Freshman Seminar Immersion Classes

This year, Samo has added a new Freshman Seminar class taught entirely in Spanish. The class is taught by Spanish teacher and immersion department chair Claudia Bautista. It is offered for class periods four and five, and the students are all members of the Immersion program. It was created to better implement the immersion program into Samo’s curriculum.The immersion program is a continuous bilingual education class schedule that begins at Edison Language Academy, goes into John Adams Middle School and ends at Samo. Edison is a dual immersion school, so the entire school day is dedicated to learning both English and Spanish fluently. At JAMS, only bilingual language and history classes are offered. Samo offers bilingual language, history and math classes, but not at the HP and AP level, so many students leave the program to take advanced classes. This can make the transition from JAMS to Samo difficult, because students are often separated from their friends they have known for years. Freshman Seminar, however, is not offered in HP or AP, meaning the students have a place where they can stay together.“It really has [helped us transition] because we’ve known each other for ten years,” Claire Freedman (’20) said. “We’re like a family. We move together from each school [and] it’s a wonderful program.”Bautista and former principal Eva Mayoral had the idea for the class.“It was actually Ms. Mayoral who wanted it,” Bautista said. “We all wanted the immersion students that were coming from John Adams to have a course where they still could stay together. We figured that Freshman Seminar was the perfect place to do that.”Bautista and Mayoral thought that this year would be perfect to start teaching the class since the Freshman Seminar curriculum changed this year. Previously, the whole lesson plan was focused on specific moments in history like the Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust. Now, the history portion of the syllabus has been moved to the second semester and the first semester would be dedicated to creating a ten-year plan, where students brainstorm possible career options and goals.The biggest barrier for teaching the class was the lack of materials for the class offered in Spanish. Over the summer, Bautista translated several sources used by the classes taught in English.“I’m using a lot of the translations and for the Facing History [curriculum],” Bautista said. “I’m using different but similar primary sources that are more towards the latino community, but originally written in Spanish.”Students in the class are very elated with it and glad it’s being offered. Students like Freedman and Maya Lauer (’20) are excited that they get to stay with their friends, and think that the environment helps them learn the material.“I like how it’s in Spanish so we have all our elementary school friends with us,” Lauer said. “It helps us learn easier because we all connect with each other. We all have this silent connection of being bilingual, so I think that helps.”