Students in the world language department at Watauga High School have had to change the way they learn starting in March of 2020, which was when the United States was put on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many students have struggled with their required world language classes due to Covid-19 forcing teachers to rethink the way they teach. Everyone is required to wear masks while in the WHS building and students last year spent a fraction of the time they normally would in the classroom compared to previous years.
World language classes have changed the way they operate over the course of the pandemic. Carmen Scoggins, who has been teaching Spanish at Watauga High School for 19 years, has experienced this.
“Teaching is a lot more challenging,” Scoggins said. “Since I teach a world language the mask covers the spot of my body that I need kids to focus on.”
Scoggins has adjusted and has made changes to her teaching style in order for her students to stay engaged in class and to make sure that they are retaining the information that is being taught.
“I find myself trying to raise my voice and enunciate more because they are learning a new language and the masks cover all of that up,” Scoggins said.
Heather Tedder, Watauga’s French teacher of 15 years, has been keeping students absorbed in her courses. She has been able to let her students continue with group work and stay safe while doing so.
“A little bit less of group work initially,” Tedder said. “I try to also take them outside a lot.”
Students who took French last year only spent ⅓ of the time in the classroom compared to what they normally would. This was much harder for both students and teachers because more information needed to be taught in much less time.
Tedder said, “I don’t think the masks are problematic, I think it’s the fact that we were not able to be together in class.”
Masking has been a change for students, but students' listening skills also have helped students to stay on track.
“Students are used to listening to music and things, and they have pretty good hearing at that age,” Scoggins said.
However, students and teachers do agree that one main thing would be easier without masks: pronunciation. This is a huge part of learning a language since knowing how to pronounce words can really improve a students speaking skills. Watauga student Megan Patton, who is currently in AP French, feels the same.
“It really helps to see how your mouth is supposed to move when pronouncing words and with a mask, we are not able to see that,” Patton said.
However, students have adjusted to the changes in their language classes. The change has certainly been hard, but world language students have persevered. French 3 student, Skylar Moss, has adjusted to changes.
“It took a little bit of getting used to while learning a language behind masks,” Moss says. “I've made it work.”
However, Grand Concours, which is a French exam taken by French 2, 4 and 5 students, results from 2021 and past years show that students are not progressing in the language as quickly as they have in the past.
In 2018, there were 7 honorable mentions and 2 silver awards and in 2019 there were 6 honorable mentions, 1 bronze award, and 1 silver award across all Watauga students that took the Grand Concours. In 2021, there were only 2 honorable mentions and 1 silver award. Note that there was no French 5 class available in 2021.
This data shows that there was a change in student’s test scores in 2021 compared to 2018 and 2019. However, many factors could have caused this change.
“It was very different last year but I think it's due to the fact that we were only together one-third of the time,” Tedder says, after being asked about her thoughts on the data.
Another factor that could impact Grand Concours results is that teachers took the opportunity Covid-19 provided to slightly change the subjects that world language class covered.
“We are not a state tested area, so we do have a little more freedom than some of the other courses that are offered here at Watauga. So we are just making things fun, more relatable, we are connecting things to authentic resources. We actually saw Covid time as a time for growth for ourselves,” Scoggins said.
Students and teachers at Watauga High School have been flexible and have made adjustments in the classroom as easy as possible during the Covid-19 pandemic. Watauga students are thankful for not only our world language teachers, but every teacher at Watauga for helping students be their best under such strange circumstances.
“I think it's great that we are in a supportive school district that has tried to make this scenario as safe as possible for everyone so that we can be together because I think you guys as students need it and we as teachers definitely like being with you,” Scoggins said. “So I just think that we are very lucky and blessed that we can be together, that we can have fun together, and we can learn together in this way. Fingers crossed that we will stay in this way this whole school year.”
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