We are off to an exciting start this year! We have new
staff, books, interactive CDROMs, teaching strategies, trips, etc. We
are always striving to enhance your child's experience in the classroom,
and now more than ever, we are offering experiences beyond the
classroom so they can make connections between language, culture and the
world around them.
French
Mme Sylvestre has French 3 students studying all about giving
directions, parts of the car and expressing impatience and reassurance.
Along with role-playing in the classroom to bring all of these
expressions to life, the students are creating a mini-version of an
owner's manual of a passenger vehicle of their choice. Students are
working in groups to do this and the manuals will then be displayed on
the bulletin board outside of the French Classroom.
German
Frau Fromhein, our German teacher, attended the Deutsche Woche at the
College on the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, from July 4th - 10th. The
Goethe Institute and the German Consulate in Boston sponsor the Deutsche
Woche. The topic for study and discussion was "Presentation of Fairy
Tales and Legends in German Language Classes". Professors of German
conducted the seminar series, offered numerous classroom applications
with an emphasis on interactive student learning and gave the
participants opportunities to create, present and critique their own
ideas for lesson plans. It was a challenging week of intensive studies
in which not one minute was wasted! She has begun to implement her ideas
in the classroom by developing new performance assessments.
Spanish
Our newest teacher, Katie Barrow, comes to us loaded with enthusiasm and
resources. Katie's grandmother was a high school Spanish teacher and
her room is filled with realia from all over the world. Her experiences
in Spain help balance our department's perspectives between Spain and
Latin America.
We are excited to have begun using the second level ¡Ven Conmigo! series
of books this year. This will help our students make a smoother
transition between levels in Spanish. Included in our purchase were new
interactive CDROMs to use in our language lab - just one more way we try
to integrate technology and curriculum.
Spanish teacher organized a special treat for our students in October.
She brought in her father-in-law to make a presentation and be
interviewed by our students. Santiago Martinez founded and is the
director of an orphanage in Honduras. Students prepared questions and
had a lengthy conversation with him in Spanish about his life and work
in Honduras.
Student Pat Di Biasi stepped into Spanish III. Almost immediately he
remembered the TPR-S verbs Señora Cruise had introduced last year! With a
single gesture, classmate Mateo gave him a hint. Pat was speaking
Spanish again before the review sessions had even started! Señora Cruise
uses Total Physical Response-Storytelling in her Spanish II and III
classes. She knows the benefits of reading stories and listening and
creating them. Students have been reading short novels as a review at
the beginning of the year.
TPR-S is learning language through stories. The target language can be
internalized naturally. The method enhances long-term memory retention
since the words are acquired contextually as opposed to memorized.
Sr. Jannke's Spanish class organized and performed an authentic
quinceañera, a "sweet 15" birthday party. Students researched the
tradition and planned the event. Students taught themselves how to dance
and play traditional music. One of the highlights was watching students
perform a Spanish Waltz on the guitar while their peers danced.
Students spoke Spanish during the whole event, too!
Beyond the Classroom
We are thrilled that Spanish teacher June Froh is organizing students to
participate in the annual statewide poetry recitation contest. Last
year our students took 1st place in Spanish 3, Spanish 4 and German 4.
Sr. Jannke will be taking his Spanish II classes to Spanish Harlem in
December to experience art and dance. Students will speak Spanish in a
restaurant where no one speaks English.
And last but not least our most exciting news; (French) and (German)
have worked incredibly hard to restart our international programs.
Students taking French in either 1st or 2nd semester have the
opportunity to travel to Québec over President's Day Weekend. Students
will travel by motor coach to Québec City on Friday night. Saturday,
they will learn about the history of the lovely province and discover
the historical places in the city. They will also experience a
traditional Québécois meal including music and dancing at a Cabane à
Sucre. Students also will enjoy a scavenger hunt at a local store and
partake in a British tea ceremony. They will additionally enjoy snow
tubing at the wonderful Village des Sports recreation center. This is
an opportunity for students to truly use the language that they are
learning in the classroom.
We are offering GAPP to Germany again! Beginning in 1992, LHS students,
enrolled in German, had the unique opportunity to participate in GAPP,
the German-American Partnership Program, sponsored by the Goethe
Institute in New York City. During their stay in Germany, the students
lived with German families, attended classes at our partner school, the
Sportschule Frankfurt an der Oder in the state of Brandenburg, and
traveled to Berlin, Dresden, Weimar, etc. as well as to Bavaria and the
Black Forest. In return, their LHS partners hosted students from the
Sportschule. These academic exchanges were indeed high points in the
study of German at LHS.
The tragic events of 9/11 halted GAPP. At last, however, permission has
been granted again to resume this program and Frau Fromhein is eagerly
planning the GAPP 2005 Trip. LHS students, having completed at least one
year of German may now apply for the GAPP. The first informational
LHS-GAPP'05 Parent Meeting is on Tuesday, 11.09.04, at 7:30pm, LHS in
Rm.216.
We are striving to improve your child's experience with languages and
cultures in so many ways and we thank you for your incredible support!