A Peek Inside the Classroom: World Language Classes at BHHS

If you peek into a World Language class on an “A day” in early October, you will see students engaged and connecting with the material, each other, and their teacher while participating in a variety of collaborative activities. You will also hear laughter and thoughtful discussion as students navigate the 90 minute class. One of several teachers will be leading the class: Sarah Amesse, Alison Gallagher, Dayana Schemel, or Candice Toma who teach Spanish, Holly Hammerle or Amy Merchant who teach French, Bobbi Juengel or Tracey Wade who teach American Sign Language, or Angela Lee-Jan who teaches Chinese.

Once the bell rings signifying the beginning of class, students get to work on their warmup - typically a worksheet or reading assignment. After a few minutes, the teacher introduces the agenda for the class period. Students look forward to several different activities within the hour and half class. On this day, a Spanish 400 class “speed dates” using as many Spanish vocabulary words and phrases as possible, while Spanish 100 students present slides with country-specific research to their peers. Another class watches a video about mariachi and answers questions about its content. In French, students collaborate to analyze sentence structure before their "all about me" presentation where they draw a self portrait and describe their features, hobbies, and personality. ASL classes practice signing numbers from 0 to 100 in small groups, and watch a video to gain an understanding of the signer’s perspective. 

It’s a special day in Chinese 2/300 where students rehearse and perform live skits, complete with creatively crafted homemade costumes and an exciting stage fight! The skits honor the lunar calendar’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on October 6 this year, and explain the legend of how the earth came to have one sun and one moon. After presenting their skits in Chinese, the groups vote on which performance was better prepared. It’s a close call, but group 2 takes the win, and both groups celebrate as Mrs. Lee-Jan hands out candy and gift card prizes.As the activities wind down and class wraps up, students grab their belongings and chat while listening for the dismissal bell. You can hear a chorus of “adios,” “au revoir," and “zài jiàn,” echoing down the hallway as they leave their classrooms.