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District CLDE team demonstrates language‑learning strategies and promotes Seal of Biliteracy
Summary
The district’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) team led a short participatory exercise in French to illustrate classroom strategies for students with no English, highlighted expansion of co‑teaching and biliteracy supports, and said more students are earning the Colorado Seal of Biliteracy.
The Harrison School District 2 CLDE (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education) team presented a classroom demonstration and overview of services to the school board May 15, inviting board members to participate in a short French lesson to experience strategies used with students who arrive with little or no English.
Director Tammy Holland and CLDE coordinators Isabel and Hannah described district initiatives including co‑teaching, comprehensible input strategies and “seven steps to a language‑rich environment.” They told the board the demonstration was designed to build empathy for students who have had little prior schooling or no English exposure and to show how teachers scaffold comprehension.
Highlights
- Languages and supports: The district said it serves students speaking more than 50 languages in an 18‑square‑mile attendance area and uses general fund dollars to provide CLDE services because state funding is inadequate to cover all costs.
- Seal of Biliteracy: Holland said the district is expanding support for the Colorado Seal of Biliteracy and that more students earned the recognition this year than in past years; some Advanced Placement and IB scores remain outstanding and could raise the total further.
- Classroom techniques: The coordinators used simple target‑language prompts and participatory cues to show how repetition, gestures, modeling and peer interaction build comprehension. Board members attempted the exercise and commented that the experience provided empathy for multilingual learners’ challenges.
Why this matters: District leaders said many students enter with limited formal schooling and no English; the presentation aimed to show the extra instructional work required to bring students to grade‑level content while recognizing and valuing students’ home languages.
