Sneak Peek: A thorough look at the steps you need to take to implement a heritage Spanish program at your school from the ground up.
Depending on your student-body demographics and school-district size, you may already have a designated heritage Spanish class. But maybe you don’t and you’re overwhelmed about the thought of starting one from scratch. Or, perhaps you’re wondering if the curriculum you’re using is really what works best for your students? If any of those questions resonate, you’re in the right place!
Setting
First, let’s consider the setting. Many teachers find themselves in one of either two positions: teaching heritage students who have been placed in a typical language classroom designed for second language learners, or teaching heritage learners in their own section, but finding the class is struggling to find traction and students seem to be going through the motions with little engagement.
Let’s tackle the first scenario: heritage students placed in the regular Spanish (Spanish I, II, or III) classroom. The problem with this becomes obvious very quickly; L2 learners and heritage learners have vastly different skills, abilities and proficiency profiles. Let me say that again… L2 learners and heritage learners have vastly different skills, abilities and proficiency profiles. You will constantly under serve one group of students to serve the others, and vice-versa. No amount of differentiation can account for the reality that…you now have two distinctly different classes presented in one class offering.
The dramatic difference in skills creates a dynamic that is challenging for any teacher, and can be either frustrating or mindnumbing for heritage students. They may not be challenged by the vocabulary or oral comprehension activities, resulting in boredom or being put into a role of tutoring other students. While the intent might be to boost their morale by putting them in an authoritative role, such as a tutor/subject matter expert, the reality can feel much different. If we, as teachers, are not careful, the student may begin to feel like a servant, or someone who doesn’t deserve to learn and meet their own educational objectives. As if, in the end, their value to the group is to help the teacher. Students are students, and should feel free to explore their educational opportunity rather than switching into and out of different roles and hats to wear during a given school day.
Alternatively they may need deep/additional support to understand literacy tasks such as spelling, reading and writing. If the dynamic has been created that this student is your resident class expert, they may feel inadequate when this is pointed out and less inclined to voice their own struggle in a particular aspect of the class instruction. Some might not understand why they are being offered modified activities or not be held to the same standards as their peers. This dynamic creates a lot of confusion for everyone involved. At the end of the day, a student will likely assess an unfortunate pattern: “it’s beneficial for me to undercut my ability to blend in, and get a better grade.” This defeats the purpose of the educational experience, as it does little to stretch, challenge and grow the pupil.
This is Dangerous
Heritage learners are in danger of being overlooked in traditional language programs. Oftentimes, it’s not that the teacher desires to hold the student back…the teacher simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to provide enough enrichment activities that challenge them that at the same time don’t overwhelm them. It’s a delicate balance, because if we give our heritage Spanish speakers texts that are above their reading level, we may cause them to lose confidence and the desire for furthering their Spanish literacy skills. They deserve the chance to develop high level Language Arts skills, just like English-speaking students deserve to have a Language Arts class in their daily schedule. They deserve an equitable learning environment that meets them at their level and then challenges them. In this way, an L2 language class won’t challenge them enough.
In the second scenario I mentioned, where there is already a dedicated heritage class, teachers can still run into problems with engagement if the curriculum is not student-centered to incorporate the perspectives, interests and needs of this particular subset of students. Students may be embarrassed about their lack of literacy or think the class was going to be an easy A. While others may be facing pressure from home to assimilate and only use English. Or, others still will drive a self-inflicted identity pressure to read and write in Spanish as well as they do in English.
They need to be shown that their existing language skills and culture are valued in a safe environment to build up their confidence and skills. The challenge for the teacher is that even when teaching a separate heritage Spanish course, each student comes into the class at a different starting point in their language learning journey. While it is a benefit and blessing to have a separate and bonafide heritage class offering… in a separate heritage Spanish course, there must be space created to foster a growth mindset regarding their Spanish language skills, so that heritage learners can understand and honor their own personal starting points and what their specific journey to full-proficiency will look like.
What can you do to get a program started?
