ADVOCATES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING EL MARINO

ADVOCATES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING, EL MARINO ("ALLEM") The most important thing ALLEM does is to provide an adjunct (Native Language Support Provider) in every classroom. Each adjunct is fluent in the target language and converses with the students only in this language. In this way, students are provided with an additional model to help in their language acquisition. The adjuncts spend from 1.5 to 3 hours per day assisting in the classroom. This greatly reduces the student-to-teacher ratio and allows the teacher to break the class up into smaller groups, provide special attention to those who need it, or simply take on more interesting and complex projects. The cost of providing an adjunct in every classroom in the 2013-2014 school year will be over $150,000. Over 95% of the money ALLEM raises is spent on the direct cost (salaries, payroll taxes, and workers compensation insurance) of providing the adjuncts. There are no other salaries; all of the other participants are volunteer parents and teachers. There is almost no overhead. In other words, virtually everything you contribute to ALLEM goes directly into the classroom to benefit the students of El Marino. EL MARINO LANGUAGE SCHOOL is a public elementary school operated by the Culver City Unified School District. Language Immersion started in Culver City in 1971. El Marino house's the district's two elementary school Language Immersion programs, the Spanish Immersion Program [SIP] and the Japanese Immersion Program [JIP]. The goal of both programs is for students to master grade level content while learning to speak, understand, read and write in both English and the target language, Spanish or Japanese. Depending on the grade level, most instruction takes place in the target language. English Reading/Language Arts are taught according to program guidelines. Students are expected to master the District's adopted content standards in all academic areas.