Making your way through the halls of Roosevelt Middle School these days, you’re likely to hear a cascade of various foreign languages, more than in prior school years.
That’s because the vast majority of students across all grade levels now participate in daily world language classes – either Spanish, French or Italian. This aligns with the curriculum at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
Previously, fifth and sixth graders had world language one quarter per school year, while seventh and eighth graders had the course every other day.
Taking a language is about immersion, not only the words and conjugation, but culture, according to Roosevelt’s world language teachers who report immediate dividends.
“They definitely feel more motivated … having the language class every day all year, they see their progress,” said French teacher Karen Feeley. They learn more throughout the year and we also don’t have to review quite as much. Sometimes we wouldn’t see them for four or five days because of the weekend.”
But don’t take her word for it. Consider the insights from Isla, a sixth grader, who enjoys having class every day for just 37 minutes.
“Having class every day makes it easier to learn more about Spanish because you do a different thing each day,” she said. “You can keep learning and it is harder to forget.”
Chris, a sixth grader, had Spanish last fall, and said having it every day makes it a more enriching experience.
“We are learning a lot of new things every single day, and we have homework every day and tests,’ he said. “It’s been pretty fun and we’ve done a lot of activities.”
After the COVID pandemic, the prior more limited schedule was implemented, where grades five and six had world language one quarter, every day for 37 minutes with basics covered in fifth grade and revisited in sixth grade. Seventh and eighth graders had classes every other day all year. Those classes were 82 minutes long.
“To our surprise, we had the opportunity to change up the program a little bit, change up the schedule,” said Spanish teacher Tammy Highfill.
“It became a reality at the board meeting, with a holistic review of the Roosevelt schedule,” Highfill said. “As part of that, one of the benefits was the ability to shuffle things.”
Of course, with a big change to the schedule came questions about the class texts, which were 20 years old. That is when the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, Dr. Christine Trendel, got involved.
Klett World Languages were implemented as new texts for fifth and sixth graders, which will expand to seventh grade next year and eighth grade the year after that. For the time being, current seventh and eighth graders will use the legacy texts.
That’s where the emphasis on culture comes in, according to Feeley, the French teacher.
“The language is important, but what we’re teaching is understanding of other cultures,” she said, pointing out that forms of French are spoken in Canada, Belgium and African countries.
Italian teacher Juliana Costabile said that was the exact reason Klett was chosen.
“We spent hours looking at all kinds of book series and materials, and we chose Klett unanimously for the cultural aspect,” Costabile said. “We thought they were one of the best.”
First-year Spanish teacher Kimberly Hammond is a native speaker and studied the language in high school and college. She was a long-term substitute last year and used Klett materials then, so she’s an ardent supporter.
“They do a good job with the different cultural aspects,” she said. “In Mexico, even if you don’t know someone, you say good morning, hello. My students love to hear things like that.”
That doesn’t discount the value of the words and phrases themselves. There are four elements of foreign language skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Ryer, a sixth grader, said the most important thing he’s learned in Spanish is it has subject pronouns.
“It’s a little different than English and it’s hard to do,” he said. “There are different words and some of the words have different accents and it’s hard to say them.
“But now that I am used to it, the words are easier to say.”
