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Bijou school to expand book selection

Jack Barnwell
jbarnwell@tahoedailytribune.com
Bijou Elementary first grader Kailie Spangler (right) reads an English-language book to her classmates in the school's library on Tuesday, April 28. Bijou Elementary has a dual-immersion bilingual where some students learn Spanish and English simultaneously, with kindergarten and first grades beginning with 90 percent Spanish and 10 percent English.
Jack Barnwell / Tahoe Daily Tribune |

A group of students from Eileen Magallanes’ first-grade Bijou Community School class sat in a group around a fellow student as she read from an English book on Tuesday.

While the book was in English, it reflects Bijou Community School’s two-tongued approach to teaching its students bilitearcy in English and Spanish.

A Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe grant will allow the school to achieve that goal by expanding its library. The Soroptimists awarded a total of 14 grants worth $25,000 on April 15.



“We’re excited and thrilled to receive the grant,” said Bijou Principal Cindy Martinez on Tuesday. She added it was great the community had groups like the Soroptimists.

Librarian Melissa James said the grant would fund new resources for the library.



“The goal is to beef up our Spanish books,” James said as the students read the book on Tuesday.

James said approximately 307 of Bijou’s 565 students are immersed in the bilingual approach. Students begin in the kindergarten and first-grade learning 90 percent Spanish and 10 percent English. By fourth and fifth-grade, it’s a nearly 50-50 split.

Bijou also has traditional English classes, which include 258 of the school’s students.

Spanish was selected because of the area’s high Spanish-speaking population.

“We have students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds,” Martinez said.

The library visits by classes account for part of the 10 percent English requirement.

“The goal is fluency by the time they’re in fifth-grade and really immersing them in different educational subjects in middle school like social studies and other core subjects,” James said.

Part of the requirement includes reading one Spanish book and one English book each week. However, only a quarter of the books in Bijou’s library are Spanish.

“I’m just running out of books and I don’t have enough for 300 students to be checking out every week,” James said.

First-grader Kailie Spangler, said she enjoyed the program, especially since she said she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

“I like how the teachers will sometimes ask you questions in Spanish and you get to answer them in Spanish,” Kailie said after taking her turn reading the book. “I also like how they make the papers in Spanish easier for the kids because they can do it by themselves.”

The program has gone on at Bijou School for eight years. James spoke from personal experience about the program’s success.

“My son was in the first group and now he’s in seventh-grade,” James said. “His Spanish is pretty.”

James said Bijou’s immersion program is comparable others in the state, and selected its 90/10 model.

“It seems to have the best results,” James said.

She added it was transferable with Common Core education techniques being phased into California’s public education system.

The books James plans to order will reflect that.

“I use a few different sources to order and the goal is to keep the books aligned with Common Core, yet be in Spanish and exciting for the kids to read.”

Growing program, growing need

Martinez said the Bijou’s program has been gaining steam since it began eight years ago.

In its first two years, there was only one cohort, or group of students. Then it grew to two and kept on growing.

Of Bijou’s 27 classes, 15 are immersed in the bilingual approach in five cohorts.

“We’re on a lottery system every year and every year we’ve had a waitlist,” Martinez said.

But with growth comes demand.

“The need for resources in Spanish is high to support the increase,” Martinez said.

Grants from groups like the Soroptimists helps expand its resources in language development and the classroom.

Bijou’s curriculum follows the rest of Lake Tahoe Unified School District as it aligns itself to the Common Core standards established by California.

“It is all content based and we collaborate with the other schools,” Martinez said.

Students continue when they go through middle and high school, with options available to them.

While Spanish might be the language of choice for Bijou’s program, in addition to its traditional English-primary lessons, the goal expands beyond that to multicultural exposure and increased opportunities.

“The language becomes a vehicle to teach content,” Martinez said.

James agrees, especially when it comes to critical thinking skills.

“You really are thinking in two different languages,” James said. “It makes a huge impact at a younger age in critical thinking.”


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