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MEMBER PROFILE: Telpochcalli School

2832 W .24th Blvd.
Chicago, IL. 60623
Phone (773) 534-1402
Fax (773) 534-1404
Visit their website
Contact: Tamara Witzl, Principal

Telpochcalli, or “house of youth” in the Aztec language of Nahuatl, is an autonomous small school serving the neighborhood population on the east edge of Little Village. The school works with the community to foster arts education, communication, and the celebration of its Mexican cultural heritage. Through a partnership with the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE), Telpochcalli offers an integrated Mexican arts and culture curriculum. Funding helps to support an artist-in-residency program at the school, where artists work with teachers to instruct students in visual art, drama, and music. Teaching academic concepts through artistic, thematic units is designed to increase academic achievement and to educate students in Mexican culture, the nationality of nearly all the students and their families. In addition to its commitment to arts instruction, Telpochcalli aims for all of its students to become bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish. Since the school opened in the 1990s, student achievement on standardized tests has increased steadily.

SCHOOL STATISTICS

Enrollment: 280 students in grades K – 8
98.1% Hispanic (majority Mexican)
1.3% White
0.6% Native American
97.4% Low income
64.5% Limited English Proficiency
Classroom:Average Class Size: 21-24 students
Standardized Test Performance:04-05 ISAT Performance:

Grade 4, Science: 61.5% meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 5, Math: 75% meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 5, Reading: 75% meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 7, Science: 90.5% meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 8, Math: 23.3% meeting or exceeding standards
Grade 8, Reading: 50% meeting or exceeding standards

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SIGNATURE PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES:

  • Bilingualism: Student proficiency in English and Spanish is one major goal of the school. Instruction is given in both languages, beginning in Spanish and using a gradual induction of English.
  • Art-Focused Curriculum: Curriculum is integrated with Mexican arts and culture.
  • Artist Residencies: Three artists in visual arts, music, and instrumental music develop the integrated curriculum and instruct students.
  • Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Program: This after-school program is facilitated by teachers to provide extra academic assistance for students in grades 3 – 8 in math and reading.
  • Latino Youth “Teen Reach:" All students may attend an academic, social and recreational after school program, co-sponsored and funded by Latino Youth, Inc.
  • Social Service: Telpochcalli networks with a number of local social service agencies, including mental health agencies and hospitals; the school provides full-time on-site counseling for families.
  • Interdisciplinary Teacher Improvement: Teachers operate in small groups to provide innovative teaching styles and constructive criticism based on observation and discourse.
  • Parent Involvement: Parents are viewed as partners in their children’s education, and are encouraged to participate in artistic forms through a parent writing workshop. They also volunteer at school celebrations and events sponsored by various organizations.
  • Telpochcalli Community Education Project (TCEP): This non-profit organization provides programming and workshops for parents and community members designed to increase community education opportunities and leadership potential.

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CALENDAR AND SCHEDULING


Normal CPS calendar and operating hours are observed, except for Friday afternoons when students are dismissed at 12:45 PM, and staff meets for weekly professional development from 12:45 PM – 2:45 PM.

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ACADEMICS


Curriculum and Philosophy

  • Integrated Mexican arts and culture: All subjects integrate Mexican arts and culture based around thematic units in order to help the students appreciate the culture of themselves, their families and their community. For example, art media like sculpting are used during science lessons. The integration approach exposes students to all forms of art (visual, dramatic, and musical) and celebrates Mexican heritage. For more information on the arts curriculum, see information on the SCALE project in Supplementary Materials.
  • Bilingualism: The goal of the school is to create truly bilingual and bi-literate students, focusing on English and Spanish. Under Telpochcalli’s current program, reading and writing both languages is emphasized through instruction by the bilingual staff. Development of languages is divided by grade level:
    • Kindergarten to third grade: The native language of students is stressed in instruction while the second language is developed.
    • Fourth to eighth grade: Second language instruction is accelerated while the native language is maintained. All classes are taught in both languages in the higher grade levels. The first language maintenance is the key to true bilingualism.

    Telpochcalli is developing a new bilingual framework with the assistance of a widely recognized bilingual education expert to improve the current program. The framework will integrate the curriculum using mapping, while guiding the teaching of languages and their use in content areas. Instructional strategies and subsequent professional development will support the bilingual education framework.

Programs and Practices of Note

  • Artists-In-Residence: Three artists, funded by the CAPE project and the school itself, work with teachers to provide a balanced education in visual arts, drama, music, and instrumental music. Artists co-teach eight hours per week in the classroom, and teach instrumental music lessons weekly to all students.
  • Chicago Math Science Initiative (CMSI): This innovative program accelerates student learning in mathematics through reading, problem-solving, real-world application, and use of technology such as calculators and computers. Mathematical concepts are coupled with thematic units (ex. architecture, mammals) to integrate mathematical logic with the normal thought process. A variety of programs based in problem-solving are used under the CMSI, including Connected Mathematics for grades 6 – 8.
  • Wright Group Reading series: This program uses a leveled reading curriculum which pairs fiction and non-fiction children’s books at a variety of levels. Target grades are kindergarten through grade 2. Telpochcalli’s goal is for every student to be able to read and write independently by the second grade.
  • Striving Readers: Telpochcalli is one of 16 schools chosen to participate in a new five-year federal grant to CPS to improve reading in content areas in middle school grades. It will provide a reading teacher and extensive staff development for teachers of grades 6,7, and 8.
  • Writing emphasis: Workshops, journals and small group learning are emphasized in all grades. In order to increase writing exposure, students are also encouraged to read at home by borrowing books from classroom libraries. A variety of genre and the writing process are introduced during the third through eighth grades.
  • Summer Programming: Summer school is offered for students in three areas: special needs; additional bilingual development; and various arts, including, video, drama, dance, and music.

