Holy Rosary-St. Richard preps students to be �global citizens�

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

CUTLER BAY| Students at Holy Rosary-St. Richard School begin their Tuesdays with a “Buenos dias” (“Good morning”), “Padre nuestro” (“Our Father”) and “Dios te salve, Maria” (“Hail Mary”), and finish the day with an “Adios” (“Goodbye”) and “Hasta mañana” (“See you tomorrow”).

Tuesdays have been transformed into “Spanish Tuesdays” as part of the school’s participation in Boston College’s Two Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools (TWIN-CS).

Holy Rosary–St. Richard was selected as the first school in Florida to participate in the program, which is transforming the school into a completely bilingual and bi-literate — in English and Spanish — environment, both inside and outside of the classrooms.

How does TWIN-CS work? The program’s modules and formulas vary based on the level of fluency of the children. Teachers have a language objective and a subject objective, so they can teach in Spanish (language objective) while simultaneously teaching geography (subject objective). From language arts, to science, math and more, every subject eventually will be taught in both English and Spanish.

At Holy Rosary-St. Richard, the program is literally in its infancy, having started with the youngest students: PreK2, PreK3, and PreK4. This academic year, kindergarten was added to the program, but it will be a few years before it is implemented in every grade. Even so, the entire school is already participating in TWIN-CS in one way or another.

Pre-K2 teacher Priscilla Naumann said she understands the importance of maintaining both languages throughout the educational formation of students. She was grateful when her students’ parents agreed.

“The first years are crucial,” said Naumann. “Even the parents are realizing they need to speak more Spanish to them. We are used to English and sometimes it is easier, but a lot of parents are paying attention and doing something about it.”

Students in elementary and middle school are practicing Spanish with classmates and teachers on Spanish Tuesdays, and during bilingual school Masses. Conversational Spanish classes have also been added to the Spanish curriculum, pairing up students with other students based on their level of fluency to complete assignments.

Purpose is communication

“It’s based on building that comfort in the language and knowing that they can communicate in Spanish even at whatever level they are on,” said Holy Rosary-St. Richard’s Spanish teacher, Marianne Marrou. “The purpose of language is communication and as long as we’re communicating then we are being effective in the use of language.”

Eighth grader Luke Becerva, whose family does not speak Spanish, said learning an additional language is benefitting him.

“I really don’t know Spanish that well,” Luke said. “Now I can learn it well in Spanish classes and it helps me get used to speaking in Spanish.”

For fellow eighth grader Diana Joseph, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home. She said she enjoys helping classmates in the conversational Spanish class and looks forward to returning to Holy Rosary-St. Richard after graduating to see how much TWIN-CS has blossomed.

“I expect to see more students speaking fluently and everyone getting along with the language,” Diana said.  

“We are aware that we need to have a language we dominate, and another one we can communicate with additionally in the world,” said Ilma Lozano, Holy Rosary-St. Richard’s principal.

World is 50 percent bilingual 

According to research conducted by the TWIN-CS program, 50 percent of the people in the world are bilingual, but only 10 percent of educated people in the U.S. speak two languages. If a student speaks English and Spanish, he or she can communicate with 80 percent of the world.

“It is fundamental, and that turn in society has helped. It is important to prepare our students for that,” Lozano said.

Before becoming principal of the school, Lozano was the Spanish teacher at Holy Rosary-St. Richard. With 30 years under her belt, she has seen the evolution of the population at the school, going from classrooms where only a few students spoke Spanish to classrooms where half spoke English and half spoke Spanish.

“Families have changed,” said Lozano. “They want to keep their native language at home, unlike before where they tried to eliminate the maternal language.”

She said the diversity in the neighborhoods surrounding the school also continues to evolve. Although the school has a Hispanic majority, Vietnamese, Indian and Haitian families are now moving in.

Kim Pryzbylski, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Miami, said she chose Holy Rosary-St. Richard because of Lozano’s esteem for bilingualism and the fact that TWIN-CS would give the school a unique identity.  

“Out of tradition, Holy Rosary-St. Richard’s has been an excellent school,” said Lozano. “Our students get accepted into Columbus, Lourdes, St. Brendan, Belen and more. With TWIN-CS, students will develop full academic bi-literacy in Spanish and English across all subjects, preparing our children to be global citizens in a culturally diverse world.”