American born and bred, Susanna spoke English at home and on the playground with friends, but inside her Nitrauer Elementary School classroom her native tongue was forbidden.

Now a junior at Manheim Township High School, Susanna can add "bilingual" to her college applications.

As guinea pigs 12 years ago in Manheim Township's pioneer Spanish immersion program, Susanna and about 25 peers learned their elementary curriculum entirely in Spanish.

"Our parents had to teach us how to read in English," Susanna said. "If you learn another language before 8, it's ingrained in the same part of your brain as your first language."

The immersion program is the only program of its kind in the county. It takes advantage of studies that say younger students' brains are better equipped to absorb a second language, said Nitrauer assistant principal Priscilla Stoner.

Most students won't begin learning another language until middle school, where the classes are grammar-intensive.

For the 25 kindergartners at Nitrauer currently enrolled in the immersion program, their teacher speaks entirely in Spanish from the first day of school, focusing on word recognition rather than structure.

Beginning in third grade, the students have 45 minutes of English, but all other subjects, from math to social studies, are taught entirely in Spanish.

In Senora Libby Adsit's fifth-grade class last week, students were learning about the American Revolution.

To a non-Spanish-speaking person, the only words decipherable during the lesson may have been proper nouns like "Lexington," "Concord" and "Paul Revere." The students raised their hands eagerly and answered Adsit's questions in fluent Spanish.

"Sometimes I start talking to my mom and I realize I'm talking in Spanish," said Taylor LaSon, 11, a student in Adsit's class. "I've had dreams in Spanish."

Her classmate, Charlie Winters, 11, said she walks down the street in Lancaster and can understand Spanish-speakers' conversations.

"I say, 'Whoa, they're speaking Spanish,'"‚" Charlie said.

Many immersion students take family vacations to Spanish-speaking countries and enhance the experience by communicating with local residents there, Stoner said.

At the end of February, Manheim Township freshman Rachel Hoh, an immersion student, visited Nitrauer and spoke to the current immersion students about a summer trip she took to Costa Rica.

Almost every first- and second-grader in the audience raised a hand and asked questions of Rachel. The discussion was entirely in Spanish.

"I'm giving them the highlights of the trip so they can learn a little bit about the culture," Rachel said. "Me and my brother (who also was immersed) were the only reason (my family) got around (Costa Rica)."

Rachel's mother, Donna Hoh, said the program has provided both her children with a special gift.

"They transcend from being a tourist to being a part of the environment," Hoh said. "The program took a leap of faith."

In a typical year, 40 or 50 students districtwide put their names in a lottery for the 25 slots available in the Spanish immersion class.

The students stay together in an immersion-style class for Spanish in middle school and then are integrated with the other students in high school.

Livi Thatcher, a junior from the pilot immersion class, said if she could change anything about the program she'd keep the immersion students together through high school. "I feel like I spoke (Spanish) much better in third-grade than I do now," Livi said. "It makes me so mad when I think about how good I used to be."

The high school juniors from the first immersion class now are taking the highest-level Spanish class Manheim Township offers.

For her senior year, Livi is going to assistant-teach in an immersion class at Nitrauer.

Susanna is going to take an independent study focused on reading literature in Spanish.

They are both considering Spanish as minors in college.

"I'm so happy," Livi said of her Spanish education. "It opened so many windows for us."

Colby Itkowitz's e-mail address is citkowitz@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus