The CVSD Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy Program

 Here's a guest post from our English Learner teachers at Williston Central School (Melita Sedic-Lawton and Susan Heston Simpson) and Shelburne Community School (Robyn Suarez and Erika Monaghan). 

The English Language (EL) Team is proud to announce that students in Williston Central School (WCS) and Shelburne Community School (SCS) have been attending heritage language classes as a part of the Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy Program. The Pathway program sets students up for receiving the Seal of Biliteracy when they graduate from high school. The Seal of Biliteracy is a nationwide award that recognizes a high school student’s achievement of a high level of proficiency in English plus another language. At graduation, students get the Seal marked on their diplomas, and their high school transcripts would also note this huge accomplishment. In fact, last year the Seal of Biliteracy was awarded to one student at CVU upon graduation, and this year a student will receive the Seal for biliteracy for English and Nepali.

At WCS, eleven students are taking classes in Chinese, Nepali and Russian, while at SCS, five students are taking Chinese. There is no expense for families. Lessons are once a week after school, and students take the late bus home.

As a pilot program this year, we limited participation to our EL students and focused on just three languages. We would love to expand what is offered next year, as well as include a wider audience. Next year, we are hoping to expand the program by hiring more heritage language instructors and having more students take advantage of this opportunity. We have been so happy with how smoothly things have gone thus far, and feel that we are in a good place to really take off next year!

The Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy is offered in elementary and middle school and then the Seal of Biliteracy is actually awarded to students once they show competency in two languages in their junior or senior year. They can pursue the Seal through the Nexus program. For more information on the Seal of Biliteracy at the high school level, please contact Johanna Shaw-Daniels in the CLD center at CVU or through email jshawdaniels@cvsdvt.org.

Here are some photos of our students taking classes with Ms. Anna Sun, Mr. Phub Lama, and Maria Kapetanovic, who is also the school nurse at WCS.

at WCS

at WCS

Anna Sun teaching characters with flash cards at SCS

An SCS student working on a letter to her pen pal at WCS.

Maria K, the Russian instructor, works with students at WCS.

Thank you to our EL teachers for their efforts to get this program off the ground and for sharing this with the larger CVSD community.