Language Routines

The Importance of Routines

As classrooms around the district start the first week of school, dual language classrooms are focused on  developing classroom routines and procedures that students will use and follow to facilitate their learning this year in halls, bathrooms, lunch rooms etc.

We’ve thought of everything, but have we?

The strength of a Dual Language Program rests in our collective ability to ensure Bilingualism and Biliteracy, and if we do this we get Academically and Multiculturally proficient students.  Have we thought about teaching our students procedures to maintain their linguistic higiene?  Our students code switch because they can, but what would happen if we taught our learners a procedure to grow their language.  It’s very simple!

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Procedure: ¿Cómo se dice?

Instead of only using the code-switching to navigate new language, it is appropriate for us to teach our students to use ¿Cómo se dice?.  

 ¿Cómo se dice? solicits linguistic support from the listeners when the speaker is searching for what or how to say it-reinforcing listening engagement, cognition and problem solving, and increasing the status of the partner’s linguistic abilities.  It indicates linguistic meta-cognition-key to growing language and ensuring the outcomes we want. If we explicitly teach and model ¿Cómo se dice? With our students, and set the expectation that they use this procedure-we will ensure bilingualism that is transferable anywhere in the world!