By Jorja Weitl
This year Miss Erin Westering decided to have her Spanish 3 and 4 students read “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo. Westering chose this book for them to read in Spanish to go along with the school district’s “One School-One Book”. Not only did she choose this because of the “One School-One Book” program, she said it also has many other benefits for the Spanish students. Westering said, “Although Spanish 3 and 4 are reading the book in a different language, younger students know that the older kids are reading right along with them.” That shows good leadership to the school’s upperclassmen. When Westering told her Spanish classes they would be reading “Winn Dixie,” they were pretty excited. Once they found out they would be reading it in Spanish, their views changed. Junior, Matracea Wagner said, “I thought we were going to read it in English, truth-be-told.”
How does reading a young kid’s book benefit a high school class? Reading a full book in Spanish is a new thing for Spanish 3 and 4 classes. Westering has the students read out loud and listen to each other in class. Westering says, “We have been working on using context-clues to gather meaning from sections of the text and finding words/phrases we understand to find the main ideas of the chapters.” By doing this, it can help “expand our vocabulary” Matracea Wagner said. Wagner also said, “It’s very difficult because I don’t know half the words.” Along with the rest of the class Wagner’s learning by reading the book in class and using the information she has already learned in Spanish. By reading an actual book, in Spanish, it introduces the students to other forms of words and phrases. It’s a good learning experience for them.
How does reading a young kid’s book benefit a high school class? Reading a full book in Spanish is a new thing for Spanish 3 and 4 classes. Westering has the students read out loud and listen to each other in class. Westering says, “We have been working on using context-clues to gather meaning from sections of the text and finding words/phrases we understand to find the main ideas of the chapters.” By doing this, it can help “expand our vocabulary” Matracea Wagner said. Wagner also said, “It’s very difficult because I don’t know half the words.” Along with the rest of the class Wagner’s learning by reading the book in class and using the information she has already learned in Spanish. By reading an actual book, in Spanish, it introduces the students to other forms of words and phrases. It’s a good learning experience for them.