Spanish offered in every grade

BAYFIELD, Colo. — First-graders file into Catalina Guarin’s afternoon Spanish class at Bayfield Elementary in southern Colorado with a succession of “holas” before taking their seats.

Guarin launches into her lesson involving Spanish words that are common in English, such as “burrito” or “enchilada.”

“Chance, what’s your favorite food?” Guarin asked of Chance Gottfried, 7.

“Watermelon,” Gottfried responded. Not what the teacher was looking for.

Tightening her tactics, Guarin asked, “What’s your favorite food at a Mexican restaurant?”

A girl responded, “Noodles.” Again, not what the teacher was looking for.

Finally, Sydney Gabbard, 6, came to her teacher’s rescue. “I like burritos,” she said, causing her teacher to respond excitedly, “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

Southern Colorado’s Bayfield School District, located about 20 miles east of Durango, has an unusually comprehensive Spanish program for a small, rural district. It offers Spanish in every grade, kindergarten through 12th.

All elementary pupils take it. In middle school, band students can opt out, but that may change. In high school, it’s a popular elective that pleases college admissions offices.

Bayfield voters pay for the program with a permanent property tax approved in 2004. The infusion of money — $1 million annually — has caused the approximately 1,200-student district to flourish.

‘Way ahead of us’

\Two teachers in high school, one in middle school and Guarin in elementary school teach the language. Except for veteran educator Gerald Brush at Bayfield High, all the Spanish teachers are young women who graduated from Fort Lewis College.

Educators have increasingly found that students learn foreign language best at a young age. Bayfield’s program seeks to instill young children with basic Spanish knowledge before they finish middle school.

“These kids we’re teaching now are going to be way ahead of us,” said Janae Hunderman, the middle school teacher, who graduated from Durango High in 2000. “They have so many opportunities we didn’t have because it wasn’t taught until high school. And then it was textbook-based.”

Hunderman said she hoped learning Spanish would increase students’ acceptance of other cultures and languages, teach them about the history of the Southwest and boost their long-term job prospects.

Elementary school pupils take only a few hours of language instruction a month. They rotate through Spanish, art, physical education, music, library and computer classes. Still, after one year in the program, students have already demonstrated increased ability, Hunderman said.

“It shows this year,” she said. “You can see it in the sixth-graders.”

Hunderman stresses a teaching technique known as total physical response, which involves more of children’s brains in learning. Total physical response can involve, for example, standing up and acting out a story.

“We’re kind of changing the way we’re looking at language learning,” Hunderman said.

She de-emphasizes speech skills, based on the premise that children learn a language by listening before they speak it themselves.

‘Now’s the time’

Hunderman said Guarin is the go-to teacher for helping her colleagues, because she is the only native Spanish speaker in the program. Guarin grew up in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina. She began learning English at age 7, the same age as some of her students.

The tight group of teachers is developing a curriculum — the general lack of K-12 Spanish education makes models hard to find — but in the meantime, they wing it.

Guarin brainstorms different activities every day for her classes, held in a modular classroom with objects labeled in Spanish, such as the clock marked “el reloj.” On a recent Thursday, 19 first-graders in the afternoon class made Spanish tortillas — paper circles to which the children glued colored paper with Spanish words on them.

The activity involved handing out scissors — a bold move for Guarin.

“Last time I gave them scissors, they gave each other haircuts,” she said.

Not so on this Thursday, presumably to parents’ relief. Guarin ended the class by playing “hangman” with Spanish words. The condemned stick figure won several reprieves before the children spelled out “tortilla.”

A few of the students grew up in Spanish-speaking households, making verbal instruction undemanding. One of them, Cesar Orlando Valenzuela, 6, said the class was “easy.”

A mother whose child is new to the district praised the Spanish program.

“I think it’s a great program for them to have and to offer the kids,” said Gayle Dupree, whose son Travis is in fourth grade. “It’s a lot better than trying to learn it in high school.”

Bayfield Elementary Principal Brian Hanson agreed. “It’s an incredible opportunity for the kids,” he said. “I’m delighted the community supported it and voted in the mill-levy. Research says if they’re going to learn a foreign language, now’s the time to do it.”



This story from The Durango Herald via the Associated Press.

Vail Daily, Vail, Colorado