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Introduction
The part of Spanish Native Language Arts was developed to serve the Spanish bilingual programs in New York City high schools. According to the New York State Department of Education, the Native Language Arts learning standards should be set at a level of performance approximately equivalent to that of the English Language Arts. The learning standards include reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing, language conventions, and literature. At the high school level the standards of public documents and functional documents are added. The curriculum will give students an opportunity to read a wide range of government records. It is an excellent opportunity for students to study language and literature, while exploring historical and social issues and developing critical thinking skills. Based on their reading, students will engage in all kinds of writing practice, including the writing of reflective essays. They are expected to produce high quality writing, which will require a great amount of editing and revision to demonstrate their mastery of the grammar and usage their native language. Organized around a variety of social situations, students will have numerous activities such as one-to-one interaction, group discussion and role-play, during which they will develop their listening and speaking skills and other communicative skills. Since most of the archive and other historical materials are in English, teachers using this curriculum will have to do a great deal of translation for their students in their Spanish Native Language Arts classes. They may also ask their students to translate some parts of the materials into Spanish. In the classroom, both Spanish and English languages must be used to discuss the instructional materials and social issues. To youngsters of high school age who have recently arrived in our land, immigration is often a frustrating experience because of their limited English and lack of understanding of American culture. We hope that by providing our Spanish-speaking immigrant students with archival and other historical materials whose content is closely related to their own immigrant experiences, we will be able to genuinely reach them and engage them in intensive studies. In this way we will help those students compete with their English proficient peers in meeting the New York State new learning standards. |
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