Greg Fichtner of West Chester Twp. said he was “very disappointed” to learn the district was completely dropping German as a foreign language just as his daughter prepares to enter her senior year.
“They had at least promised to keep it for her four years,” Fichtner said. “Since the Lakota tax levy was passed, I was really hoping that German would be brought back for all grades. Cincinnati’s heritage is based on its German ancestry, after all.”
But Karen Mantia, Lakota’s superintendent, said although the district is planning to drop German, it is planning to offer 26 students an alternative way to take the final year of German.
“It would be a four-year course, but it’s broken into two semesters,” Mantia said. “We’ll offer it to students in a very flexible way, whether it’s through a class that we actually schedule or whether it’s through the HX period, which is our extra help period.”
Students would use technology used by many universities, logging into Blackboard.com and conversing with a certified German language teacher.
“The exciting part about it is there is a lot of opportunity using technology to offer coursework that students ordinarily would not have a chance to take,” Mantia said. “Sometimes the professors will broadcast their lessons, and you (can) go back and look at the broadcast many, many times. There’s a discussion board where students can talk to one another.”
Lakota will welcome help from those who know the language to serve as tutors, Mantia said.
While the district plans to drop German, it also plans to add Mandarin Chinese in the 2014-2015 school year for ninth grade only, based on the recommendation of the World Languages Study Committee, Oppenheimer said.
Foreign language instruction has changed in the past decade because it now has the potential to use much more technology, he said.
“Teachers can find great websites and programs that help students to achieve at a higher level more quickly,” Oppenheimer said. “Also, nationwide, there is an increasing emphasis on communication in the target language, as opposed to memorization of grammatical forms or vocabulary in isolation. We’ve been emphasizing those communication skills for many years.”
Hamilton City School District offers Spanish I, II, III, IV and AP for grades 9-12, French I, II and III for grades 9-12 and American Sign Language I and II for grades 10-12, according to Keith Millard, assistant superintendent of instruction.
German is no longer offered due to retirements, Millard said.
Fairfield City School District offers students Spanish in grades 8-12, French for grades 9 to 12 and German for grades 9 to 12,, according to Gina Gentry-Fletcher, spokeswoman for the district.
While the district offers about the same amount of languages and grades it offered 10 years ago, that could change in the years to come.
“During the 2014-2015 school year, the district will be examining our foreign language program to deeply study our needs and make decisions about any changes at that time,” Gentry-Fletcher said.
Foreign language instruction has changed in the last 10 years, she said.
“There is a greater emphasis on speaking and listening than there was in the past,” Gentry-Fletcher said.
Talawanda offers French and Spanish in grades 9 to 12, according to Holli Morrish, spokeswoman for the district.
The district offered Chinese up until two years ago, but that option was discontinued, Morrish said.
“The superintendent made this recommendation to the school board to eliminate this due to very low numbers in the Chinese courses,” she said.
Talawanda also offers junior high students exploratory language or intro in both French and Spanish.
Elementary students in the districts have been offered foreign language for at least the past dozen years in an after-school program that offers a wider variety of language options depending on what the demands are, Morrish said.
Middletown City School District offers German 1-4, Spanish 1-4 and AP 5 and French 1-4 at the high school level, according to Gracie Gregory, spokeswoman for the district. The district has not added or eliminated any language course offerings in the past decade, Gregory said.
The district has no plans to add any languages in the immediate future, she said.
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