Minutes from the World Language Task Force

April 11, 2008

The meeting began at 7:03pm and adjourned at 8:30pm. In attendance were Dr. Bucci, CC Kelly , Joe Hudock, Alexandra Batouyios, Kristen Zappa, Kathia Kennedy, Mari Osio, Christine Misback, Fabienne Prokesch, Gisela Spalleck, Fadoua Loudiy-Smith, Giselle DelFrate and Mildren Sierra.

CC Kelly announced a poster contest sponsored by the Elementary World Language Task Force and the World Language Club entitled: WHAT WORLD LANGUAGES MEAN TO ME AND TO MY WORLD. This is a contest to promote languages and cultures in grades K-5. Students make a poster with one word and a relative design to illustrate what it would mean to study a WL. Posters will be judged by the World Language Club and displayed at the May 20 th School Board meeting. Jill Gruber will assist in placing this application on the Friday Flash next week. Winning posters will be displayed with the name of the school only, on a Friday Flash before the end of school. The idea came about during a sub-committee meeting in March with Mari Osio, Katja Kennedy, Christine Misback and CC Kelly. This was the Community Support Committee.

Each of the four sub-committees felt that their chapters were ready to be written into the final report. The Community Support Committee actually turned in the final copy of their chapter while the other three needed minor adjustments. The order of the chapters was solidified at this meeting. The order will be as follows: Educational Benefits, Types of Programs, Choice of Languages and Community Support.

The report and research have been written entirely by the Task Force Members. CC Kelly will place everything into one formal document and include Task Force members’ names and profiles, an introduction, recommendations, resources and a bibliography.

The Task Force will present their report to the School Directors at the May 20th Board Meeting. The group chose to use PowerPoint. There was a very impressive and detailed discussion as to the manner of presentation and who should present from each group. The group desired a read-through and also a practice. The report read-through and practice would be on May 14 th at 7 p.m. in the Dewitt Blank Room.