Woodbury High School<\/a> English teacher Nancy Schrank knows first\u00a0hand how beneficial being immersed in language and culture can be.<\/p>\nThe summer after Schrank graduated from college, she picked up and moved to Morelia, Mexico.\u00a0\u201cI sold everything I owned after college and took that money and decided to take a chance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Since Schrank had taken French in college, she went into the new environment without any Spanish knowledge.\u00a0However, within three months, Schrank was speaking Spanish as well as a third-year Spanish student.\u00a0\u201cI really learned the language through immersion,\u201d she said. \u201cI told myself my goal was not to leave until I could be sitting in a caf\u00e9 and read a newspaper, understand conversations, work in the language and be able to contribute to the society \u2013 it was probably my proudest accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schrank spent a total of three years living and working in Mexico as a teacher.<\/p>\n
Now, Schrank is helping give high school students a similar experience. She will be teaching one of the advanced Spanish language and culture courses at the high school when the high school Spanish Immersion program kicks off in the fall with 20 students.\u00a0\u201cBecause immersion worked for me, I am a proponent of it,\u201d she said.\u00a0Spanish Immersion is a program that serves non-Spanish speaking families that live within District 833 boundaries.<\/p>\n
The high school offering would be a partial immersion program.\u00a0Students who complete the K-12 Spanish immersion program will have a designation on their diploma stating so.<\/p>\n
The course requirements for students in the high school Spanish immersion program require freshman to take geography and advanced Spanish language and culture. Sophomores will take world history and Spanish language and advanced grammar, while juniors will take United States history and Spanish literature and analysis.\u00a0The language courses will be very project-based, Schrank said.\u00a0As seniors, students will take a Spanish humanities course.<\/p>\n
Additionally, students will go out into the community and use their language skills with some sort of community service component.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s putting them in really meaningful roles that we think will prepare them for the future,\u201d Woodbury High School Principal Linda Plante said.\u00a0Plante and Schrank said the biggest benefit of immersion programs is that they help with cognitive development in all subject areas.\u00a0Additionally, they said the programs also provide increased opportunities after high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir unique voice comes through, so it\u2019s no longer a foreign language to them, it\u2019s a second language,\u201d Schrank said.\u00a0\u201cThis is a global economy, so we can no longer just think in terms of the United States,\u201d Plante said. \u201cWe must think globally.\u201d\u00a0Sen. Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, whose son is currently a sixth grader in the Spanish immersion program, said she is excited to see the program reach the high school level next fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really thrilled,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an exciting prospect because moving into high school completes that pathway \u2013 it\u2019s such a stepping stone.\u201d\u00a0Kent said she opted to enroll her son in Spanish immersion when he was in kindergarten because it would open his eyes to the world.\u00a0\u201cIt helps make the planet seem a little smaller,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Kent said Spanish immersion will help prepare her son to live and work in a global environment in the future.\u00a0\u201cPlus, this gives kids something that is their own,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have something that is a very specific skill.\u201d\u00a0Woodbury resident Allison Olson, who has a sixth grader, third grader and kindergartener in Spanish immersion, said she likes the edge being biligual will have for her children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to give them the competitive edge in the world,\u201d she said.\u00a0Olson said she would like to see the Spanish immersion program reach out to global businesses, like 3M, for opportunities for students.\u00a0Plante said next fall is going to ensure Spanish immersion\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the doors open next year, it\u2019s here, it\u2019s solid, it\u2019s in place and there won\u2019t be the question marks any longer,\u201d Plante said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Published February 22, 2013, 08:00 AM Woodbury High School preparing for program to kick off in the fall with 20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanishforamerica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}