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STUDENT ASSESSMENT


In-School Assessment: Students are assessed by teachers on many projects throughout the year. Projects are subject-specific or thematic, covering several subjects in one integrated unit. Projects are assessed through written reports, art components, and oral presentations given in class.

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STUDENT CULTURE

Methods for Supporting Student Culture

  • Self Discipline: Students and teachers work on this process together. Techniques used to foster self discipline include positive discipline, classroom meetings, and close contact with parents.
  • After-School Integrated Arts Programming: Students participate voluntarily in extra arts programs after school. Options currently include video workshops, gardening, mural painting, mosaics, website design, and various music offerings.
  • Rituals, Celebrations, Traditions: The school community observes certain annual holidays and school events together. Many are Mexican cultural events, such as Mexican Independence Day and the Day of the Dead, but others are simply thematic, such as Family Nature Day and the Telpochcalli Art Fest. Parents participate and volunteer at these celebrations.

Programmatic Approaches to Fostering Student Achievement

  • Supplemental Education Services (SES) Program: SES, or the Academic After School Program targets students in the grades 3 – 8 who are not achieving grade-level success in math and reading. A component of Title I of No Child Left Behind, CPS provides funds for schools to offer students additional academic assistance, such as tutoring and remediation.
  • Latino Youth “Teen Reach:" This after school program offers academic, social, and recreational activities for kids. These range from tutoring and leadership development to recreation and arts classes. Teen Reach is operated by Latino Youth, Inc. staff and meets every day after school for approximately 3.5 hours on the campus of Telpochcalli School.

Conflict Resolution and Social Services

  • Peer Mediation: Social service staff will begin training a new core group of students in peer mediation techniques for the coming year. Teachers are encouraged to use peer mediation as an alternative to traditional discipline for student arguments.
  • Social Services Network: Telpochcalli offers a comprehensive range of social services to students through partnerships with local social service organizations, including Latino Youth Inc., UIC clinics, Cook County Hospital, Pilsen Little Village Mental Health Clinics, SAS, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and the Alivio Clinic. Full-time on-site counseling is also offered to students and their families.
  • Scholarship and Guidance Youth Services: This organization provides social services for students, families, and community in the school.

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TEACHERS AND STAFF


Governance

Telpochcalli uses a democratic decision-making style. Staff meets weekly to discuss relevant issues and decisions facing the school. Major decisions or themes are researched and discussed in committees , on topics such as curriculum changes and hiring new teachers. Teachers also meet regularly in grade cluster groupings to map curricula and exchange information.

Professional Development

  • Project Choices: This Illinois State Board of Education program provides professional development on special education through “inclusion,” i.e. the “least restrictive environment” effort. Most of Telpochcalli’s teachers have participated in the project.
  • Reading and Writing Workshop: Teachers were trained in this differentiated instruction model which uses one-on-one teacher intervention to meet the needs of students’ mixed skill levels.
  • Middle School Math and Science Training: Middle school teachers will participate in this program through the CPS Office of Math and Science to obtain certificate endorsements in both of these areas.
  • Grant Assistance: Telpochcalli receives numerous grants for several aspects of professional and curricular development. For more information on grants, see Various Grants for Professional Development in Supplementary Materials.
  • Bilingual Framework: Teachers and staff have met regularly with consultant Maria Theresa Garreton, the Bilingual Education Facilitator of Chicago State University, to create a framework that will integrate content areas into the bilingual framework and create goals for student language development. Complete goals can be found in Supplementary Materials. For information on bilingual frameworks, contact Maria Theresa Garreton at mt.garreton@gmail.com or at (773) 995 - 4419.

Staff Culture and Leadership Development

  • Bilingualism: All teachers at Telpochcalli must be bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish in order to impart and teach the importance of bilingualism to students.
  • Teacher Talk: This program models exchange and discourse in which faculty share their classroom environments and student work with one another on one Friday every month. Teachers engage in professional discourse to compare and contrast classroom settings and outcomes. The program has both exploratory and supportive tones, and encourages teachers to try new methods learned through the community.
  • Curriculum Development Meetings: Staff meets regularly to discuss curriculum and adjust goals according to success in the classroom. These sessions are designed to make the development an ongoing process that will keep both students and staff energized. The discourse method used allows staff to focus and improve individual curriculum development skills.

