My students have a great desire to learn Spanish yet are among the 85% of elementary students nationwide without access to learn a foreign language. In an ever expanding global community they will need to quickly start learning a language to be ready for future opportunities.
My students are fourth and fifth graders in a charter school that serves underprivileged, multi-ethnic students outside of Salt Lake City.
Many of our student population are of Latino descent, which adds to the students' interest in anything Latin-America related. This interest has spurred a desire among many to learn Spanish. They go to a school that specializes in individualized and aesthetic education. In order to do this they are each provided with a school-owned computer that they do online learning on. Our class is particularly hard-working and very motivated to expand their horizons.
My Project
Providing our students with access to the computer Rosetta Stone Spanish immersion program will enable them to start learning Spanish while their minds, enthusiasm, and nerves are at the best possible point for language learning. My plan is to capitalize on our existent technology by using one computer as a Spanish learning computer. Each student will have time slots throughout the week when they will be able to work individually on that computer with the Rosetta Stone Spanish program. We will also work as a class during the week using a projector and speakers to go through lessons. This will be combined with regular conversation groups where I and our four native Spanish-speaking students will help the class to practice. With the help of Rosetta Stone our students will learn Spanish well enough to hopefully carry on simple conversations. Even a simple understanding of Spanish will greatly improve their English, spark their global curiosity, and enable them to learn languages better.
Offering this Spanish teaching resource to our children will enable them to develop the skills and habits necessary for learning Spanish and other foreign languages in the future.
In addition it will help them to understand English better and give them a curiosity about the world and new tools for communication.
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