Hi Christi,
My 2nd grade daughter is in her third year in a Spanish immersion program. The first two years were great. There is plenty of challenge in learning to speak, read, and write in a new language, even considering Spanish is an easy language. My daughter is almost fluent in Spanish, but still has some vocabulary development and grammar improvement to master.
Every immersion program is different. My daughter is in a 90/10 immersion program. The children are taught in Spanish 90% of the time in K & 1st, then each year English is increased by 10%. By 5th, the children are taught in 50% Spanish and 50% English. In our program, the class is made up of half native English speakers and half native Spanish speakers. The children learn a great deal from each other. Many of the children are recent immigrants, which I feel adds to the cultural experience. Yes, the English speakers tend to be at the top of the class, partly because of the type of parents that are willing to place their children in an immersion program. My daughter has one other gifted child in her class and several other borderline gifted children that participate in the "challenge" classes with the GT specialist.
I have been very pleased with the immersion program. My daughter is in the top reading group and probably reads at least at a third grade level in Spanish (if not higher). Second grade has been the beginning of my gifted advocacy. I have been working to get my daughter accelerated in math. Also, since the increase in English language instruction this year, she goes to her GT specialist during English time since she reads and writes many grade levels higher than the rest of her class. If my daughter were not in an immersion program, she would have probably already been accelerated twice or be home schooled. My daughter's GT specialist has recommended that my daughter skip 5th grade since she is in the first immersion class and acceleration would mean that she would have to leave the program. We have not made any decisions regarding future acceleration. My daughter has enjoyed and I think been challenged by the program. The only major deficiency we have encountered is math. The only real benefit my daughter has gained during math instruction has been the language aspects of immersion and math vocabulary. We mainly work on math at home though I am hoping to get some subject acceleration for her at school soon.
I speak very little Spanish even though I took 2 years in high school. I have learned some Spanish since my daughter has been in the program, but she surpassed me in kindergarten. It has rarely been a problem with homework and her school sends almost everything home on in Spanish and English.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Summer
