PERIWINKLE AFTER SCHOOL SPANISH
Dear Periwinkle Parents,
Over the years I have found that parents often have similar questions about the language learning of their children. As a parent of a language student myself, I am well aware that it is not always easy to quantify or concretely assess where a child is in his/her language acquisition process. New vocabulary is learned and occasionally forgotten, relearned and solidified, remembered and enjoyed. Sometimes children advance at a painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, they zoom ahead. There is always a niggling sense that there is so much more to learn; language learning is a life-long endeavor.
As your child heads down this road, please remember to keep in mind that in addition to actually acquiring a language, the process itself has a host of tangential benefits:
I could go on! Recent research suggests that the study of a foreign language not only increases linguistic awareness in the mother tongue, multilingual children often also outperform monolingual children in math reasoning.
Ideally an additional language is also about making the world a better, more welcoming place. Metaphorically speaking, it is an open mind, an ambassador, a bridge, a hand extended in potential camaraderie.
As a teacher and a mother of a child learning 4 languages I regularly witness the peaks and plateaus of language learning. The language acquisition process is rarely linear. Below please find the answers to questions you may have now or feel free to come back mid-year to find answers to questions that may arise.
I very much look forward to my time with your children!
Janel
Periwinkle Class Logistics
Pick-Up
Please arrive promptly at 1:55 p.m. each week to pick up your children. My schedule is extremely tight and I will need to pack up and leave very quickly after class. If some unforeseen emergency prevents you from arriving on time please call me right away (215) 882-2458 to provide an update. Because late pickups may result in incurred financial consequences on our part, we will charge a fee of $25 for the second (and any subsequent) late pickup.
Snacks
The children will have finished their lunch around 11:45 a.m. Please send a small, nut and peanut-free snack, something that isn't too messy or complicated! If there is a general consensus that a snack is necessary, I will let children eat at the beginning of class as I sing the opening songs.
Please, please, persist!
As with any learning process there are highs and lows, successes and challenges. I work with children and
youth ranging in age from 0-18 years old. The pressures of grades, college applications, and academic stress place a great burden on the joy of language learning during the pre-teen and teen years. Children who start language learning in early childhood reap huge psychological and academic benefits later on. Their accents and intonation are better and they have a much better instinct for vocabulary acquisition, sound systems, and grammar structures. Children who are exposed to a language during early childhood (before 8-10 years old) are much more relaxed and open about language study later on in their academic careers.
Let's have fun!
My goal is, above all, to make the process fun, light-hearted and enjoyable. If the children are laughing, smiling, and engaged, there is no question that we will be able to move through obstacles and reach higher ground. My goal is to plant positive seeds; I want the children to believe that they can both succeed in acquiring a new language and enjoy themselves in the process.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Do You Structure the Class?
To help maximize absorption and facilitate a focused yet relaxed classroom environment, I typically structure the time in the following way:
Do You Speak Only Spanish?
My goal is always to use 100% Spanish throughout the class. Typically, the only situations in which I use English are:
Using English is always a last resort for me! I prefer the purity and continuity of a fully-immersive Spanish environment and strive to preserve that. But because the children are with me just 50 minutes a week, I have learned that using a negligible quantity of English often helps keep the Spanish immersion environment productive. Before I officially launch into Spanish I have found that it is most effective and efficient to set up rules and explain the target vocabulary and/or project in English.
Children and Language Acquisition: Is my child learning anything?
Children usually develop receptive capacities before they can produce vocabulary in a target language. This process mimics the natural language development of a baby; they understand words before they can say them. Every single class we engage in many repetitions of our target vocabulary - we chant, sing, and use our bodies to learn vocabulary. The children listen to stories that incorporate numerous repetitions of the vocabulary. I bring in puppets and projects, use laughter and humor to elicit responses from the children.
Please bear in mind that extraverted and introverted children alike may be very reluctant to "show off" what they know in Spanish. If you ask them direct questions like, "How do you say blue in Spanish?" they will likely balk. Conscious recall and translation is a very different skill than language absorption and acquisition.
Look for other, more subtle signs of absorption - a sudden word in Spanish at a random moment, a mimicking of the Spanish sound system during free play at home (this will sound like a Spanish gibberish), bits and pieces of songs absent mindedly sung during moments of relaxation, quiet or alone times. You can intentionally make a mistake counting, "uno - dos - ocho - siete" - see if they laugh or jump in to correct you.
How is my child doing?
Every child learns at his or her pace and very often children recall and produce vocabulary in class and then, even as they cross the threshold of the classroom, their brain switches back to English and they cannot come up with the words. That is fine and normal!
