Southwark School's Two-Way Immersion Program: Building Bridges in a Diverse Community
Annie Leary and her husband were nervous when they sent their oldest child, Owen, to Kindergarten. They were worried about how he would adjust to the schedule, whether he’d make friends, how he would like the school environment—the usual anxieties. But in addition to these normal jitters, Ms. Leary and her husband were nervous about something most English-speaking families have the luxury of being unconcerned about: the language barrier.
Ms. Leary enrolled her son in Southwark Elementary School’s Two-Way Immersion program, where students are taught in both English and Spanish from Kindergarten through fourth grade with the goal of ultimately becoming bilingual. The program is designed so that there are 50% native English speakers and 50% native Spanish speakers in the class.
Principal Andrew Lukov brought the program to Southwark after being approached by a group of parents and community members from the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association in the summer of 2013. It was his first year as principal of the school, but as a former ESOL teacher, Mr. Lukov knew the value of incorporating language learning into the curriculum—especially at a school like Southwark, which has 41% English Language Learners.
“I think that’s what he did in general, as an approach to his leadership—meeting with a bunch of different people, in regards to the school and their vision and what they wanted,” said Sofia Chaparro, a student in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, who ended up doing her dissertation field work at Southwark.
After hearing that parents and community members strongly supported creating some sort of bilingual program at the school, Mr. Lukov reached out to the District’s Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs. By the next school year, Southwark was inaugurating the first cohort of its two-way immersion program.
Two-Way Immersion (TWI) is different than ESOL or Spanish classes, where students come in knowing one language and exit the class knowing another language. In the TWI model, the idea is not just that English speakers are learning Spanish, but also that native Spanish speakers are learning English by interacting with their peers.
In the first year (Kindergarten), 90% of classroom instruction is taught in Spanish, with 10% being taught in English. Then, in first grade, 80% of instruction is taught in Spanish and 20% is taught in English. The program continues this way until fourth grade, when half of instruction will be taught in English and half will be taught in Spanish.
Ms. Leary was interested in the program for multiple reasons. Her son was already advanced for his age—he’d taught himself to read at age three—so she and her husband wanted to find a program that would challenge him. “We really needed something that would be extra stimulating,” she explained. “We felt like, well, if the class is in a different language, that’s certainly gonna be a challenge.”
Moreover, Ms. Leary believes that being bilingual is extremely important in today’s world. “We thought it would be a big advantage to him both personally, professionally, and then just culturally,” she said. “It breaks down barriers.”
There are also many studies that show how receiving bilingual education early on helps with learning attainment in later grades, whether it’s learning math or understanding other students. Plus, learning a second language is much easier at a young age. Just a couple months into his first year in the program, Owen was having conversations with his teacher in Spanish.
“He doesn’t mind new adventures,” Ms. Leary said of her son. “He’s a pretty good risk-taker, but he certainly picked it up way faster than we imagined.”
Although Ms. Leary speaks a bit of Spanish—she took Spanish in high school—she feels out of her element when it comes to helping Owen with his homework (which is entirely in Spanish). The experience has made her recognize her own privilege as an English speaker.
“You have to think—there’s so many people in our country, and in our district, that are English Language Learners, that enter a classroom with a teacher speaking English all day long,” she said.
This was also why she wanted Owen to enroll in the TWI program. “It gives him an opportunity to experience something from other people’s perspective, to understand what immigrant kids are dealing with,” Ms. Leary explained.
The TWI program has helped Ms. Leary and her family understand the advantages they have in an English-dominant society, and, more specifically, in a Philadelphia neighborhood that is at once gentrifying and home to many Latino families. While Ms. Leary enrolled her son in the TWI program so he could benefit personally and professionally, for Latino families, the program represents an opportunity to retain linguistic and cultural heritage.
In other words, the TWI program allows Latino children to be educated in their family’s native language and learn English in tandem with, rather than instead of, that language.
“The privilege there is that we’re doing it by choice,” Ms. Leary admitted.
She and her husband sometimes worry that Owen is at a disadvantage in the program because he isn’t a native Spanish speaker. Unlike a typical classroom in Philadelphia, the TWI program—especially in the first couple of years—favors native Spanish speakers: instruction is in Spanish, homework is in Spanish, and social interactions are supposed to occur in Spanish.
“But there’s a whole set of other factors for anyone who’s an immigrant,” Ms. Leary acknowledged. “They’re dealing with so many other things, so the ‘advantage-disadvantage’ thing just isn’t even a factor for us. To think that he’s disadvantaged going in—that’s just not the case.”
“In terms of gentrification and our community,” she said, “we talk a lot with Owen and always did about what gentrification is and why we love our diverse community and why we support the school.”
Southwark School is in a neighborhood that has historically been home to a diverse enclave of immigrants—it’s seen Russian, Polish, and Italian immigrants, Asian and Southeast Asian refugees in the 1960s and 1970s, and then in recent decades, Mexican and Latin American immigrants.
“Southwark, I think, has always been known as sort of this hub for foreign students or immigrants,” Ms. Chaparro said. “There’s so many languages and cultures represented in the student body.”
When Trump was elected and talk of immigration bans started appearing in the news, Owen’s class discussed it. “His class was acutely aware,” Ms. Leary emphasized. “More aware than a first grader should ever be, of how scary that would be for his friends…It’s awful, and it’s a huge learning opportunity for him, and for his classmates who aren’t immigrants, of what we need to do to make sure our friends are safe and our friends are secure, and that we’re going to protect them no matter what.”
Owen’s class also talks about the cultural experiences of Spanish speakers, such as the meaning behind Latin American holidays.
“He knows exactly what May fifth is all about,” Ms. Leary said as an example. “It’s not ‘Cinco de Mayo, go out and have fun with your buddies.’ He tells me that it was a war between Mexico and France. He is very aware of the different cultures and why they celebrate different things.” And to celebrate Women’s History Month during March, his class learned about influential Latina women.
The TWI class creates a space where students—even as young as first grade—can talk about difficult and terrifying issues like deportation, unpack stereotypes about immigrants, and learn what white privilege really means in Philadelphia. Beyond teaching children to speak Spanish and English, the program teaches cultural competency.