First, you will want to assess student demographics. How many students are placed in Spanish 1 or 2 who grew up speaking Spanish at home? Check with the guidance office to see if there are bilingual students who are not on your roster, but maybe should be. At some schools this is the case. One starting point in identifying these students is checking with administration for those who have identified their home language as Spanish. Oftentimes, there are more students who could be in the course, but due to class sizes or their limited English skills they choose to place them in low-stakes classes their first year. Do keep in mind that limited English proficiency should not affect a student’s eligibility for a heritage Spanish class. Once you know the actual number of viable students for a specific heritage language class you can determine the practicality of running a course, but the groundwork won’t end here.
You’ll need to make sure there is enough staff to take this on. One teacher at a smaller school reported having to drop from four sections of Spanish 1 down to three (resulting in larger class sizes those hours) in order to support a separate section of heritage learners. It would be something to consider when talking to your principal. If your school has many sections of Spanish, they can help you figure out how to shuffle things around or who wants to take on the changes in the section(s) offered. Make sure you’ve spoken to the other Spanish teachers at your school to gauge interest and commitment.
If your department is on board with the idea, get the ball rolling by sending a course-proposal email to your administration.
Free Download:
Course Proposal Email Template
Next Steps
Establish a heritage language program leadership team. Often this is composed of the Spanish teachers, EL teachers, the guidance department and at least one member of the admin team. Gather data on the students you foresee as possible candidates for your course, making sure to note the need for a program mission that best supports their academic and linguistic development.
Informal conversations and questionnaires are helpful for learning about heritage learner backgrounds and goals, as well as written tasks to gauge writing skills. This free digital comprehension assessment is one you can use to check their ability to comprehend Spanish, as well as collecting a writing sample.
Not only can you see their spelling, but also the overarching components of their overall writing ability to punctuate and put a coherent paragraph together. It’s important to remember that proficiency is not a prerequisite for enrollment in the heritage Spanish course. Many heritage students will struggle with the writing portion of the comprehension assessment and that’s okay.
To qualify for the course, we really just need them to be able to comprehend spoken Spanish and have some reading skills as well. If students score a 7/10 on the assessment linked above, we consider them ready for Heritage Spanish class.You may be able to ask your guidance counselor to administer this assessment and then deliver you the written excerpt the students submitted so you can look over the student’s work before officially putting them in your class.
School board support may also be necessary to approve/deny the addition of a course or staff member. Be prepared to work together on a mission statement that aligns with the school’s goals/vision of the learners. If your school agrees to move forward you may be asked to create a description for the school’s course catalog.
Here is a sample:
Spanish for Heritage Speakers offers Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to formally study in an academic setting in the same way the native English-speaking students study English language arts.
The course will provide instruction directed at continuing the development of existing competencies in the Spanish language. Students will acquire and expand grammar and spelling in their native language, develop vocabulary, and interpret and analyze different literary bodies of work. Students will increase their awareness and appreciation of Latin American culture. Students will compare and contrast language functions between Spanish and English and enhance their skills in both languages.
Final Phase
Develop a heritage language program model that shows clear and expected outcomes.
Here are some ideas:
- Maintenance of the heritage language
- Acquisition of academic vocabulary
- Expansion of bilingual range
- Transfer/development of literacy skills
- Cultivation of positive attitudes towards the heritage language
- Development of cultural awareness/critical thinking
- Incorporate Social Emotional Learning through Content-Based Instruction
- Development of confidence in their identity
Decide on (or develop) a scope and sequence and secure instructional materials based on the expected outcomes. While designing the course, It may also be worth considering that the course allows 9-12 graders to enroll into the same heritage class if it’s not feasible to have more than one section. You also could check with the guidance counselors and administration about running the class on a two or even three year curriculum cycle. This would allow for students to take it for more than one year and have new units each time. It can also be feasible to do this with middle schoolers by combining 7th and 8th grade students into one section.
Promote
It’s time to promote your program. Make sure students, parents and the community are made aware of the availability of this new course. What communication channels do you have available to you? Some avenues of approach might be a principal’s newsletter, curriculum night, or a school Latino group. Ensure that parents are aware of the course aims, as their support is crucial to the initial and long term success of this program.
It’s time to begin enrolling students!
Free Download:
Make a copy of this flyer template
Get approval from your administrators to post a flyer around the school as you approach registration season.
Get approval from your administrator to send out an email to Spanish speaking students and families about the new course.
