Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School students enrolled in Language Other Than English classes have been hard at work analyzing different texts and honing their literacy skills. 

Students in Ms. Hernandez’ Advanced Placement Spanish class studied the sonnet “En Perseguirme Mundo que Interesas.” They analyzed the poem to identify themes of time and space, the idea of Carpe Diem and beauty versus knowledge. In addition, students cooperatively pointed out examples of literary terms such as anaphora, rhyme consonant, hendecasyllable, enumeration and hyperbaton. Using their analysis of Carpe Diem, they compared it to two other sonnets by writing an essay in preparation for the upcoming AP Spanish Literature exam in May.

Mr. Korn’s Italian IV and V honors college courses read “Il Ragazzo di Capaci,” a book written for native speakers. The class learned about the battle and sacrifices of honest and courageous people against the mafia on the island of Sicily as it unfolded around the main character. The story focused on the themes of justice and courage. With the help of television and movie clips, newscasts, articles and songs, students gained an understanding of this period in Sicilian history and contrasted it to the depictions of the mafia portrayed in mainstream media.  

Ms. Romanelli’s Spanish III class presented their natural disasters news projects. Students developed a dialogue and script, including authentic visual presentations to accompany their presentation. The project, along with the Italian lesson in Mr. Korn’s class, highlights the implementation of the new World Language standards. These new standards provide students with access to materials written in the target language. As opposed to documents created specifically to teach Italian or Spanish to second language learners, new methods implement a curriculum suited for native speakers of the language.