Rochester Public Schools looks to revamp world language program
Natalia Benjamin, Minnesota's 2021 Teacher of the Year, asked her students at Rochester's Century High School to think critically about where they see different languages in their school. Benjamin's ethnic studies approach to teaching may soon be more common in Minnesota, if a judge approves a new set of social studies standards.
Jaida Grey Eagle | Sahan Journal 2022
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Here’s something you probably don’t know. According to the Rochester Post Bulletin Newspaper, students in Rochester Minnesota Public Schools speak nearly 100 different languages.
The district teaches just four languages — Spanish, German, French and Latin — and it’s seeing dropping enrollment in some of those courses. So, leaders are working to change their world language courses to match students’ interests, without spending more money.
Natalia Benjamin, 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and Rochester Public Schools Director of Multilingual Learning joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Here's something you probably don't know. According to the Rochester Post-Bulletin Newspaper, students in Rochester, Minnesota Public schools speak nearly 100 different languages. The district teaches just four languages-- Spanish, German, French, and Latin. And it's seeing dropping enrollment in some of those courses. So leaders are working to change their world language courses to match students' interests without spending more money.
Joining us to talk about all this is Natalia Benjamin, the 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and Rochester Public Schools Director of Multilingual Learning. Natalia, welcome back to the program. How are you?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Good. That's good to hear you, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Likewise. Thanks for joining us. Well, gosh, what is going on here? I understand that German, French, and Latin moved online because they have dropping enrollment numbers. And I'm wondering, what do you see happening here?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Yes, I think, we have just seen a shift from what students are interested in taking. And I think there's a lot of different factors. And we still have to dig in a little bit into that talking to the students and community members. As you know, many things have shifted since the pandemic. And I think this is one of those things that we've seen switch a little bit since that time.
CATHY WURZER: I saw a statistic, and maybe you can bear this out, only about 20% of K-12 students learn a foreign language. That seems that's such a small number compared to really how our world is. Are students just not interested?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: That's a really interesting question. In our schools, we've seen that we actually have about 40% of our high schoolers are taking a language. And so it's a little bit higher in our school district. But I think there's a lot of factors when it comes to that.
There's been a lot of depletion of resources when it comes to teaching languages in schools. And so that's another factor that comes into play. When the resources aren't available starting very little, then sometimes students have a hard time looking at the value of those languages.
CATHY WURZER: So, what languages are students interested in learning? Did you ask them?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: We did. Last year, we did have a survey, and we asked students some of those questions. And Spanish was one of the first ones or that they selected with more interest. And then we also had languages like Mandarin Chinese, Arabic that were some of their interests as well.
CATHY WURZER: So I wonder how you get students more interested in World languages. And is there a different way to maybe teach? Is there something that you can do to interest students?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: For sure. And I think that's a question that was asked during our school board meeting. We had a study session. And I think is, like you mentioned, we have so many languages that are spoken in our school district. And it's normalizing that multilingualism across all areas.
We mostly teach, write in one language. English is the common language that we all have across grade levels and across all different people. But really normalizing the fact that within that setting we have a lot of multilingual speakers in our classrooms, and so, how can we shine a light into the assets that it is to speak different languages? And how can we foster that desire to know more about it and to create that curiosity for our students to be able to build those skills?
CATHY WURZER: Gosh, I know that the last budget cut you had as you say, the dozens of positions were cut. I wonder if some of these courses can be revamped without spending more money and maybe have peer-to-peer teaching. Would that be something that you might want to look at?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: There are a lot of different models and I think within learning, being able to tap into our students assets and the things that they bring into. And so translanguaging is something that we are working with our multilingual teachers to bring into the classrooms. And in that sense, we do have some of that peer to peer of what does it sound like in your language?
How can we build those relationships so that they can model that for each other? I think there are lots of opportunities. In some of our schools, we've had ASL clubs, we've had Spanish after-school clubs, French clubs. And so looking at what are the many avenues that we can foster that curiosity and then formalize it through the programming that we have available for students.
CATHY WURZER: Do immersion programs early on tend to interest younger students? And does that keep them in the language pipeline in a sense as they head into high school?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Oh, absolutely. We've seen a lot of interest from the students that are in our Spanish Immersion Program. In fact, this is the first cohort that started in kindergarten. This is their first year as a ninth grade class. And due to just the interest and the commitment of those students and those families, the we were able to offer a more advanced Spanish course for Spanish speakers, both that are coming from immersion settings, but also those that already speak the language through their heritage, and still trying to bring those together to provide more opportunities for students to continue to develop and sustain those languages.
CATHY WURZER: So now the district is holding several meetings this year to look at changes to the World language courses. Who would be part of those Meetings Who are you hoping will be part of those meetings?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Well, we're really hoping that we can engage all stakeholders that would be impacted by this. And so that would include our administrators, but also world language teachers as well as the students and community members who-- that's who we're serving. And that's who we need to keep in mind as we're doing program and figuring out what our next steps are.
