CACS starts Spanish program for elementary students

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By ELIZABETH HOCHSTEDLER
elizabeth.hochstedler@lee.net
Monday, November 24, 2008 11:05 AM CST

Kindergartners in Beth Drake’s Spanish class are trying to remember color names as they play a learning game.

“Rojo,” they shout as a student pulls a red crayon out of a bag. “Turquesa,” they yell as the turquoise crayon appears.

Drake teaches Spanish language to students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Chippewa Area Catholic Schools just launched a new Spanish program this year, which requires students to take the language from kindergarten through eighth grade.

CACS President Kenith Britt said the program was introduced as a response to feedback from parents.

“I think that overall we decided to move forward with the Spanish program to meet the needs of our students and some of the requests from our parent community,” he said.

“There was an identified need for Chippewa Area Catholic Schools to differentiate itself from other schools,” he added.

Elementary students attend Spanish class for about 20 minutes per week, and middle school students attend about 90 minutes per week. High school students can then choose to stay in Spanish, take French or discontinue language courses.

Drake said so far elementary students and their parents have responded well to the class.

“(The students) they’re enjoying it,” she said. “They like coming to class.”

The CACS system decided to incorporate Spanish into the elementary and middle school curriculum to spark students’ interest from a young age.

“The research is clear that if you’re going to learn a foreign language, you need to do so at a younger age,” Britt said.

“That is the time that they are most apt to learn,” Drake said. “They pick up a lot at that young age fairly quickly.”

Students in the elementary grades are taught the basics of the language. Drake’s lessons have started with concepts such as greetings and colors. The class also discusses Spanish culture.

“It’s actually worked out pretty well because it’s been in correlation with what they’re learning in kindergarten and the younger grades,” Drake said. Many kindergarten students are learning the basics of English and Spanish at the same time.

As the program progresses in the future, students will see more advanced lessons as they continue in their Spanish studies.

“We will continue to evaluate the program,” Britt said.

As students who have started the Spanish program in kindergarten move on to high school, the Spanish classes will be re-tailored to their already-present knowledge of the language.

CACS’ administration chose Spanish because they believe learning that language will be most beneficial to them in the future.

“We felt that Spanish is a more prevalent language, and it’s only going to continue to grow,” Britt said.

Students will still have the opportunity to take French in high school, which Britt still expects to be a popular program.

“Typically the way it works here at the high school is our students really like to get exposed to a number of different areas,” he said. “A number of our students take both French and Spanish.”

McDonell may also have the opportunity in the future to offer more advanced Spanish classes than they do now and may in turn be able to offer college credit for those classes.

“The students will really gain a lot of knowledge before they leave McDonell,” Britt said.

The new Spanish program was made possible by one of the substantial monetary gifts the system received last year.