Middle schools sign up for Spanish
August 28, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Executive Director of The Learning Curve Kirsten O’Malley will be teaching Spanish to middle-school students at Twins Falls and Chief Kanim this fall. Photo by Greg Farrar
Students learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and distinguishing when to use the ‘el’ or ‘la’ articles will soon be heard within the classrooms of two of the three middle schools in the Snoqualmie Valley School District.Parents at both Twin Falls and Chief Kanim middle schools have enlisted the services of Kirsten O’Malley, executive director of The Learning Curve, a company based in Issaquah that provides alternative education, tutoring and high-school credit classes to students on the Eastside.
O’Malley will lead weekly after-school workshops beginning the second week of October. She will divide the year into trimesters, each consisting of 15 to 19 classes, and charge $10 a lesson. Students can sign up by calling their school and asking for the registration form in the front office, but they better hurry. Each class will only fit between 10 and 20 pupils.
O’Malley said students should not expect to sit for their entire Spanish lesson. Different types of learning, including kinesthetic, auditory and visual, can help students absorb the material, O’Malley said. She plans to incorporate physical action and gestures, as well as student-created stories and assigned readings to help students learn the language.
O’Malley called her technique “teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling.” Her method, she said, helps students retain information.
“It’s important that students are introduced to a foreign language as early as possible,” O’Malley said.
“Students of any age can learn a language, but the younger they are when they start, the better their accent will be and the more likely they’ll reach AP level before graduating.”
Language in middle school could even change the life path of students, she said.
“They’re going to be more likely to seek out study-abroad programs, jobs that ask for bilingual skills, or to pursue a minor or major in college that could change their life,” O’Malley said.
The hour-long classes will be offered every Monday and Wednesday at Twin Falls and every Friday at Chief Kanim.
“I don’t think we’ll have any problem filling up the class,” said Liz Piekarczyk, whose daughter Gloria will be in the seventh grade at Chief Kanim. “I think this year it will start off kind of small and next year we will be able to build a more comprehensive program.”
Gloria Piekarczyk took Spanish last year and said she was excited for the new program.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Gloria said. “I like the Spanish language.”
Snoqualmie Middle School parents met last spring, but they have not yet reconnected to organize a foreign language program for students, said Snoqualmie Middle School Principal Vernie Newell.
None of the three middle schools offer foreign language classes during the school day. Chief Kanim Middle School offered Spanish last year, but the Spanish teacher moved to Twin Falls to teach health and P.E. The woodshop class at Snoqualmie Middle School also got the axe. This year, all three middle schools will offer exploratory classes in band and choir, art and technology.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