Here’s a slideshow you can use to inform them about the course…
Free Download:
Copy Slideshow Template Here
Curriculum Planning
If you’re finding the thought of planning an entire curriculum overwhelming, let me take something off your already full plate. You can access engaging and empowering lessons that are ready-to-use with your learners by signing up here for the Ascendencia (high school) or Linaje (middle school) curriculum. We also accept purchase orders from districts.
Our Ascendencia Curriculum has three full years of lessons. Choose Year One, Year Two, or Year Three, or mix and match between them all by choosing All Access.
We also have Linaje, a year-long middle school curriculum, prepared! While this curriculum is designed with middle schoolers in mind, it is also a perfect fit for a high school class that has a lot of students with very early emerging Spanish literacy skills.
If you’re looking for more information about the standards we used to align Ascendencia and Linaje, check out this blog post: The Best Standards For Heritage Spanish Class.
If you are worried that textbooks will be too difficult or not engaging enough for your students, we’ve got you covered with materials that are engaging for students and best practice for teachers.
Here’s what to expect inside this curriculum:
- Content-based Instruction
- Writer’s Workshops
- Social Emotional Learning
- Hands-on Projects
- Identity Work
- Community- Building
- Games
- Printable Readings
- Daily Lesson Plans for the Teacher
- Novel Studies & Literary Circles
- Differentiation for text levels
Here’s a free letter of support template you can use:
Free Download:
Letter of support
What to Do if the Program is Denied
If the program is denied, don’t give up hope and try again next year! You know your students need this course, and you are not wrong. Some things just take time to get going within a large organization.
Whatever you do, don’t stop trying. Not offering a heritage Spanish course, when there are enough students who need it, is an issue of equity. If Spanish speaking students lack access to specialized language instruction that caters to their unique linguistic needs, this can lead to feelings of inadequacy and hinder their ability to fully develop their language skills, creating an inequitable learning experience compared to students learning Spanish as a second language. You may want to check if nearby districts or states offer heritage language courses as separate offerings as part of your data when approaching admin.
Here are some questions you may consider sending to your district admin to emphasize the equity issue…
How does your school or district celebrate the individual strengths and support the unique needs of heritage language learners?
How does your school or district create inclusive learning environments that foster a sense of belonging and pride in the home language?
How many Spanish speaking students does your school or district require there to be before a separate section can be created to teach them at their level?
What is the demographic information for Latinos in our school (what percentage)?
More food for thought on this…
Imagine a transfer student from Ohio being placed in an English Language Learners course because there wasn’t enough room in the English Language Arts class. An ELL class is simply not the right fit for a student who is already completely fluent in English. When we place students that are fluent in Spanish in lower level language acquisition classes, we are seriously inhibiting their vocabulary and literacy development. We are basically telling the student, “just slow down and hang out, you’re already pretty good in this skill, so just sit tight so we can get these other students moved along.” This is not what equity looks like.
It is mind-blowing when you think about it, the fact that we are talking about the second most spoken language in our country. All across the United States, within the niche of foreign language departments, Spanish is the most pushed, supported and taught foreign language within our schools. And then, when heritage speaking students attend our schools, and already have foundational proficiency in this important language… are not also given an appropriate course offering that meets their needs and helps them maintain their bilingualism, we contribute towards subtractive bilingualism.
Not to mention the issue of Language Transfer. When we support their language skills in their primary language, those skills are more easily transferred to their second language. For example, learning how to structure an essay. If a student learns that skill in their first language, they will then be able to use what they have learned about essay structuring and apply it in their second language. Offering a heritage language program only helps.
Final Thoughts
If you are in a pinch, and your school won’t approve a heritage program, you may consider placing your native Spanish speakers in a Spanish IV class. If your native Spanish speakers are new-to-country and are still learning English, this could be a good environment for them to improve their English in a setting where they can still be proud of their Spanish skills. Some schools have created a pretty cool intercultural exchange environment in these courses where students are helping each other learn English & Spanish. This could be appropriate for a student with very strong native Spanish language skills, but make sure to check that this is allowed and still keeps the student on track with necessary graduation credits. This does not replace the need for a heritage course, but is an idea to have in your tool belt if you can’t get a course approved in the short term.
Here’s some other helpful blog posts to get you started:
How to Propose a Heritage Spanish Course
Who Should Be Placed in a Heritage Spanish Class?
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