Celine Ciotta (12) has family in Venezuela who she often calls and greets in Spanish, but she was never very confident in her Spanish grammar prior to taking classes in the language. Ciotta said that by communicating more fluently with her family, she aimed to better connect with her culture.
Now, in her senior year, Ciotta is taking her final Spanish class: Spanish 9-10, which she said feels more like a gathering of friends than an academic class. Because many of the students were in previous Spanish classes together from levels 1-8 to AP Spanish, they are familiar with one another and have the skill set to hold long conversations in Spanish. Peer interactions make up much of the class time.
“The class feels like a community,” Ciotta said. “Everyone in the class has been together for so long through the whole Spanish experience, from Spanish 1-2 all the way to AP. We’re all super, super, close, and it feels more like a class where we just go to hang out with our friends, speak Spanish, and just continue practicing speaking. It’s crazy to see how much we’ve learned over the years.”
The Spanish 9-10 class is known for the activities that the students participate in, which don’t resemble the curriculum of most other classes at Westview. The class is mostly spent doing fun presentations, holding food-making competitions, and grounding activities in the outdoors where the students attempt to connect with nature. The class also takes opportunities to use Spanish outside of the classroom with frequent field trips.
“One day we had a field trip where we went to Cotijas Taco Shop, and we just had tacos,” Ciotta said. “We’re having another field trip soon where we’re going to a Spanish restaurant. We also had a field trip to Old Town San Diego where we just walked around. I got some candy and some jewelry from the shops, and there were a bunch of decorations for Dia de Los Muertos. It was super colorful and bright.”
Another way Spanish 9-10 has connected the students with the world beyond Westview is through a video pen pal program called Level Up Village, which allows the Spanish 9-10 students to communicate with English-learning high-schoolers in Argentina. Caroline Millay (12) said that Level Up Village has allowed her to appreciate the culture in South America more.
“Each week on Friday, we send videos to the students in Argentina and we respond to different questions they asked us,” Millay said. “They get to practice their English, and we get to practice our Spanish. It’s interesting hearing them practice the different English phrases they use and just learning about their daily lives. I think it’s also so interesting to learn the different things that are important to them versus the different values in the U.S.”
Millay also said she feels as though the class collectively understands the value of learning a second language, which has brought the students together as a class.
“When you get to that high-up Spanish class, it feels like you’re there because you really want to be there, and not because you’re fulfilling a class requirement,” Millay said. “I think that just makes us closer in nature. We spend every day together and speak in a different language.”
From consistent practice using the Spanish language, Ciotta said she believes more strongly in her ability to communicate in Spanish, which has translated to her confidence in communicating with her Spanish-speaking family.
“This class allowed me to overcome my fear of speaking Spanish because I knew my grammar used to be bad,” Ciotta said. “I can tell my relatives in Venezuela about my day and all the things that are happening in my life. I’ve always been close to my family, but it helped me to be able to talk to them and connect with them more.”
