As the school is bilingual, the children find themselves working in two languages. Our goal is to help the children become fluent in two languages. Therefore the role of the teacher becomes of even greater importance! She must create the environment that gives the children a maximum of opportunities to get involved and want to participate and learn to express themselves in all school activities: for example, talking about the painting they have just finished or describing an event. Children should feel free to speak in both English and French, while also learning to listen and understand others.

The teachers read to the children daily in both English and French and encourage them to create their own stories. Children first create their own drawings and create a short story that can be read back to them. Together as a group or class, the children make up stories that the teacher then writes down to keep as a book. In addition, experience charts, calendars, attendance and labeling objects in the class all encourage the children to express themselves and learn about writing and reading.

By the time the children enter the Pre-K class (4 years) and start the more formal pre-reading program in English and French, they have been labeling their work (with the help of teachers), illustrating their own stories, and leaning to recognize their full name and a few other frequently-seen words. Most of all, children have by this time already been exposed to literature in both English and French.

The pre-reading program is a whole language program. It introduces the letters and letter sounds phonetically as well as through literature. The teachers use oversized book, whose large physical size and large letters make them more accessible to small children. Together they read the stories, thereby improving the children’s ability to recognize and retain high-frequency words as well as learning new words and decoding more sounds. The writing process adds to the foundation built in reading exercises as the teacher introduces word lists for new letters.

In kindergarten, the phonetic and whole language reading methods are continued in order to develop the language arts and promote reading fluency. Basal readers are used in addition to children’s literature. The teachers encourage the children to read all types of books, cartoons and children’s magazines as well as the books made by the children themselves.

The children also keep a journal in which the teachers emphasize comprehension rather than immediately focusing on correct spelling and grammar. If a child can read the labels and stories he/she writes, the “creative spelling” is acceptable. Gradually, according to each child’s rate of progress, the teacher teaches the rules of grammar and spelling. The child learns and assimilates these rules by continuously correcting and adding to her work.

By the first grade, the process of reading and writing becomes firmly established and the children continue to progress at their individual pace. The teacher works to address the different needs of each child to develop his/her reading and writing skills while simultaneously avoiding feelings of frustration.

At this point the children are introduced to reading in the other language. The children that read in English learn to read in French and vice-versa. The teachers also customize the reading instruction for those bilingual children who may have already begun by themselves to read in their second language to meet their level of comprehension.