 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Spanish at school makes language less foreign
By LOGAN NEILL © St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001 When Debbie Hester's first-graders file into their classroom each morning, they are warmly greeted by their teacher. "Buenos dias. Bienvenidos." For much of their day, they will hear simple Spanish words and phrases, telling them when it is time for math or reading lessons, when it's time to go to lunch and when to get ready for dismissal. In fact, the language is sprinkled so casually throughout their class time, Hester has noticed many pupils conversing in Spanish simply because they like the sound of the language. That was sort of the idea behind Los Sabitos, a multigrade education project that Hester and a team of three other Deltona Elementary teachers put together in hopes of broadening their students' cultural awareness. In addition to a regular curriculum of reading, writing, math and science, all taught in their traditional English form, students from grades one through four are part of an ongoing enrichment effort that exposes them to Spanish and Hispanic culture, something they wouldn't normally study until they reached middle school. "The kids benefit greatly from it," said Hester, who along with second-grade teacher Darlene Lovell and third-grade teacher Laurie Nichols initiated the program at Deltona last year. "It makes them proud that they are bilingual because it opens up the world around them." Los Sabitos (a derived phrase that means "the wise little ones") is essentially a self-contained effort in that Hester, Lovell, Nichols and fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Gallagher, who joined the team at the beginning of the school year, plan cooperatively. Students in the project remain with the team throughout their school years at Deltona. "It's wonderful because they have the opportunity to grow together in a very unique environment," Gallagher said. "Hopefully, by the time they reach middle school, most of them can speak Spanish fluently enough to be taking intermediate Spanish." The program comes at a time when the Hispanic population is on the rise in Hernando and the rest of Florida. Census figures for 2000, released last week, show that the total Hispanic population grew by more than 122 percent since 1990. Among Hispanic people ages 17 or younger, the growth rate was 126 percent during that time. The school district says that more than 96 percent of the Hispanic children in county schools were born in the United States, and the need for programs that teach English as a second language is shrinking. In some cases, the Deltona program has helped Hispanic children who were born in the United States and speak little of their grandparents' native language to bridge the generation gap. Shortly after receiving permission from the Hernando School Board two years ago, the Deltona teachers began preparing a multigrade curriculum that would gradually introduce the students to Spanish as part of their normal classroom routines. The students not only are taught how to read and write words and phrases but also how to use correct grammar. "This is probably the best age for children to begin studying a second language, and especially Spanish, because they see the close relationship it has with English," Hester said. "Once I feel they've learned a Spanish word or a phrase, I continue to use it on a regular basis in class." In fact, the teachers say they rarely give regular class instructions in English anymore and estimate that the students speak Spanish 40 percent to 50 per cent of the time. In addition to learning the language, the students also learn a significant amount about Hispanic culture through history and social studies lessons. This year, the students in all grades studied a unit on Mexico and are even planning a big Cinco de Mayo celebration the first week in May. The teachers plan to expand their program to include a fifth-grade class in the fall, and they hope the project will expand to include more classes. Perhaps most important, however, is how the dual-language environment seems to have created a more successful academic climate among the students in the four classes. "Because what we do emphasizes a higher level of involvement, things like reading and writing skills have increased," Gallagher said. "Children enjoy learning in an atmosphere that's special for them. It makes them want to work harder."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times |
