Odyssey Charter School provides Spanish language instruction for students beginning in kindergarten. K-5th grade students receive instruction for 45 minutes one day a week for the entire school year. Because Middle School works on block scheduling, 6th-8th grade students receive instruction for 45 minutes every day for an entire 9-week period.
Our Spanish program is not a full immersion class, meaning the teacher does not speak solely in Spanish for the entire class period. Instead, it is a bilingual class. The teacher speaks in Spanish and then provides the English translation. Over time, the students become familiar with the sentences used every day and their Spanish vocabulary increases, so the need for everything to be translated into English subsides. In this way, we build fluency while relieving the students of some of the frustrations of full immersion instruction.
Most of the classrooms are learning Level 1 Spanish. This consists of learning the alphabet and proper pronunciation of the letters, common greetings, days, months and seasons of the year, numbers, colors, and other basic vocabulary. We use Spanish songs, videos and games to enhance the learning experience. In addition, the Spanish teacher works with regular classroom teachers to integrate math, social studies, reading, music and other curriculum into Spanish class.
Our goal is for students to have enough knowledge of Spanish after elementary school to advance to Level 2 when they get to middle school. During Level 2 instruction, they will learn basic grammar and sentence structure, verb conjugation, additional vocabulary and more conversational skills. This gives them a good base of Spanish before they move to high school.
Meet the Teacher
Our Spanish Teacher is Kimberly Kummell.
