July 30, 2026

Thursday Edition

Empowering DLI educators with best practices, relevant research, classroom tips, and fun ideas that will inspire you into, through and beyond your teaching week.

¡BIENVENIDOS! WELCOME!

¡VIVA SER BILINGÜE IS BACK!

WELCOME to ¡Viva ser bilingüe! This newsletter is for you, the DLI teacher. It is purposefully designed to be a quick read that offers valuable content so you feel confident speaking about DLI principles, and strategies and activities that work in the DLI classroom. I'm excited to continue to connect with our loyal subscribers and thrilled to have more DLI teachers join us this school year. ¡Bienvenidos!

A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING...

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OUR CRAFT

The DLI Pillars is the light that leads the way, it is ...

OUR NORTH STAR

Anchoring the school year in the DLI pillars, positions both instructional languages as equal partners on the path to bilinguaism and biliteracy. Include a time to reflect on the DLI Pillars during your DLI summer PD, prior to the start of the new school year, or at the first staff meeting. Remember, we are NOT a monolingual English program with a sidekick language. The DLI program has it's own goals and it's own needs. Start the year off engaging as a DLI staff or grade level in answering the following question:

What evidence do we have that our program is grounded in the DLI pillars?

THE DUAL LANGUAGE EDUCATION PILLARS

Bilingualism & Biliteracy: Students reach high levels of proficiency across the four domains of language in the target language and English.

Academic Achievement: Students achieve at grade-level or higher academic success in two languages.

Sociocultural Competence: Program model, curriculum and instruction is culturally responsive and representative of the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of all students while promoting appreciation of the culture of the target language.

Critical Consciousness: Asks us to reflect on the students we are enrolling in our program. Are all students truly welcome? It asks us to center the voices of our marginalized students and recognize how power and inequities shape our communities. DLI programs create a space for a more just future for all.

Click HERE for a free copy of the DLI Pillars Poster.

Dual Language Education

Do your students know?

Do your students know they are in a specialized program? As a former kindergarten teacher, my students didn't know. They started the school year accepting that learning happened in two languages. A few weeks into the school year, I realized that I should tell them that they were in a specialized program and that their brains were going to work very hard to learn in two languages. How great was that! The students will feed off of YOUR enthusiasm for learning in two languages. Hype it up from day one!

Here are a few quick ideas to get the conversation going:

Grades TK-K. Tell your students they are in a specialized program where they are going to learn in two languages. Teach them the word bilingual. Have them tell a partner 'Yo soy bilingüe' or "I am bilingual!"

Grades 1-5. Remind your students that they are in a dual language classroom. Engage students in a discussion of what the word "bilingual" means. Have them tell a partner 'Yo soy bilingüe' or "I am bilingual!"

Grades 6-8. Remind your students that they are in a dual language classroom. Engage students in a discussion of how they use the target language in their content class. Have them talk about how it feels to engage in math, science, social studies in the language of instruction.

By engaging students in a short discussion on day one about learning in two languages, you are grounding your instructional year in DLI Pillar #1.

Remember to celebrate all student attempts at using their languages, especially when it is a student's new/second/less dominant language.

INTERACTIVE READ ALOUD

Gloriana Presente is a great story to share with students during the first week of school. It is the story of Gloriana's first day in an English-only classroom.

Me encantó esta descripción del libro en español de Bookshop.org

Una historia multicultural que ayudará a los más pequeños a sentirse cómodos en sus nuevas escuelas y a descubrir las alegrías que pueden encontrar en las nuevas comunidades. Un álbum ilustrado lleno de imaginación, que celebra el poder del amor. - Bookshop.org

Image shows the cover of the picture book Gloriana Presente. The character Gloriana is depicted standing in front of her school.

Gloriana Presente BY Alyssa Reynoso

Pre-school - 3rd grade

Spanish Edition - BOOKSHOP AMAZON

English Edition - BOOKSHOP AMAZON

Grant $$$ for DLI Teachers

Check out this website TEACH.com for

Professional Development Grants for teachers

Back to School Deals

Check out these deals at STAPLES. Notebooks are as low as .35

Office Depot has these deals for under $3.

Target has pencil boxes for .99

Be in the know...

Education Policy

In California...

California is testing a new language assessment for TK students to measure English proficiency, after the English Language Assessment for California was blocked from being used with our youngest learners. Read more HERE.

Deeper Dive

For a deeper dive on assessment for pre-school children, read this ARTICLE.

Research

Research has shown for DECADES that dual language bilingual education, [programs whose goal is bilingualism and biliteracy] yield high academic results for English learners. A new study conducted at Rice University shows, again, what we've known all along. The dual language immersion model is the most effective model and yields strongest academic results for English learners.

Click Here for Article