I have many, many students and cannot always send frequent updates about your child's progress. That said, I observe each and every child carefully and typically have a good sense of what each child knows. I pay attention to what engages and what does not, what sticks and what does not. Please feel free to prompt me with an email asking about your child, I will do my best to answer in a timely and specific manner.
What are you learning?
While I don't send weekly email updates I do typically send a summary at the end of each thematic block with information about our projects, vocabulary presented, and some books, songs, or Youtube resources that may be helpful for reviewing language on an ongoing basis.
How can I support my child at home?
Keep things low pressure and light hearted. Create an environment of language play and curiosity. Look at a map and identify the countries in which Spanish is spoken. Play with Google translate while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Ask nonchalant questions like, "I wonder how you say X in Spanish?" or make occasional observations: "Alma Street, El Camino Real, Los Altos, Palo Alto...I bet those are words in Spanish..." Modeling curiosity at home very often translates into increased motivation in class time. Throw in some Spanish words (if you know any) as you move about your daily routines. Make the language relevant to their lives - point out Spanish on package labels, signs, and when you hear it spoken by people out in the world.
Can you recommend any books, CDs or DVDs for extra practice?
Like the Suzuki method for music education, listening to Spanish music, books, and DVDs outside of class will prime the cerebral pump, helping children glean greater benefit from in-class time. If your child watches some television, you can very often find favorite TV programs that are already dubbed in Spanish (I Spy by Scholastic, Bill Nye the Science Guy, for example) or major motion picture films (i.e. Cars, Horton Hears a Who, Wallace & Gromit) with Spanish language tracks. If your child is reading, turn on the Spanish subtitles to accompany their favorite English program. Below please find some audio and visual resources I have compiled to get you started:
http://www.spanishclassroom.net/spanish-resources.html
password: orientation
Other questions or concerns?
Please feel free to contact me via email: [email protected], we will figure things out together!
Over the years I have found that parents often have similar questions about the language learning of their children. As a parent of a language student myself, I am well aware that it is not always easy to quantify or concretely assess where a child is in his/her language acquisition process. New vocabulary is learned and occasionally forgotten, relearned and solidified, remembered and enjoyed. Sometimes children advance at a painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, they zoom ahead. There is always a niggling sense that there is so much more to learn; language learning is a life-long endeavor.
As your child heads down this road, please remember to keep in mind that in addition to actually acquiring a language, the process itself has a host of tangential benefits:
- Flexible thinking;
- Increased attention;
- Expanded capacity for creativity;
- Enhanced emotional intelligence;
- A growth mindset;
- The ability to make inferences and educated guesses;
- Problem solving;
- Intellectual risk-taking;
- Executive functioning; and,
- Critical thinking skills.
I could go on! Recent research suggests that the study of a foreign language not only increases linguistic awareness in the mother tongue, multilingual children often also outperform monolingual children in math reasoning.
Ideally an additional language is also about making the world a better, more welcoming place. Metaphorically speaking, it is an open mind, an ambassador, a bridge, a hand extended in potential camaraderie.
As a teacher and a mother of a child learning 4 languages I regularly witness the peaks and plateaus of language learning. The language acquisition process is rarely linear. Below please find the answers to questions you may have now or feel free to come back mid-year to find answers to questions that may arise.
I very much look forward to my time with your children!
Janel
Periwinkle Class Logistics
Pick-Up
Please arrive promptly at 1:55 p.m. each week to pick up your children. My schedule is extremely tight and I will need to pack up and leave very quickly after class. If some unforeseen emergency prevents you from arriving on time please call me right away (215) 882-2458 to provide an update. Because late pickups may result in incurred financial consequences on our part, we will charge a fee of $25 for the second (and any subsequent) late pickup.
Snacks
The children will have finished their lunch around 11:45 a.m. Please send a small, nut and peanut-free snack, something that isn't too messy or complicated! If there is a general consensus that a snack is necessary, I will let children eat at the beginning of class as I sing the opening songs.
Please, please, persist!
As with any learning process there are highs and lows, successes and challenges. I work with children and
youth ranging in age from 0-18 years old. The pressures of grades, college applications, and academic stress place a great burden on the joy of language learning during the pre-teen and teen years. Children who start language learning in early childhood reap huge psychological and academic benefits later on. Their accents and intonation are better and they have a much better instinct for vocabulary acquisition, sound systems, and grammar structures. Children who are exposed to a language during early childhood (before 8-10 years old) are much more relaxed and open about language study later on in their academic careers.
