A Message from Principal Zaniolo
4th & 5th Grade Families Spanish Immersion
Welcome back 4th and 5th Grade Families!
I hope you had a restful and enjoyable summer. I am sure you and your lions are ready to start off another exciting school year. We are ready to have you!
This year, your Lion will be entering 4th or 5th grade as part of the Spanish Immersion program. In these grade levels, students will receive 50% of their instruction in Spanish (math, science, and Spanish classes) and 50% of their instruction in English (reading, writing, and social studies). Instruction in both languages is an important step for the continued development of biliteracy for our Lions within the program. This year, we have made a few staffing adjustments in the 4th and 5th grade classes to ensure every student receives this dual language instruction.
As you may be aware, there were a few staffing changes at the end of last year, leaving a vacancy in the 4th grade SI program. Throughout this summer, we have been actively recruiting candidates, however, were not able to find a candidate who was highly qualified and fully certified for the position. The Illinois State Board of Education requires a specific foreign endorsement in addition to a Professional Educator’s license. This is different than a bilingual endorsement that ensures literacy and fluency in the Spanish language. These certification requirements, paired with the short time frame, drastically limited our candidate pool.
After consulting with the Spanish Immersion teachers, this year we will be implementing a team-teaching model for 4th and 5th grades. One teacher will deliver 50% of the instruction in Spanish for both grades, and the other teacher will deliver 50% of the instruction in English. This model has been used successfully in the past within the Spanish Immersion program, and is also a model used in many dual language programs for these grade levels. Ms. Rachel Muren will be the reading, writing, and social studies teacher for both 4th and 5th grades this coming school year. Sra. Elizabeth Smith will be the math, science, and Spanish teacher for both 4th and 5th grades this coming year. Both teachers are highly experienced and will be able to provide our Lions with an excellent dual-language academic experience.
In partnership with the district, it is my intention to further develop the Spanish Immersion (SI) Program. I would also like to form a liaison committee for our SI Program, and will be hosting a discussion about this at the end of September. Please see last week’s and this upcoming week’s edition of The Lion’s Roar for more information. I would like for this group to be connected to our broader SI community and represent diverse perspectives. My hope is for this group to be a regular sounding board as we work together to develop our Spanish Immersion program in a way that is research-based, data-informed, accessible to more of our Lions, and with clear programmatic goals, scope and sequence, and communication for families. This year, I also plan to heighten recruitment efforts to find more bilingual, fully-endorsed teacher candidates, so that we have a larger pool of highly qualified candidates for next year.
I look forward to partnering with each of you over the coming years! Let me introduce you to your new 4th and 5th grade teachers!
Laura Zaniolo (she / her / hers)
Lincoln Lion & Principal
Abraham Lincoln Elementary
1111 S Grove Ave, Oak Park, IL 60304
Oak Park, District 97
(708) 524-3110 (phone)
(708) 524-3124 (fax)
Spanish Immersion Program 4/5th Grade Co-Teaching Team
Mrs. Rachel Muren
Welcome 4th and 5th grade Lions! My name is Rachel Muren and my students often call me Mrs. M. My experience includes 14 years in the field of education as a part of both urban and suburban schools, serving as a classroom and special education teacher. In most recent years, I had the pleasure of working with teachers as an instructional coach in both literacy and mathematics. My passion is to empower students to join me in creating a positive learning environment and to provide differentiated instruction for all students. My son Elliott will be entering 2nd grade at Lincoln this year; I am so excited to join the warm family of Lions that we have come to know and love.