• New course will give kids a glimpse into
several world languages, and other cultures
by Jim Boyle
Editor
Members of the Elk River Area School Board got their first good look at courses that will replace a middle school health and Family and Consumer Science class.
Seventh- and eighth-grade students will be taking Introduction to World Languages, which will provide a chance to explore foreign language classes offered at the high schools and a window into other cultures, according to curriculum specialist Mary Alberts.
Students will learn the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing a second language. Course time will be spent on the languages’ cultures, along with awareness and appreciation of the contributions of those cultures to contemporary society.
Languages will include, Spanish, French, German and Ojibwe.
Students will be asked to think critically and reflect on the differences and similarities between the target cultures and their own, according to the course description.
“Students will be able to get to know the language, be able to speak some of it and read a little of it,” Alberts said. “They will also talk about the culture, the diversity and what it brings to us as citizens, making us the global community we talk about.”
Alberts said the days of having one language suffice are going by the wayside. She noted a report from the U.S. Department of Education indicated white students will no longer be in the majority in school when school starts this fall.
Minorities are projected to outnumber whites among the nation’s public school students for the first time, U.S. Department of Education projections show.
This is due largely to fast growth in the number of Hispanic and Asian school-age children born in the U.S., according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.
In 1997, the U.S. had 46.1 million public school students, of which 63.4 percent were white. While whites will still outnumber any single racial or ethnic group this fall, their overall share of the nation’s 50 million public school students is projected to drop to 49.7 percent. Since 1997, the number of white students has declined by 15 percent, falling from 29.2 million to 24.9 million in 2014, the Pew Research Center reported.
“We really need to think about having more than just one language in our back pocket,” Alberts said. “When you travel to Europe, people usually speak English along with two or three other languages.”
Students taking the introductory course will create an interactive notebook-passport that will contain all their notes and handouts.
At the end of the quarter, students will participate in a Festival of Nations activity, choosing a country that speaks one of the languages studied and creating a small presentation.
“This course is meant to pique students’ interest to learn a new language,” Alberts said. “We’re excited about that.”
To keep students engaged, teachers are being given a book titled “An Invitation to World Languages.” The book gives teachers ideas of how to present information and keep students engaged.