Bilingual Programs at Volta

Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE):  is used when a school has more than 20 students who speak a single language. The teacher’s objective is to use the student’s native language to transition them into the general education classroom and prepare them to be at grade level with their peers. Volta currently uses this program to serve our students from K-8 who speak Gujarati and Arabic. 
Transitional Program of Instruction (TPI): This is used when a school has languages other than English or Spanish with less than 20 students in a single grade. The teacher teaches in English using a variety of visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic strategies. This program is also known as English as a Second Language (ESL). Over 90% of Volta teachers have their ESL endorsements and can provide TPI/ESL services to their students without pulling them from the classroom, thus giving our students the benefit of receiving scaffolding throughout the day. The objective is to teach our non-native English language students English and to support their academics in the general education program. Volta currently has students who speak over 22 languages; these languages include Spanish, Gujarati, Arabic, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, French, Ewe, Korean, Burmese, Russian, Japanese, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Dari, Malayalam, Telugu, Karen, Kayah, Cambodian, Cebuano, and Somalian. Spanish Dual Language: Dual language is a form of bilingual education in which students are taught literacy and content in two languages. As the students begin the program, the primary language used to teach literacy and content is Spanish. As the student progresses through the system, English is incorporated more until it eventually evens out in fourth grade as English is used to teach Literacy and Math, while Spanish is used to teach Science and Social Studies. Our dual language classroom are from Pre-K- 8th grade.