Two Languages, One Set of Skills | By: Committee for Children Ever since we released the fourth edition of the Second Step program in 2011, our intention has been to translate it into Spanish and make those translations freely available to everyone teaching the new edition. And in keeping with our reputation for research and careful piloting before any of our curricula is available to the public, we did extensive review and piloting of the Spanish lessons before releasing them. I talked with two of the educators involved to find out how they felt about the process. The review The first is Lilia Elena Goldsmith, a school counselor at Hamilton International Middle School here in Seattle. Lilia Elena currently teaches the Second Step program to sixth- and seventh-graders, but also taught it (both the third and fourth editions) and our Talking About Touching program to elementary students for several years. So when she was approached to review the new Second Step Spanish translations, she said, “Why wouldn’t I? I really like the programs and feel that this is an important project.” Lilia Elena, a native Spanish speaker, feels that learning Second Step vocabulary in their native tongue will be very beneficial to Spanish-speaking students. “I’m glad that they have the opportunity to learn emotions in both languages and make their vocabulary and emotional world bigger.” Like their English-speaking counterparts, she says, “learning how to be good friends, assertiveness, managing their emotions, solving problems—they need all these skills, too.” Connecting school and home And in Lilia Elena’s opinion, Spanish-speaking students aren’t the only ones who can benefit from these translations: “I think it is very important that parents can understand and help their students at home—learn what their students are learning, how to speak it, and why it is important to learn those skills. They can talk to students about this at home and make more connections with their students that way.” Before the new Spanish materials were available, Lilia Elena was doing in-the-moment translations of Second Step content with her students. “Being bilingual, sometimes I just had the vocabulary in one of the languages, and it was funny to have to think, ‘How do we say that in Spanish? What term do we use?’” The newly translated materials remove that step and provide consistent Spanish terminology for key Second Step concepts across all lessons and grades. The pilot test Other teachers around the country were also translating the program into Spanish on the fly, including Maria Jaimes, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Galindo Elementary in Austin, TX. This made Maria, who is also a native Spanish speaker, a great candidate for piloting the Second Step Spanish translations in her classroom. One of Maria’s first feelings about the Second Step Spanish translations was relief at no longer having to translate them on her own: “It was such an easy process to do because I didn’t have to translate them myself. Now that it’s finally translated, we have more time to focus on teaching the lessons and reinforcing throughout the week.” “Clear and to the point” When asked about the accuracy of the Spanish translations, Maria replied, “I didn’t actually find any terms that needed to be changed. The message of each lesson was clear and to the point.” Just like Lilia Elena, Maria feels that having Second Step lessons delivered in their own language will help her Spanish-speaking students immensely: “I feel like I am able to explain better what the lesson is trying to deliver, thus my students feel more connected and can actually understand the skill.” Allison Wedell Schumacher is Committee for Children’s PR and Communications Manager, can’t speak more than a handful of words in any language other than English, and is in awe of anyone who can.