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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY


Parent Programming

  • Parents Write Their Words (PWTW): This writer’s workshop for parents was begun at Telpochcalli by the Community Writing Project (CWP) at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Parents work with staff from the CWP to write their own personal narrative, including immigration and work experiences. These narratives are shared among the parent community and may be published in CWP’s publication, Real Conditions. The goal of PWTW is for parents to see themselves as partners in their children’s education as writers, artists, or thinkers.
  • Parent Committees: This includes the Bilingual Advisory Council and the Parent Advisory Council which considers issues related to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Community Partnerships

  • Latino Youth, Inc. Sessions: Latino Youth, Inc. offers a series of programs for parents where they can engage in discourse about topics related to their children’s lives, including but not limited to immigration, violence, self-esteem, and literacy. Evening programs are staffed by Latino Youth, Inc., part of the Pilsen Little Village Mental Health Association.
  • Telpochcalli Community Education Project (TCEP): This non-profit organization provides programming and workshops for parents, funded by various grants including $150,000 from the Chicago Community Trust. TCEP helps integrate Telpochcalli school into the Pilsen community and develop leadership potential among parents and residents. Projects include:
    • Courses: Programming to continue education for adults is provided to parents and community residents. In the 2005-2006 year, over 15 classes were offered, serving 150 adults.
    • Workshops: Parent leaders conduct these workshops for the community at large, covering topics such as writing, literacy, leadership development, and civic participation. In the 2005-2006 year, 25 workshops were conducted, serving over 250 attendees.
    • Partnerships with local organizations: TCEP helps bring local partners to Telpochcalli who can provide services and workshops to parents on family health, economic literacy, language literacy (ESL), and immigration. Partners include, among others, Center for Economic Progress, the Latino Union, and Project Hope at St.Anthony’s Hospital.

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HELPFUL RESOURCES


Curriculum

Community Organizations

Note: Links to grant foundations are listed in Various Grants for Professional Development in Supplementary Materials.

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SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE):

This organization improves student learning by partnering with public schools to integrate arts into the curriculum. CAPE works with Telpochcalli through their project “Supporting Communities through Arts Learning Environments” (SCALE), a five-year program that pairs multiple partners to bring art to a school and its community. The SCALE project was made possible through a grant from the Illinois State Board of Education’s 21st Century Program, and it provides funding and other support to keep the artists in residence on campus and to continue development of the arts curriculum. For more information on CAPE’s involvement in Telpochcalli’s evolution, see Education World’s article “Mexican Arts, Culture Frame Learning.”

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Small Schools Workshop (SSW):

The SSW began in Chicago, and is now based at the College of Education at the University of South Florida. It works with teachers, organizers, and researchers to create new, innovative small communities in public schools. It provides direct financial and practical assistance through a partnership with the school.

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Various Grants for Professional Development:

Teachers and staff at Telpochcalli have improved both the curriculum and their own professional development through the use of numerous grants:

  • Expanding Chicago Community Schools: Grant through the Chicago Community Trust (CCT) for $100,000 to support community school movement with practical needs and professional development. Half is funded by the Chicago Campaign to Expand Community Schools, a donor to the CCT, and half is funded by Chicago Public Schools. For more information, see Chicago Community Trust .
  • Rochelle Lee: Provides grants to improve reading skills and teaching skills through workshops and practice-based training. For more information, see the Rochelle Lee Fund.
  • Teacher Incentive Grant: Provided by the Oppenheimer Family Foundation, this grant provides up to $2000 to Chicago teachers for hands-on, project-based learning. For more information, see the Oppenheimer Family Foundation .
  • Chicago Foundation for Education: Provides various grants for schools or directly to teachers to improve instruction through professional development and create more opportunities for teacher leadership. For more information, see the Chicago Foundation for Education .

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Goals for Student Language Development:

As part of the creation of Telpochcalli’s new bilingual framework, teachers have worked with a bilingual education expert to create a framework that will integrate content areas into the bilingual framework and create goals for student language development. The goals developed by teachers and staff set assessment benchmarks in three contextual areas: interpersonal communication, interpretation, and presentation. All content areas are completely integrated with the bilingual framework so that students gain proficient experience in each context to achieve the language development goals:

  • Interpersonal Mode
    • Students will be able to narrate and describe using connected sentences and paragraphs when interacting on topics of personal, academic and social interest in Spanish and English.
    • Students will be able to communicate their message in Spanish and English, although there may be a range of linguistic inaccuracies and mistakes made.
    • Students will be able to understand and often use idiomatic and culturally authentic expressions in Spanish and English.
    • Students will be able to communicate socially and academically using appropriate formats with minimum spelling and capitalization mistakes in both Spanish and English.
  • Interpretive Mode
    • Students will be able to use prior knowledge and cultural background to deduce meaning and understand complex information in both Spanish and English, oral and written texts.
    • Students will be able to identify main idea of a written text by using reading strategies and will be able to infer meaning of unfamiliar words needed to understand the gist of the text in both Spanish and English.
  • Presentational Mode
    • Students will be able to accurately formulate oral and written presentations, in paragraph length, on topics of personal, academic and global interest in both Spanish and English.
    • Students will use culturally appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic expressions making use of reference sources and efforts to self correct in order to avoid miscommunication when giving presentations in Spanish and English.

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