Byram Hills High School Previews Foreign Languages To Youth

ARMONK, N.Y. – Although they’ll be graded only on English until middle school, some Byram Hills elementary students got a sneak peek of foreign languages from Byram Hills High School students who stopped by to chat in French, Italian and Spanish.

Second-grader Christian Bellantoni participates in a language activity conducted by high school juniors Samantha Steiner (left) and Amanda Tantleff.
Photo Credit: *Byram Hills School District*

by Michael Nocella

04/05/2013 12:01 a.m.

The high school students read “The Hungry Caterpillar” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See” in one of the three languages and then played word and color games they had created for the second-graders.

But what the high schoolers didn’t count on was how fast the Coman Hill students would catch on.

“They got it really quickly so we had to introduce numbers,” said Byram Hills High School student Jess Occhigrosso, who read “Ours Brun” to the second-graders. Jess, who speaks French, Spanish and a bit of Hebrew, said she loves language and was happy to share that love with the younger students.

“I really like teaching,” she said.

The visit from ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders was to mark World Languages Week, designed “to expose children to different languages and to give the high school students an opportunity to share their passion,” said world languages Chairwoman Melissa Stahl.

The high school students also visited third, fourth and fifth grade classes at Wampus, where they taught greetings, numbers and other basic vocabulary.

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