and felt bad that I didn’t have the time to see even more. Nevertheless, there are certainly trends that follow across the board.
New York City schools are physically so different from schools in California. The classrooms are smaller and the campuses are vertical in a building, due to weather and space. Climbing stairs is definitely a necessity. Not all classrooms had the space for carpet time (aside from the kindergarten classes) and it’s generally a sea of desks in a classroom. Not all classrooms had windows, either, depending on their location in the building.
There needs to be some form of exceptions made for dual-immersion teachers in the paperwork process in large school districts. Or some way to speed up the process. These teachers are hard to come by and it doesn’t make sense to deter them from applying with a roundabout process, especially since these hiring processes are usually at the last minute.
All dual-immersion and their English partners work extra, extra hard. We need to stop reinventing the wheel and SHARE the things we have created. I’m not talking about TPT.
The stress of testing is prevalent and there needs to be some other measure for these immersion students who are spending at least 50% of their time learning in a different language to not be as stringently tested in English. Yes, I understand that data needs to be collected somewhere. However, I really don’t think it’s fair that they are subjected to the same level of rigor when they have spent half the time in English instruction. There is knowledge transference between the two languages, however, that takes time.
NY teachers have built in planning time during their day. It would be nice to have some built in planning time for CA teachers, too.
We need SPED teachers who speak the instructional language, too. How do we go about doing this?
Well, here’s to hoping that we can all be a part of this revolutionary change in public education with dual language movement across the US. Community members, we need you!