PxHS Staff Spotlight: World Language Projects

With the year coming to a close, many students are engaged in completing projects that highlight the knowledge and skills they have acquired. Here are a few projects that wrapped up recently in the World Languages department:

Spanish 4: Mr. Kelso

A student tries to convince his father to allow him to attend Julliard to
study music. The father wants his son to go to Stanford or Harvard.

"The project of writing a play in Spanish (Proyecto obra de teatro) was actually a confluence of thoughts," says Ahmed Kelso. "At the beginning of the second semester I had the idea of talking to my students from Spanish 4 about writing a play but never mentioned it. When we returned from spring break, however, one of my students made the suggestion of creating a play. The project was born. Students began working on the play in early April and worked on it in stages. Except for some minimal editing that I provided after revisions, each stage was managed by the students."

The students performed their final "obritas" on Tuesday in the BBT to an audience that included their peers, parents and SAS staff. Students had memorized their lines and did a good job of thinking on their feet and ad-libbing when they didn't remember the exact line. Themes ranged from self-acceptance, to forbidden love, and even having the courage to follow your dreams. Audience members were provided with English translations of the scripts so non-Spanish speakers could follow along, and the students had fun showcasing their Spanish skills.

French 3: Ms. Fogiel

"In French 3, we learn through the PBL model, where students work on 4 projects per year," explains teacher Caroline Fogiel. "Individual topics are chosen by students within the broader areas of study that the class identified. I started off the year with a focus on History, because I wanted students to get significant practice with the past tense." Based on the interest of the students in the class, Sports, Music, Arts were then identified as the themes for the other three projects. Presentations are roughly 3 minutes long, and students are required to use key vocabulary and relevant grammar. Another key component is to include a detailed description of a picture, as this is a skill students will need to master for the IB exam.

In addition to having choice about their topic, students can also be creative with the format of their presentation. Each presentation is followed by questions, and then the listeners summarize the content to consolidate their learning and reinforce active listening skills. "The learning journey is for all of us in the classroom," says Caroline. "We all learn from one another. Throughout the year, we learned about Chinese music instruments, famous painters, famous music composers and above all, about people who meant something special to students."