Dalton Public Schools recently issued the following announcement.
Three schools in the district received grants for their dual language immersion (DLI) programs from the Georgia Department of Education. Brookwood School and Westwood School each received a Sustaining Grant in the amount of $5,000. Hammond Creek Middle School, which will begin its German dual-language immersion program in August 2022, received a START-Up Grant in the amount of $10,000.
Claire Kyzer, German dual language immersion teacher and dual language immersion district lead, said these grants will be used to continue to develop the programs at Brookwood and Westwood, and start the program at Hammond Creek Middle School.
“We were really fortunate that all three of the grants that we submitted were accepted,” Kyzer said.
According to Kyzer, all of the grants will be used to purchase materials that will support the language and literacy development of students in the DLI programs.
“If you were in a regular English classroom in Dalton Public Schools, you would have a lot of access to English materials like books, videos, resources and magazines,” Kyzer said. “DLI classes don’t have access to any of that. In order for our students to be able to read, write, listen and speak, we need to have resources in the language.”
At Hammond Creek, the grant will be used to purchase books and supplies for specific content areas. The district is currently recruiting and interviewing German teachers for Hammond Creek for next year, and will create German DLI courses based on the hired teacher’s content certifications.
For example, the German DLI students at Hammond Creek may take their science and math courses in German, and their social studies and language arts courses in English. The German classes would need textbooks, posters and other materials to support the program.
“Hammond Creek will need a lot of materials because we’re going to be teaching content areas in the language,” Kyzer said. “We’re going to need materials that are specific to the content areas in the language like social studies, science, history, geography.”
Caroline Woodason, director of school support, said that she is excited for the German DLI program to expand to the middle school level.
“We are very proud of this trailblazing class,” Woodason said. “They are pioneers. They have stayed with this since kindergarten and they’ll be going into their seventh year. We are so excited with how their language acquisition is growing, and so we’re so excited for this program to continue and grow and flourish at the middle school level.”
According to Woodason, Hammond Creek was one of only four schools in the state to receive the START-Up Grant.
“Dalton Public Schools is also the northern-most dual language program in the state of Georgia,” Woodason said. “We are excited that the state is giving us so much support in our dual language because it is a big undertaking.”
Original source can be found here.
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