May 15, 2019

Welcome back to the High School Corner!

 

This week, we want to focus on the foreign language opportunities our High School students have taken advantage of this year:

 

Just last Wednesday, some of our students took the Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture exam. The students met three times per week throughout the year with Srta. Onofre to study everything from environmental issues in Latin America to the concept of beauty in Hispanic cultures. The AP exam is a combination of reading and text interpretation, essay writing, email writing, conversational Spanish, and presentations. Some of the Spanish students in the High School look forward to taking a Spanish literature class next year.

 

Sarah L. a 10th grader, came into her first year in the High School knowing that she wanted to pursue French, so she registered to take an online course. This is one of the great strengths of a small high school. The schedule is flexible enough that when a student finds an area of interest, the program is able to make accommodations. During open work periods, Sarah works diligently on French—listening to audio recordings, completing writing assignments, recording herself speaking, and taking progress quizzes. This work has been completely self-directed, and Sarah now finds herself trying her best to immerse herself in the language by listening to French music and seeking out French speakers in her community for more practice.

 

Eleventh grader Ruth S. chose to pursue a perceived interest in American Sign Language, in addition to Spanish, at the beginning of this year and completed a semester’s worth of online classes. Similarly, Sophia D., another 11th-grade student, began the year taking weekly Portuguese lessons as she wanted to revisit a language that she spoke fluently, having lived in Brazil during her elementary years. However, Sophia decided to suspend her Portuguese lessons during the spring semester in order to have time to pursue other interests. She hopes to start weekly lessons again in her senior year.

 

Jacob B., another one of the 10th-grade students, has been taking Latin at the University of St. Thomas as a dual-credit student for the past two semesters. He has made his way through Latin I and II, and just took his spring final this week. He looks forward to taking classes at UST for the rest of his time in the SCM High School and has his eye on taking Greek next!

 

Being able to pursue languages that we are interested in even if SCM doesn’t offer them has been a highlight of the program. We’re extremely grateful for these opportunities!

 

Thanks for reading; we will be back next week!

 

Jacob B. and Sophia D.

High School Corner Committee Members