CATHY WURZER: And when is the next meeting.
NATALIA BENJAMIN: So we're still planning those. We're hoping that by December we can have our first meeting and then have four more by the end of the year.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Natalia, again, thank you for being here. I wish you all the best.
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.
CATHY WURZER: Natalia Benjamin is the Director of Multilingual Learning at the Rochester Public Schools.
Joining us to talk about all this is Natalia Benjamin, the 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and Rochester Public Schools Director of Multilingual Learning. Natalia, welcome back to the program. How are you?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Good. That's good to hear you, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Likewise. Thanks for joining us. Well, gosh, what is going on here? I understand that German, French, and Latin moved online because they have dropping enrollment numbers. And I'm wondering, what do you see happening here?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Yes, I think, we have just seen a shift from what students are interested in taking. And I think there's a lot of different factors. And we still have to dig in a little bit into that talking to the students and community members. As you know, many things have shifted since the pandemic. And I think this is one of those things that we've seen switch a little bit since that time.
CATHY WURZER: I saw a statistic, and maybe you can bear this out, only about 20% of K-12 students learn a foreign language. That seems that's such a small number compared to really how our world is. Are students just not interested?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: That's a really interesting question. In our schools, we've seen that we actually have about 40% of our high schoolers are taking a language. And so it's a little bit higher in our school district. But I think there's a lot of factors when it comes to that.
There's been a lot of depletion of resources when it comes to teaching languages in schools. And so that's another factor that comes into play. When the resources aren't available starting very little, then sometimes students have a hard time looking at the value of those languages.
CATHY WURZER: So, what languages are students interested in learning? Did you ask them?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: We did. Last year, we did have a survey, and we asked students some of those questions. And Spanish was one of the first ones or that they selected with more interest. And then we also had languages like Mandarin Chinese, Arabic that were some of their interests as well.
CATHY WURZER: So I wonder how you get students more interested in World languages. And is there a different way to maybe teach? Is there something that you can do to interest students?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: For sure. And I think that's a question that was asked during our school board meeting. We had a study session. And I think is, like you mentioned, we have so many languages that are spoken in our school district. And it's normalizing that multilingualism across all areas.
We mostly teach, write in one language. English is the common language that we all have across grade levels and across all different people. But really normalizing the fact that within that setting we have a lot of multilingual speakers in our classrooms, and so, how can we shine a light into the assets that it is to speak different languages? And how can we foster that desire to know more about it and to create that curiosity for our students to be able to build those skills?
CATHY WURZER: Gosh, I know that the last budget cut you had as you say, the dozens of positions were cut. I wonder if some of these courses can be revamped without spending more money and maybe have peer-to-peer teaching. Would that be something that you might want to look at?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: There are a lot of different models and I think within learning, being able to tap into our students assets and the things that they bring into. And so translanguaging is something that we are working with our multilingual teachers to bring into the classrooms. And in that sense, we do have some of that peer to peer of what does it sound like in your language?
How can we build those relationships so that they can model that for each other? I think there are lots of opportunities. In some of our schools, we've had ASL clubs, we've had Spanish after-school clubs, French clubs. And so looking at what are the many avenues that we can foster that curiosity and then formalize it through the programming that we have available for students.
CATHY WURZER: Do immersion programs early on tend to interest younger students? And does that keep them in the language pipeline in a sense as they head into high school?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Oh, absolutely. We've seen a lot of interest from the students that are in our Spanish Immersion Program. In fact, this is the first cohort that started in kindergarten. This is their first year as a ninth grade class. And due to just the interest and the commitment of those students and those families, the we were able to offer a more advanced Spanish course for Spanish speakers, both that are coming from immersion settings, but also those that already speak the language through their heritage, and still trying to bring those together to provide more opportunities for students to continue to develop and sustain those languages.
CATHY WURZER: So now the district is holding several meetings this year to look at changes to the World language courses. Who would be part of those Meetings Who are you hoping will be part of those meetings?
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Well, we're really hoping that we can engage all stakeholders that would be impacted by this. And so that would include our administrators, but also world language teachers as well as the students and community members who-- that's who we're serving. And that's who we need to keep in mind as we're doing program and figuring out what our next steps are.
CATHY WURZER: And when is the next meeting.
NATALIA BENJAMIN: So we're still planning those. We're hoping that by December we can have our first meeting and then have four more by the end of the year.
CATHY WURZER: All right. Natalia, again, thank you for being here. I wish you all the best.
NATALIA BENJAMIN: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.
CATHY WURZER: Natalia Benjamin is the Director of Multilingual Learning at the Rochester Public Schools.
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