Day 110 - BHS Celebrates National Foreign Language Week through Art - BHS World Language Dept.

This post first appeared on the BHS World Languages Blog

Last month, various World Language classes explored the cultures of their target language through art. The teachers exposed their students to specific forms of art prevalent in the culture where the target language is spoken. After researching the art, students created their very own masterpieces, which are now on display in the World Languages hallway. Mrs. Gentile and Mrs. Hoerle’s Italian classes created Carnival masks and Bandiere dei coscritti (peer flags), Ms. Duhamel’s Spanish classes designed Cordoba guitars (similar to the one used in the Pixar movie Coco), Profe De Sousa and Profe Dacey’s AP Spanish class made Mexican folk art bark paintings, and Mrs. DiCroce and Ms. Abbott’s Spanish III classes made traditional Mexican/Guatemalan worry dolls. Check out the art displayed in the photos below:

Day 80 - BHS Italian Students Study Art - BHS Foreign Language Dept.

This post originally appeared on the BHS Languages Blog 

In Italian IV and V, students study different facets of Italian art. While the Italian IV curriculum focuses on Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art, Italian V explores different modern art movements. In December, both Italian IV and V classes went to the MFA  to see first-hand paintings and sculptures from the periods and art styles that they had been studying in class. At the museum, the two classes went on separate tours, accompanied by a museum teacher and their Burlington High School chaperones. Afterwards, everyone went to the North End for lunch and cannoli. After vacation, Italian IV students presented their projects on the life, work, and significance of their favorite Italian Renaissance artist. Italian V students instead created, wrote, and talked about their own masterpiece, an object modeled after one of the modern art movements that they had studied.

Day 56 - AP Students Teach at Sprouts - BHS World Language Department

This post first appeared on the BHS World Language Department's Blog 

Yesterday, Profe DeSousa and Sra. Dacey’s AP Spanish class visited the Sprouts preschool classroom to teach the children a Spanish lesson.  The preschoolers were excited to interact with the big high school kids during the engaging Spanish activities that the AP Spanish students had prepared for them.  For example, the students participated in a Mr. Potato Head activity in order to learn various vocabulary words in Spanish, including la cabeza, los labios, las orejas, los ojos, la nariz, etc.  Afterwards, the students moved on to the next activity which included learning los números and los colores en español.  The preschoolers especially enjoyed the colors and numbers station because they used Skittles candy to identify the colors of the rainbow in Spanish.  Lastly, the students ended with a task that highlighted the things that they are grateful for in life (e.g. la familia, la comida, los amigos, etc.).  Along with the help of the big kids, the preschoolers colored pictures, practiced pronunciation of vocabulary words, sang songs, and, most importantly, had fun while learning en español.

Day 24 - Keys to Literacy kicks off in the BHS World Language Department

This post first appeared on the BHS World Languages Blog

This year, the World Language Department is excited to begin implementing the strategies that the Keys to Literacy program offers.  Last year, BHS began working with Keys to Literacy trainers and the World Language Department discovered that the resources they have to offer complement our daily lesson plans in meaningful ways.

Last week, Spanish teachers, Ms. Duhamel, Mrs. DiCroce and Profesora De Sousa experimented with Top Down Webs in their Spanish III classes.  Students were presented with a vocabulary theme that focused on reflexive verbs and daily routines.  After reinforcing the vocabulary using resources, such as two column notes, students read a short story about two kids named Débora, a Puerto Rican, and Hipólito, a Bolivian.  To organize the information read in the target language, Spanish teachers modeled the use of Top Down Webs.  They created a Top Down Web exemplar that outlined the daily routine of Niko, a character from a video that acts out his actions during typical day, and, then students completed the web based off of the notes that they took while watching the video (see student Top Down Web example: la-rutina-de-niko-1).  In sum, the Top Down Web helped students organize information and compare it to their own daily routine.

In addition, Spanish teacher Mrs. DiCroce examined the literature of Débora and Hipólito using Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Students created questions based off of the reading using the various levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy ladder, ranging from remembering information to creating new details or ideas.   Using the various stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy taught students how to enhance their level of reading comprehension through applying information to daily life, analyzing the concepts through comparisons and contrasts as well as creating alternate scenarios.

Lastly, Profesora De Sousa continues to explore the use of Two-Column Notes in her Spanish classes.  For example, her Spanish II classes have begun organizing their grammar concepts, such as the present tense of -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs using the Two-Column Notes template.  In class, her students organized and categorized the important information pertaining to each idea while using colors to compare examples.  (Check out the example: repaso-1-apuntes-de-2-columnas)

Many of the strategies presented during the Keys to Literacy workshops last spring and this fall have motivated the World Language teachers to explore the resources and collaborate with each other to recognize which tools best support our language students.  Most notably, the strategies that the students are developing in their language class will support them in all classes throughout their learning experience at BHS and beyond.

Day 121 - BHS Spanish Students Visit Sprouts - BHS World Languages Blog

This post first appeared on the BHS World Languages Blog

 

BHS AP Spanish students traveled to Burlington’s Sprouts preschool classroom located at Francis Wyman Elementary School last week to teach Spanish.  Our advanced Spanish learners shared their language knowledge, such as colors, numbers and animal vocabulary en español.  They began their visit with a song activity, including phrases like hola, buenos días, cómo estás, muy bien y tú and soy, followed by a story time read aloud featuring the classic book Oso pardo, oso pardo ¿qué ves allí? (Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?) in Spanish.  It was a excellent book selection since the Sprouts preschool curriculum recently included an exploration of works by author Eric Carle.  Following story time, students participated in an art project where they colored in the animals from the story, cut out their pictures and attached them to craft sticks.  Afterwards, they returned to circle time to read the book again while pronouncing the Spanish words for the animals and colors at the same time they held up the appropriate stick that matched the animal being described.

The BHS AP Spanish students loved story time, however they especially enjoyed interacting with the preschoolers while speaking to them in Spanish.  Señora Dacey and her students wish to thank Ms. Jenn, Ms. Taryn, Ms. Victoria and Ms. Dianne for welcoming the “big kids” at Sprouts.

Day 113 - BHS Celebrates National Foreign Language Week - BHS Foreign Language Dept.

Check out the great video that BHS Foreign Language Department Chair Mrs. Renee Dacey and BHS senior, Mira Mehdi, made to help promote Foreign Language awareness at Burlington High School.  It gives a wonderful insight into the diversity within our school.