Essay: Engaging Prekindergarten Dual Language Learners in Projects

The article, “Engaging Prekindergarten Dual Language Learners in Projects” by Jones and Shue suggests how teachers can engage dual language learners in projects. The goal of project work is to strengthen language development and communication skills for both dual language learners and the other students that make up their classroom. According to Jones and Shue (2013), “project work can be initiated by the children or the teacher and is based on children’s interests, stemming from their life experiences” (p. 29). Projects should be introduced to students using books to help build new vocabulary and activate prior knowledge and experiences. Students are asked questions about the project topic in both English and Spanish to encourage all student’s participation in the conversation. The students are provided with authentic materials, they identify various roles and participate in role playing opportunities. All of this work is especially beneficial for dual language learners so that they have a better understanding on how to participate in the project and are provided with new vocabulary and language strategies. This will also help them to become more confident with their social interactions with the students in their classroom.
The dramatic play center is transformed into a place that is decided upon by the students. In the article, the dramatic play center is turned into a pizza restaurant. This process takes two weeks for students to appropriately develop the center and create their own materials that can be used in the pizza restaurant. Students participate in research to learn more about the topic using books, the Internet and their own personal experiences. Another aspect of project work is incorporating parent involvement. Jones and Shue (2013) suggest, “parents of second-language learners can contribute to the project by providing needed materials from home and sharing home vocabulary for words related to the project” (p. 31). Parent involvement helps to strengthen the home to school connection, which can allow students to continue this type of learning at home too. The last step of project work is having a grand opening. The students created invitations and pizzas that they could sell at their pizzeria. Families and other members of the school were invited to participate at the pizza restaurant. This allows students to demonstrate what they have learned throughout this process and actually take on the role of someone who works in a pizzeria. Jones and Shue (2013) highlight, “the social interactions among the dual language learners and English speakers had developed from teacher-initiated to child-initiated. The children had gained confidence in communicating with each other to solve problems and continued to use the new vocabulary correctly” (p. 33). Overall, the teachers found great success with this approach for language development and communication for dual language learners. Both dual language learners and English-speaking students felt much more comfortable communicating with adults and their peers.
As a Pre-Kindergarten teacher of English Language learners, I believe this type of project work would be extremely beneficial for my students. Although I have not fully incorporated this approach in my teaching, some of these strategies I am already using. Recently during professional development, we have spent numerous sessions talking about dramatic play and what we can do to make it more meaningful and engaging for our students. We have discussed in detail transforming our dramatic play center into something that is decided upon by the students. This will allow students to take control of their learning and have them engaged in something that is of high interest to them. Students are also encouraged to brainstorm the things they will need for the dramatic play center as well as create the materials that will be needed. The teacher will scaffold their learning and develop this center based on their interests and decisions. The teacher will also use role play in that center to model different scenarios/ situations.
After reading this article and participating in numerous professional developments on this topic, I definitely want to use this type of approach in my classroom. I will begin by brainstorming with students what they would like to transform the dramatic play center and based on what they choose, provide them with materials and resources that will help them learn new vocabulary, continue their language development and support them with their social interactions. One thing I did not think about with project work is the aspect of family involvement. Families can be very helpful with providing the classroom with materials, supporting their own child’s learning at home and participating in the classroom. Many parents have skills and knowledge on the topic that they can share with the class.  Ultimately project work allows all children to take control of their learning in a developmentally appropriate way that allows students to focus on language development and social skills. Dual language learners in particular benefit from this because it allows them to make connections to their past experiences and focus on their language development in their native language and English.