Academic Update

Artists Charlie Pribyl, Lukas Bens, Grant Doyle, Dino Ibrahim, Finn Ritman, and Lucas Castillo assisted with the murals.

Shepard, who is in her first year at Brunswick, is revitalizing language learning at the Pre and Lower School along with Chiara Wilson through engaging instruction, cool projects, and as they both like to say often, “constant connection to cultural awareness.” revitalized Spanish curriculum that prioritizes constant connection to cultural awareness.

Wilson has 22 years of teaching experience and is in her third year of teaching Spanish in Pre-K through second grade; she came to Brunswick in 2020 and rewrote the curriculum.

Wilson said part of her work in classes this year dovetailed with the Lower School theme “To Be,” and boys worked hard to “describe a Brunswick boy” as they acquired Spanish vocabulary.

The murals — inspired by the landscape, wildlife, and culture of Mexico, Peru, Spain, Nicaragua, and Colombia — were contextualized and celebrated in fourth grade lessons on muralism in Mexico of the 20th century.

“Mexico had ‘Los Tres Grandes’ between the 1920s and 1950s — Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco,” said Spanish teacher Denise Shepard. “These artists crafted epic murals using various art techniques like fresco and mosaic.

“Brunswick has ‘Los Cinco Grandes,’” Shepard continued. “During many early mornings for many months, five students — Kennedy Gallagher, Conor Doyle, Tavo Licon, Owen Potter, and Colin Brilliant — courageously and carefully covered these walls with paint, creating epic murals of their own.”

“Communication, connection, and culture are the foundations of language,” said Wilson. “A main goal is communication. The goal is language they can use: geography, family, food, weather. We do a lot of singing!”

Here are some highlights from the year: continued on page 6

• Señoras Wilson and Shepard piloted a “Camina & Conversa” lesson in which one class of fourth grade Big Brothers and their corresponding first grade Little Brothers walked around the field chatting in conversational Spanish — they followed prompts written and provided by Señora Wilson.

• The third grade had weekly tastetests in the cafeteria, sampling and categorizing foods by color, food group, flavor, texture, and deliciousness. Third graders also staged a cafeteria “takeover” that had boys pick their favorite foods and write menus in Spanish.

• All Lower School boys wrote compliments to Chef Patrick and Chef José after they prepared Peruvian, Argentinian, Cuban, and Mexican food.

• A partnership with the BPA brought a Flamenco dancer and a Flamenco guitarist to perform for and teach during a schoolwide assembly in the fall. This kicked off the Music/Dance unit for the fourth grade.

• Singing Bruins performed “Character Tango” in Spanish at the spring concert on Arts Night.

• Fourth graders explored sports words through the lens of the FIFA World Cup, receiving lessons that reviewed numbers, colors, sports, and body vocabulary. Lessons expanded to include vocabulary on leadership via Argentina soccer player Leo Messi and on emotions via Ecuadorian player Enner Valencia.

▶ MIDDLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE STUDENTS are standing out in testing and competition across the board.

Here are some highlights.

Five of 19 French students scored at the Intermediate level in all areas of AAPPL testing — a very high achievement for students in Middle School, as it is anticipated that these students will score in the novice range on these exams.

The AAPPL exam rates students across four skill categories (reading, speaking, listening, writing) at a novice, intermediate, or advanced level.

“We would expect strong students in ninth and tenth grades to score in the intermediate range, and maybe hit some advanced standards, and for those in the AP level to score advanced in most categories,” said Jamie González-Ocaña, chair of Modern Languages & Classics. “Therefore, having Middle School students score intermediate in all skill areas is exceptional.”

In Chinese, four out of five Middle School boys scored at the intermediate level.

“Middle School students usually do not score that high, and especially across the board on all four skills of speaking, writing, listening, and reading,” said Erin Withstandley.

Also:

• There were 25 gold medals on the Spanish National Exam, including two seventh graders: Kiran Behringer and Luke Spada.

• Luca Tichio, a sixth grader, earned a gold medal in an Arabic poetry recitation at the Connecticut COLT poetry recitation competition. Tichio studies Latin in school and does Arabic Club in addition to that.

• A new Brunswick student with no previous Latin experience is a Latin standout in sixth grade. Yorman Veliz did not take Latin in fifth grade, but nonetheless jumped right into class with peers who did. “Even though all of the other students in the class got to learn the basics of Latin the year before, Yorman took no time at all to get up to speed on Latin grammar,” said Tyler Boudreau, Latin teacher. “Using his knowledge of Spanish, he makes great vocabulary connections in class, and he is consistently one of the highest achieving students on assessments.”