Jessica Morales, a Dallas ISD legacy, not only completed her 11th year of teaching this month. She and a group of 24 students also completed a unique educational experience that she says has changed the way she will approach teaching and relationships in the future.
Morales was teaching first grade at Preston Hollow Elementary School in a self-contained dual language two-way classroom when Dallas ISD and other districts across the nation were in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. She taught her group of 24 students—half predominantly spoke Spanish and the other half English—first virtually and then in person. This situation was common.
But when it came time for the students to move up to the second grade, Morales moved up with them in what is called looping. This was uncommon as was her moving up every year when Morales moved up grades with the same group of students until fifth grade.
“Looping is not an original idea,” she said. “But once I started, I quickly saw how powerful it could be. This year in fifth grade, I had a partner teacher, so we weren’t in a self-contained classroom. I had the same students and some others for reading and social studies. It’s been five years now, and only about two or three students have moved, and then only because they moved out of the district or out of the state.”
Morales, who attended Dallas ISD schools and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, is the Language Proficiency Assessment Chair at her school and this year was named Teacher of the Year. She had never tried looping before but now sees the benefits of the experience both for the students and for teachers.
“The continuity and being self-contained helped,” she said. “It established an emotional security and stable environment. They trust the process. It leads to confidence, risk taking and personal growth for them as well as academic growth.”
Since Morales knew each student’s strengths, challenges, and learning style, she could tailor her lessons to push them, she said. She also could start the year teaching because she did not have to spend the first few weeks getting to know her students and establishing the processes of her classroom.
“As my students grew, I watched them grow as learners and people,” Morales said. “Whenever we started first grade, they were shy first graders and then they became very confident speakers, leaders, and problem solvers. They grew not just academically but also emotionally.”
The results of the kind of support that the continuity looping provides can be seen in achievement gains—some of her students in fifth grade tested three grade levels above that in the recent iReady test, she said.
Principal Ginette Peralta Suarez has been impressed with Morales’ strength as a teacher as well as with the results of looping, and believes that while it remains and uncommon practice, it has merit.
“She is such a great teacher,” Peralta Suarez said. “It makes me think of the possibility that it could go further because of the relationship with the parents and students. It’s hard to get students to mastery. It’s harder to get them past that mastery, but that is the trend we have seen with Ms. Morales’s students. Her bilingual class’s average growth right now is over 300%. She has a student who went from mid-fifth to seventh grade placement.”
Another positive result for the learning experience is the relationships that she was able to build not only with the students but with their families, whose support of the classroom at home makes a tremendous difference in how students feel and learn, Morales said.
Looping also had a positive effect on her as a professional because over the years her learning style expanded as she had to adapt constantly to new grade level content, she said. She had to rely more on collaborative learning, lean on her colleagues, and even on student feedback to become more reflective.
“And that’s a good thing,” she said. “The looping environment taught me to be flexible and to be willing to grow just like I ask my students to grow.”
While Morales will not be following her students to middle school, nor will she be looping again next year at Preston Hollow Elementary, she is taking all she learned the past five years and applying it to teaching fifth grade. She is also a resource for other teachers who are interested in the experience and the benefits it can have for students.
Teaching, after all, is in her blood. Her mother, Yolanda Morales, is a 25-year veteran teacher at Lorenzo de Zavala Elementary School, and her sister is also an educator.
“Even though my looping journey comes to an end, teaching does not, and the lessons will stay with me,” Morales said. “I will give the same heart and connect with students at the same level even if it’s just for one year.”