Latin American Immersion Project McMain High School and Thurgood Marshall Middle School New Orleans, LA
High School Initiative
Now in it’s third year, the Latin American Immersion Project allows students at a Orleans Parish Public School to expertise the richest of Latin America via the offering of a Latin American Studies course at the high school level. This course is team taught with a Stone Center graduate student and the teacher on-record at McMain High School. The class meets twice weekly to explore Latin America through lens of one Latin American country. Many times, the instruction is supplemented by guest lecturers, specialized performance workshops, school wide presentations, and more. Throughout the year LAIP works to raise money to bring the students to their country of study. So far our fund raising goals have been achieved, allowing the students and teachers to travel to Peru (2003), Brazil (2004) and hopefully the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2005.
In addition to the course and travel component at McMain, LAIP also purchases resource materials for the school’s library. These materials include curriculum guides for the teachers and videos for the teachers and books and magazines for the students.
View photos from Capoeira and Dance Workshop, February 2004.
Download the LAIP promote packet
Middle School Initiative
Thurgood Marshall Middle School was selected as the project site for LAIP’s middle school initiative involving art and culture through literacy. Working with the teachers of Marshall, the Latin American Resource Center and the Americas Award, five books were chosen as an entry point for LAIP at the middle school level. Facilitators of the project worked with Marshall teachers to develop curriculum materials to accompany the selected books. LAIP also brought guest speakers, showed films and had school wide activities at Marshall.
International School of Louisiana New Orleans, LA
Each semester, five undergraduate Latin American Studies majors, teach weekly courses on Latin America to classes at this Spanish/French immersion school. The International School is the only elementary Spanish immersion school in the city. Our students work with the classroom teacher and school headmaster to develop content rich materials based on the schools prescribed curriculum. This internship is offered every semester. Please note: This project will resume in the Fall. At the moment, LARC has established an initiative with the Teacher Certification Program at Tulane to enhance the exposure of pre-service to Latin America. These students will then begin working as interns at the International School of Louisiana in the fall.
Visit the blog for the Latin American Experience.
High School Initiative
Metairie Park Country Day School This project allows high school students to gain expertise and learn about the riches and diversity of Latin America through an interdisciplinary Latin American Studies course. This course is team taught with a Stone Center graduate student and the teacher on-record at the High School. The class meets four times a week to explore Latin America through many disciplines. Many times, the instruction is supplemented by guest lecturers, specialized performance workshops, school wide presentations, and more. This course has been running at Metairie Park Country Day School for the past three years.
In the past, this project raised money to bring the students to a Latin American country which was the focus of the course. Students and teachers have travelled to Peru (2003), Brazil (2004) and the Dominican Republic (2005). To see pictures of these trips please see our Past Projects.
In addition to the course and travel component, the Latin American Collaborations project purchases resource materials for the school’s library. These materials include curriculum guides for the teachers and videos for the teachers and books and magazines for the students.
Middle School Initiative Last year this project was at Samuel J. Green Middle School, an Orleans Parish Charter School. The Latin American Studies course integrated an arts-oriented approach to teaching the diversity and culture of Latin America. The curriculum involved Americas Award-winning books as well as outside lectures, dance workshops, and a music performance by grammy-award winner Juan-Carlos Formell. Pre-Katrina, this project has collaborated with Thurgood Marshall Middle School.
