MILE Supports Implementation of Dual Language program in Harford County
Sara Shoemaker and Marcia (Marcy) Sprouse with an anchor chart from their Bridging lesson
With support from Program Manager for Professional Development Amanda Cataneo, Ph.D., Emmorton Elementary School implemented Harford County Public School's first dual language immersion (DLI) program in September 2024. The program is beginning in kindergarten classrooms led by Sara Shoemaker, the Spanish DLI teacher, and Marcia (Marcy) Sprouse, the English DLI teacher, and is planned to grow one grade level each year.
Fun fact: When Sra. Shoemaker puts on her "Mirabel" glasses, a prop from the film Encanto, this means she can speak in English. To catch what languages were spoken in each image, keep an eye out for the glasses!
About the Program
HCPS launched its first DLI program this year after months of planning and preparation. Led by a core team including staff from the Office of Multilingual Instruction and school leadership, the program officially began on the first day of school in two kindergarten classrooms at Emmorton Elementary School. The majority of the students in the program are Spanish language learners. Following the program's 50/50 model, they spend half of their day receiving instruction in Spanish and the other half in English. On September 27th, DLI teachers Ms. Sprouse and Sra. Shoemaker combined their classes for the students' first Bridging lesson (Beeman and Urow, 2013). Bridging is a strategy in which teachers guide students to make connections across languages, which aids them in the language acquisition process.
Sara Shoemaker shows off the Bridge anchor chart
Sara Shoemaker leads students to make a Bridge between English and Spanish
For this first lesson, the teachers connected to their first unit about being in school/kindergarten and Bridged the classroom rules from English to Spanish, then zeroed in on the numbers one through five (Kindergarten Standards K.CC.A and K.CC.B) with a linguistic focus on introducing cognates for the very first time using the words number and número. Following the Bridging lesson, students participated in the application activity. In partners, students practiced saying the numbers in Spanish using counters. Teachers reported that the Bridging lesson was a success, the two classes were excited to be together, and the kids were engaged and able to follow along with the teachers. Given that they teach in separate classrooms, the teachers were also happy for the opportunity to work together and show the students a "united front.”
Partnering With MILE
Dr. Cataneo has been coaching the teachers and supporting the program implementation since July 2024 and will continue to do so throughout the year. This partnership is part of MILE's ongoing commitment to supporting dual language programs across the state of Maryland.
“Sra. Shoemaker and Ms. Sprouse are a great DLI team and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to work with these amazing individuals and the rest of the team at Emmorton Elementary and HCPS this year.”