Let's have fun!
My goal is, above all, to make the process fun, light-hearted and enjoyable. If the children are laughing, smiling, and engaged, there is no question that we will be able to move through obstacles and reach higher ground. My goal is to plant positive seeds; I want the children to believe that they can both succeed in acquiring a new language and enjoy themselves in the process.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Do You Structure the Class?
To help maximize absorption and facilitate a focused yet relaxed classroom environment, I typically structure the time in the following way:
- 10-15 minutes for an opening circle with stories, music,
movement, and an intentional presentation of new vocabulary; - 20-25 minutes of play, hands-on, project-based learning; and,
- 10-15 minutes for a closing circle, story, song.
Do You Speak Only Spanish?
My goal is always to use 100% Spanish throughout the class. Typically, the only situations in which I use English are:
- To ensure the safety of the children;
- To establish (or reestablish) rules of conduct or clear boundaries; and,
- To soothe a child in distress if I see that Spanish is increasing his/her sense of angst.
Using English is always a last resort for me! I prefer the purity and continuity of a fully-immersive Spanish environment and strive to preserve that. But because the children are with me just 50 minutes a week, I have learned that using a negligible quantity of English often helps keep the Spanish immersion environment productive. Before I officially launch into Spanish I have found that it is most effective and efficient to set up rules and explain the target vocabulary and/or project in English.
Children and Language Acquisition: Is my child learning anything?
Children usually develop receptive capacities before they can produce vocabulary in a target language. This process mimics the natural language development of a baby; they understand words before they can say them. Every single class we engage in many repetitions of our target vocabulary - we chant, sing, and use our bodies to learn vocabulary. The children listen to stories that incorporate numerous repetitions of the vocabulary. I bring in puppets and projects, use laughter and humor to elicit responses from the children.
Please bear in mind that extraverted and introverted children alike may be very reluctant to "show off" what they know in Spanish. If you ask them direct questions like, "How do you say blue in Spanish?" they will likely balk. Conscious recall and translation is a very different skill than language absorption and acquisition.
Look for other, more subtle signs of absorption - a sudden word in Spanish at a random moment, a mimicking of the Spanish sound system during free play at home (this will sound like a Spanish gibberish), bits and pieces of songs absent mindedly sung during moments of relaxation, quiet or alone times. You can intentionally make a mistake counting, "uno - dos - ocho - siete" - see if they laugh or jump in to correct you.
How is my child doing?
Every child learns at his or her pace and very often children recall and produce vocabulary in class and then, even as they cross the threshold of the classroom, their brain switches back to English and they cannot come up with the words. That is fine and normal!
I have many, many students and cannot always send frequent updates about your child's progress. That said, I observe each and every child carefully and typically have a good sense of what each child knows. I pay attention to what engages and what does not, what sticks and what does not. Please feel free to prompt me with an email asking about your child, I will do my best to answer in a timely and specific manner.
What are you learning?
While I don't send weekly email updates I do typically send a summary at the end of each thematic block with information about our projects, vocabulary presented, and some books, songs, or Youtube resources that may be helpful for reviewing language on an ongoing basis.
How can I support my child at home?
Keep things low pressure and light hearted. Create an environment of language play and curiosity. Look at a map and identify the countries in which Spanish is spoken. Play with Google translate while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Ask nonchalant questions like, "I wonder how you say X in Spanish?" or make occasional observations: "Alma Street, El Camino Real, Los Altos, Palo Alto...I bet those are words in Spanish..." Modeling curiosity at home very often translates into increased motivation in class time. Throw in some Spanish words (if you know any) as you move about your daily routines. Make the language relevant to their lives - point out Spanish on package labels, signs, and when you hear it spoken by people out in the world.
Can you recommend any books, CDs or DVDs for extra practice?
Like the Suzuki method for music education, listening to Spanish music, books, and DVDs outside of class will prime the cerebral pump, helping children glean greater benefit from in-class time. If your child watches some television, you can very often find favorite TV programs that are already dubbed in Spanish (I Spy by Scholastic, Bill Nye the Science Guy, for example) or major motion picture films (i.e. Cars, Horton Hears a Who, Wallace & Gromit) with Spanish language tracks. If your child is reading, turn on the Spanish subtitles to accompany their favorite English program. Below please find some audio and visual resources I have compiled to get you started:
http://www.spanishclassroom.net/spanish-resources.html
password: orientation
Other questions or concerns?
Please feel free to contact me via email: [email protected], we will figure things out together!