Language Immersion - How is it going online?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been struggling with this also. We have a 3rd grader in Spanish immersion. He has always grumbled about reading in Spanish at home, but at least he used to get pretty much a full day of Spanish in school. Now that extra reading is more crucial. He finds Raz Kids boring but I like it because I know the level and we are trying to increase his proficiency. He prefers translations of his favorite book series like Wimpy Kid, but at least that's reading something he enjoys.

We have considered an online tutor to keep up with spoken language but haven't done it yet. There are a lot of online tutors available from many countries through various organizations. We haven't settled on one yet, but for the summer it will be even more important.

One thing is that we are all in the same boat. When we are back in school, most of the kids will be lagging a little more than usual. It's the kids who aren't really doing anything at home who will really suffer from this. If we are online next fall, hopefully the schools will have more classes in Spanish.

Thanks, PP. I appreciate the additional perspective. I hadn’t heard of Raz Kids and will look into it. Also like the idea of a high schooler to help with online / virtual language. Even someone to converse with in Spanish would be great.

Has your school/teacher been providing resources? My child is at SCES and I feel like there's so much homework and so many "optional" assignments that I can barely help my child keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have been struggling with this also. We have a 3rd grader in Spanish immersion. He has always grumbled about reading in Spanish at home, but at least he used to get pretty much a full day of Spanish in school. Now that extra reading is more crucial. He finds Raz Kids boring but I like it because I know the level and we are trying to increase his proficiency. He prefers translations of his favorite book series like Wimpy Kid, but at least that's reading something he enjoys.

We have considered an online tutor to keep up with spoken language but haven't done it yet. There are a lot of online tutors available from many countries through various organizations. We haven't settled on one yet, but for the summer it will be even more important.

One thing is that we are all in the same boat. When we are back in school, most of the kids will be lagging a little more than usual. It's the kids who aren't really doing anything at home who will really suffer from this. If we are online next fall, hopefully the schools will have more classes in Spanish.

Thanks, PP. I appreciate the additional perspective. I hadn’t heard of Raz Kids and will look into it. Also like the idea of a high schooler to help with online / virtual language. Even someone to converse with in Spanish would be great.

I think Raz-Kids is a product of Learning A-Z so is pretty much what they use for reading in Spanish now when they read online Anyone online would be good to speak with for practice, but you can also find plenty of native speaker professional language instructors who conduct individual online lessons.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know when the immersion lottery results will come out?

[Anonymous]

Awful. Almost no interaction.

[Anonymous]

June 5 approximately.

[Anonymous]

I don’t feel like my kids have lost the language...over past summers we haven’t done much and they seem to pick up where they left off. But...summer plus the past few months could be tougher. Anyway, here’s what we do:

Spanish reading every day, both listening and active reading, in addition to homework. Benchmark books and other resources.
Videos for fun during the week are in Spanish (English on the weekend)
Writing in Spanish each day, a journal type thing.
And they both have an hour or so of class each day, which is of course in Spanish. Plus, math and reading/writing homework are in Spanish.

My husband and I aren’t really capable Spanish speakers, though I read it fairly well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t feel like my kids have lost the language...over past summers we haven’t done much and they seem to pick up where they left off. But...summer plus the past few months could be tougher. Anyway, here’s what we do:

Spanish reading every day, both listening and active reading, in addition to homework. Benchmark books and other resources.
Videos for fun during the week are in Spanish (English on the weekend)
Writing in Spanish each day, a journal type thing.
And they both have an hour or so of class each day, which is of course in Spanish. Plus, math and reading/writing homework are in Spanish.

My husband and I aren’t really capable Spanish speakers, though I read it fairly well.

Thanks for this. How old are your kids, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t feel like my kids have lost the language...over past summers we haven’t done much and they seem to pick up where they left off. But...summer plus the past few months could be tougher. Anyway, here’s what we do:

Spanish reading every day, both listening and active reading, in addition to homework. Benchmark books and other resources.
Videos for fun during the week are in Spanish (English on the weekend)
Writing in Spanish each day, a journal type thing.
And they both have an hour or so of class each day, which is of course in Spanish. Plus, math and reading/writing homework are in Spanish.

My husband and I aren’t really capable Spanish speakers, though I read it fairly well.

Thanks for this. How old are your kids, PP?

Kindergarten and third. The third grader has a really good grasp of the language, so i don’t think she’ll lose much. I think it will be harder for the K’er to maintain, though honestly we’re focused more on basic reading skills for him anyway.

[Anonymous]

I don't do much more OP than have my kid play on the Duolingo app occasionally during the day (rather than other screen time). I'm not a Spanish speaker so there's no way to replicate it at home other than through electronics or a tutor (which I'm not willing to do yet).

[Anonymous]

I’m disappointed with Gunston. There should have been Zoom style classes several times a week.