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FLES Program
The Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) program began in 2014. It was created to give elementary school students in St. Mary's County a chance to take basic foreign language classes that are not offered in the schools. Originally it was offered to students in grades K through 5 in Spanish or French depending on the school they attended. Due to a lack of teachers, the program had to be downsized after the first year. Currently, students in grades 3 through 5 are given the option to participate. In the spring session of 2017, six elementary schools in St. Mary's County hosted the program. (Tarr, 2017)
FLES Classes
The FLES classes we helped with were held at Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary School. The classes were held every Thursday after school from 3:10 to 4:10 over a period of 10 weeks, starting on February 2 and ending on April 6. The students were split into two classes of around 15 students each.
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Duke Elementary offered Spanish classes for the students. They covered topics ranging from numbers and colors to the culture of Spanish speaking countries (Mexico and Argentina). The teachers gave out Spanish worksheets for the students to complete to help them learn the vocabulary. The students played Hangman and matching games with Spanish words.
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We aided the teachers with running the classrooms. We passed out pencils, papers, and other supplies to the students when needed. We also helped run the activities that the teachers had set up.
FLES Summer Camp
The FLES Summer camp took place at Leonardtown High School over the summer of 2017. The camp lasted for four days, from June 19th to June 22nd. There were fifteen students in our class from all over the county.
Each day the students were in camp from 9 am to 12 pm where they learned about a different topic each day. The topics ranged from colors and numbers to different animals found on a farm. The students played games and participated in a variety of activities to reinforce what they had been taught. They learned about the culture of Mexico and got to try food and candy that the teacher brought in.
Advocacy
For our advocacy we will be working with Nicole Halleck, a fellow GIS student. Our topics both focused on foreign language education. We will be helping to train younger students to carry on the foreign language classes that Nicole created during the summer of 2017. We will also contact schools in the area about this program and the FLES program.
Further Information
For more information about foreign language opportunities available in St. Mary's County, please visit the links below.