The Santa
Fe New Mexican
Sunday March 19, 2000
Focus
Fun and Games
By Deborah Davis for the New Mexican
Taos woman develops Spanish program for children
What started out as Agnes Chavez's desire to teach her son Spanish may show New Mexico a different way to teach foreign languages. "Imagine if there was a method that really worked," said Chavez, sitting in front of the literature that she created for her SUBE -Spanish through Art and Games program.Chavez named her multi-media Spanish curriculum SUBE -a conjugation of the verb subir -because it means to go up to the next level Which is exactly what Chavez continues to do with her program.
"It started off as a little workshop to teach Spanish to kids because I saw kids in the neighborhood were losing their language," Chavez said. "Then, it became a program. And when I started teaching it, I saw the need for a package and I started packaging it. As the needs come, I try to fill them."
When Chavez moved to Taos several years ago, she continued her career as an artist, opening the Agnes Chavez Gallery and supplementing her income by teaching Spanish to adults. When her son, now 5, was born, Chavez combined her two interests in pursuit of a loftier goal.
She decided to speak entirely in Spanish to her son -something that led her to realize that Northern New Mexico children were losing their language. So she Created her own integrated Spanish program "Maintaining and preserving culture is important. It comes down to tradition, what it gave me and how it made me who I am," Chavez said "I know how it enriches me. If language is lost, culture is lost because so much of the culture is inherent in the language."
The SUBE programChavez began to sell her Spanish program, designed for children in preschool through second grade, to Taos schools last year. The program introduces children to Spanish in different formats -music video, music CD, color coded flashcards, games, puzzles. And it is fun. Even the text portion is a coloring book. That's what makes the difference, according to Chavez. She said teachers tell her the children are Absorbing the language because they like singing its Chaff's theme-based songs, or playing a bingo game that teaches them vocabulary words.
"It is multi-sensory and that's proven to be the best way to learn," Chaves said, holding elaborately drawn flashcards in her hand. The program is divided into eight monthly segments; and each month children are introduced to a new theme coordinated with different games and activities.
Chaves designed the detailed game cards and the program's puzzle -a snake weaving his way around other animal characters that are introduced in the games and songs. To keep up with demand for the program, Chafes hired an illustrator to draw the pictures.For the music portion of the program, Chaff's original songs teach children 16 to 20 vocabulary words in each song, which are set to different kinds of Latin rhythms, such as Salsa and Merengue. The video featuring children in the Taos school district includes eight songs, one for each month and theme in the curriculum.
The manual also includes art projects that help children practice understanding vocabulary. Some art projects also turn into games. For example, Chavez uses a version of pin the tale on the donkey to help children recognize names of body parts.As teachers and school administrators responded favorably to her program, Chavez recognized how rare her type of curriculum is. She attributes part of her success to the simplicity of SUBE.
Foreign-language textbooks for teachers tend to be thick, full of complicated material that still requires teachers to develop their own curriculum, according to Chavez. "Teachers are overworked and underpaid. They don't have time to prepare a Spanish curriculum," she said.
Chavez's program comes complete. Her lesson manual gives step-by-step, explicit instructions on how to teach the program, breaking down each hour into segments of games, music and projects. And the eight-month program is flexible in order to meet the teachers' needs. They can teach the SUBE program one hour a week or every day. The program-equipped with objectives, goals and evaluation charts-also meets the New Mexico standards for foreign language, according to Chavez.
Watching Spanish culture slip away Chavez is of Cuban decent and was born in Long Island, N.Y., and moved to New Mexico in 1987. After coming to Taos she watched children lose their cultural pride and desire to speak Spanish because of racism here. She said children were slapped on their hands for speaking Spanish in school, but she also recognizes the climate has changed since then.Now, New Mexico is following the cultural trend. "We're a global community now," she said. "Everything ethnic is in. Everybody's into more culture now." But she still sees that schools are dragging behind in offering creative, updated foreign language programs."
As much as everybody thinks the Southwest is full of Spanish speaking people, there aren't a lot of programs out there that are working successfully," Chavez said.In addition, Chavez plans to start her second year of the program next fall by introducing the next level of the SUBE program, which is geared to first-graders. It challenges the students to not only comprehend the Spanish language, but to orally interpret the language. Level two is for first graders and level three for grade two.
In the first year, Chavez sold the curriculum to 35 classrooms in the Taos County area, wanting to stay local in the beginning so she could fine-tune the program based on response from the teachers. Next school year, she will promote her curriculum out of state.
Chavez's other goal is to expand her Web site to include a resource center on the SUBE program called Subeconnects. org, a chat room for teachers to discuss and exchange ideas and an exchange program betweenschools in the United States and Latin American countries. By using Intel video camera software, students will be able to develop pen pal relationships with each other.
"Children in Latin America can develop relationships with children in the United States," Chavez said. "For kids here, it's for practicing their Spanish."
By using the Internet, Chavez envisions all sorts of possibilities for teaching Spanish and acquainting children with other cultures."My hope is that it will be revolutionary because of technology-using technology in away that will bring kids closer to kids in other cultures and allow them to experience culture without having to travel," she said.
(captions)
Chavez watched children lose their cultural pride and desire to speak Spanish because of racism here. She said children were slapped on their hands for speaking Spanish in school.
Agnes Chavez, left, who created Sube, a Spanish language learning game, uses the game with a class in Taos. Chavez, said the game was inspired by her son Silviano, 5.
Chavez owns a gallery on the plaza in Ranchos de Taos. Her new game teaches Spanish through art and fun.
Agnes Chavez describes the pictures on the flash card in Spanish at a class in Taos.
