THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507250119
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Thirty-nine Trantwood Elementary School students went to camp for two weeks this month. Instead of swimming, they immersed themselves in Spanish and French.
The school is the first elementary to offer foreign-language programs year-round. The immersion camp was the inaugural effort at keeping Trantwood's youthful bilinguals familiar with languages they had learned during the school year.
Sessions were 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday each week. The students paid a fee to attend the summertime brush-up. Jennifer Kyle, who will be a senior and fifth-year French student at Cox High School in September, helped with the teaching. On the final day of class, her rising third-graders studied French, cooked crepes and sang a rousing Gallic version of ``Old MacDonald Had a Farm.''
In another class, Miles Benish, 7, overflowed with elan (energy) and enjoyed the graduation ceremonies in which he and the 38 other students received certificates. Miles will begin his second year of French in September.
``It's fun to learn another language,'' he said, as he ate snacks at the party following the graduation. ``This is fun, too.''
That, said principal Judith Lewis and others involved with the program, is the beauty of the foreign-language study at Trantwood. And it is apparently successful. All 747 Trantwood students study either French or Spanish during the school year. A few took both at the camp.
``Children learn language through play,'' said Cathy Richwine, who got the whole thing started four years ago.
Richwine asked Lewis if she could teach her son, Robbie, then a first-grader, and his class French. Robbie is now entering the fifth grade.
From that inauspicious beginning, the foreign-language fever spread through the curriculum, said Richwine, who was also named Volunteer of the Year in the Beach schools last year.
Molly Edmonston, whose daughter, Kirsten, 8, studies Spanish, helped the school select an interactive software program.
``It's called Rosetta Stone and is very user-friendly,'' said Edmonston. The students learn about language by clicking on to possible answers and waiting for a check mark to appear on the correct response.
The summer camp courses were taught by Cox and First Colonial students. They were assisted by parent volunteers. The high school students received credit for their efforts.
``We think it will give our children a head start in languages,'' said second-grade teacher Barbara Greer who coordinates the foreign-language program at Trantwood.
``We're lucky, we have a supportive group of parents here, and once Cathy started teaching, the students became enthusiastic to study French and Spanish,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY EDWARDS
On the final day of class, Jennifer Kyle, a rising senior and
fifth-year French student at Cox High School, leads her rising
third-graders in a rousing Gallic version of ``Old MacDonald Had a
Farm.''
Bonny Kuklica, a parent volunteer, helps her daughter Amber, right,
and Lisa Scotti with a computer program that aids foreign language
study.
by CNB