Language Planning Initiative

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Language Planning Initiative

• Presenters
• Marcia Volpe, Eva Ayers, Val Houser,
• Marsha Miceli, Shannon Allen, Joyce Schulz,
• Bob Keegan, Jessica Chou, Roberto Palella,
• Sue Shandler

February 2004
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Burning Questions

• Is PSD a bilingual school?
• At PSD, are ASL and English balanced?
• Is there more emphasis on ASL?
• Is there more emphasis on English?
• Are you bilingual in ASL and English?

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LANGUAGE PLANNING AT PSD

• Summer 2004
• Gallaudet Leadership Institute on Language
  Planning attended by Marcia, Marsha, Val, Eva.
• Focus on Bilingual Education. What does it
  mean? How is it used for Instruction?

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Gallaudet Leadership Institute

• What was the purpose of this weeklong workshop?
• The purpose was to in-service
  supervisors/administrators
  about bilingual education.
• This workshop was led by Steve Nover and staff of
  the Star Schools Project.
• 12 schools sent their respective teams to
  participate in this program.
• Both Deaf and Hearing staff attended.

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What did we do during the week?

• Our Process included
• Lots of reading prior to arrival
• Mostly working in school teams
• Analyzing our school mission statement
• Examining how we assessed language
• Identifying language and communication support
  services
• We noted weakness in each of these areas.
• All schools shared their findings with each
  other.

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What we learned

• The difference between dual language and
  bilingual programs
• About 2nd language issues and considerations
• About hearing and Deaf bilingualism
• LOTS of research findings and remaining questions
• About school-wide language and literacy planning
  processes
• Language planning done well takes (on average)
  about 7 years to implement

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Action Plan

• Each school team was required to develop an
  action plan.
• One team was selected to present their plan for
  approval.
• PSD was chosen to present our plan!
• Simulation with Jamie Tucker
• We convinced him!! ?

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LANGUAGE PLANNING AT PSD (cont.)

• FALL 2004
• The Language Planning Group at PSD was formed
  to learn more about these ideas and apply them to
  PSD.

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Goal

• Develop a school-wide plan that aims to
  address instruction in both ASL and English in
  developmentally appropriate ways.

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WHO is in the group?

• 10 Staff members (5 Deaf, 5 Hearing)
• 4 participants of the summer institute
• Marcia, Marsha, Val and Eva
• 3 classroom teachers (pre-school to high school)
  
• Sue, Shannon, and Jessica
• 1 representative of the speech team
• Joyce
• 2 representatives of the ASL team
• Bob and Roberto

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PROCESS

• Develop Hopes and Dreams
• Have a clear direction in terms of language
  development which language to use, for what
  purpose.
• Be more intentional with language planning,
  language use.
• Think about how we assess our kids.
• Determine what we are doing well, what we need to
  improve.

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PROCESS (cont.)

• Be more clear in how we model language for
  students have a better understanding of our
  intentions behind our own use of language.
• Be more clear about what bilingual education
  means and how we will implement it be more
  intentional in our language use.
• Tap each students prior knowledge to teach them
  language.

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PROCESS (cont.)

• Improve the balance between ASL and English in
  how to use the languages Becoming more realistic
  with higher expectations.
• Collaborate with other schools in an effort to
  promote a better understanding of language
  development.
• Find resources for teaching ASL. Look to other
  programs dont isolate ourselves.

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PROCESS (cont.)

• 2. Articles about bilingual education chosen from
  the summer program were read and discussed by the
  group.
• Partner Reading Before meeting as a group,
  designated partners (always a combination of
  hearing and deaf) meet to discuss the article of
  the month and share perspectives.

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PROCESS (cont.)

• Group Meetings At least once a month the group
  meets to share their views and discuss the
  information in the articles. Lively discussions
  always bring us back to how the information will
  help us provide the language environment at PSD
  that will promote the best education for our
  students.

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far...

• Should we have a progressive language policy that
  varies across ages, developmental levels and
  grade levels?
• What is semilingualism and how does it apply to
  our students?
• Can we use translanguaging to help support ASL
  and English development with our students?
  (Translanguaging the input and the output are
  deliberately in different languages and this is
  varied from day to day.)

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far... (cont.)

• The various kinds of bilingualism...not
  necessarily 100 fluent in both languages,
  individual vs. societal bilingualism, both
  languages being underdeveloped, etc...
• Inner thinking as the 5th language competence
• How can we evaluate our students' general
  communicative competence? What are the 64
  separate components to language proficiency?

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far... (cont.)

• A person can have limited linguistic skills, but
  can be successful in communication in certain
  situations.
• Do we have balanced language planning in the
  classrooms, and how can we to move our students
  from BICS to CALP?
• Bilinguals are often not equally proficient in
  both languages - and are still considered
  bilinguals. However, there are some folks who
  are balanced bilinguals.

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far... (cont.)

• One topic of interest is the distinction between
  elective bilingualism and circumstantial
  bilingualism. Elective bilingual describes most
  of the hearing staff here at PSD who have chosen
  to learn a second language without losing their
  first language, while circumstantial bilingual
  describes deaf students and deaf staff who are
  learning/have learned a second language in order
  to survive in the majority culture that
  surrounds them. Often the first language for
  circumstantial bilinguals (such as immigrants) is
  in danger of being replaced by the second
  language.

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far... (cont.)

• "Over time and place, an individual's two
  languages are never static but ever changing and
  evolving." (Baker, Chapter 1)
• Some of the comments on language separation, such
  as "it has often been argued that the 'one
  parent, one language' situation is one of the
  most effective patterns enabling childhood
  bilingualism to occur" are intriguing. (Baker,
  Chapter 13).

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Intriguing Ideas Weve Learned So Far... (cont.)

• "The amount of time allocated to each language in
  the curriculum is important. ... but more
  important is the purpose, manner and method in
  which the two languages are used." (Baker,
  Chapter 13)

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Conclusion

• This will be an ongoing process, with no easy
  answers. We hope to get feedback from you that
  will help guide our work. When we look back at
  our hopes and dreams, we would like to feel that
  we have made strides towards meeting them!

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• If we teach today like we taught
• Yesterday, we lose tomorrow.
• --Thomas Dewey