Kids in Spanish immersion programs- When/how do they learn to read/write in English?

[Anonymous]

By third grade the immersion kids take the same MAPS English reading test as kids in regular programs, so the data exists. I don't know if they catch up by 2nd grade, but I don't think they're massively behind either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They refer to it as “El Milagro de Segundo Grado”. I guess what it means is the skill set for reading in Spanish magically transfers into English around the end of 2nd grade.

My 2nd grader is in full Spanish immersion (no English instruction and standardized testing is in Spanish) and he can read in English. We never taught him and he didn’t learn it at school.

His level of reading in English is probably lower than his peers, but not by a lot. We are told he will catch up by the end of elementary. I’m
Not worried.

We aren’t in MCPS though sorry!

What data does MCPS have to show that kids will catch up the end of 2nd grade?

There is no data showing that because this is not true - except for precocious readers who were already reading English before K. When we attended the immersion open house in the spring before K, we were told that everyone would catch up by middle school.
We have a 3rd grader now who can read English but not quite at the level of his non-immersion peers, so that tracks. English is not formally taught in the immersion curriculum until 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Kid is in French immersion, in second grade. Kids learn to read phonetically. So, since they also speak English, they can read in English (and any other language where they know that whatever letter combo corresponds to a sound and they know what that word means).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in a one-way immersion program. We don’t speak the language at home (though both parents can understand it at about 75%). No issues with kid learning to read or write in English.

At 10 (3rd grade), they have been exposed to <5000 hrs of the immersion language. Assuming 10-hr days of consciousness since birth on average, that is out of 36,500 hours in English.

Assuming your kid learns typically, do not let this anxiety stop you from giving your kid the absolutely mind-blowing life benefit of being multilingual. Really.

Did you work/had to work with your kiddo to teach them how or read in English or did this happen at school in 3rd grade?

It happened before 3rd grade. IDK whether our kid would be really regarded as unusual
in this way; I think the warnings about English skills lagging are ass-covering.

We were also told to expect lagging MAP scores. Their 3rd grade fall MAP (administered in English) was 226. This had a corresponding Lexile range of 1090L-1240L (which prompted me to look up Lexile scores).

We didn’t do anything extra, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in a one-way immersion program. We don’t speak the language at home (though both parents can understand it at about 75%). No issues with kid learning to read or write in English.

At 10 (3rd grade), they have been exposed to <5000 hrs of the immersion language. Assuming 10-hr days of consciousness since birth on average, that is out of 36,500 hours in English.

Assuming your kid learns typically, do not let this anxiety stop you from giving your kid the absolutely mind-blowing life benefit of being multilingual. Really.

No 10 yo should be in 3rd grade. Kids are mostly 8 yo in 3rd.

Lord, bless the pedants.

My kid has been 9 through half of 3rd. Their redshirted peers, who I know nothing of academically, are 10. Whatever.

You can adjust the hours for your kid’s particulars; the point is the same. Say at 10–the end of 4th grade, you are insistent—they have been exposed to 5,400 hours of instruction in the immersion language.

The point is that 5 years of 180 6-hour days per year are totally overwhelmed by English exposure. The idea that a typically developing kid can not learn proper English if they are in immersion is bizarre.

If a kid has learning challenges, that’s a different story. All bets are off. MCPS is not doing well in this area so I’d be cautious if this is the case for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't realize these program were one way. I thought they were bilingual - part of the day in one language, part of the day in English

They do get a little bit of English each day. At SCES, specials (art, music, PE) are in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in a one-way immersion program. We don’t speak the language at home (though both parents can understand it at about 75%). No issues with kid learning to read or write in English.

At 10 (3rd grade), they have been exposed to <5000 hrs of the immersion language. Assuming 10-hr days of consciousness since birth on average, that is out of 36,500 hours in English.

Assuming your kid learns typically, do not let this anxiety stop you from giving your kid the absolutely mind-blowing life benefit of being multilingual. Really.

Did you work/had to work with your kiddo to teach them how or read in English or did this happen at school in 3rd grade?

It happened before 3rd grade. IDK whether our kid would be really regarded as unusual
in this way; I think the warnings about English skills lagging are ass-covering.

We were also told to expect lagging MAP scores. Their 3rd grade fall MAP (administered in English) was 226. This had a corresponding Lexile range of 1090L-1240L (which prompted me to look up Lexile scores).

We didn’t do anything extra, no.

Er, my magnet kid who was not in immersion had a MAP-R score of 220 in 3rd grade which was in the 98th percentile. 226 must be >99%. So, congrats that your kid is an advanced English reader, but this isn't proof of "ass covering" and 99th percentile scores on the MAP-R are not typical for an immersion student or even for a non-immersion student.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends. We know a family where one of the kids picked up reading/writing in English fine, the other needed a tutor in 4th/5th grade to catch them up. No diagnosed LDs or anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends. We know a family where one of the kids picked up reading/writing in English fine, the other needed a tutor in 4th/5th grade to catch them up. No diagnosed LDs or anything.

This was our experience exactly. We did the full range of testing but no LDs were diagnosed. Kid just needed extra help to catch up in English. This is within the range of normal and I don't personally feel this is a reason to not try immersion. Assuming there is no actual learning delay - which will be a concern whether or not the child is in the immersion program - they will catch up eventually, at their own pace.