Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School
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2765 South 55th Street |
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2765 South 55th Street |
Tours are given Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. Please call for a tour time, 604-7600.
The Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School community is committed to maximizing students’ academic and social potential with an emphasis on cultures from the Spanish speaking world. In our immersion program, students are educated in both Spanish and English while being held to high academic standards. MSIS staff, in partnership with parents, fosters success by the use of formative assessments, collaborative reflection and goal setting.
Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School (MSIS) is located in a quiet residential area on the south side of Milwaukee. We are part of the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system. Our enrollment of 540 runs the gamut of academic potentials, socio-economic backgrounds, and ethnic groups. MSIS is a city-wide school which immerses children in the Spanish language. We offer the language immersion program for grades K4 through 5th grade. There are three special education classes for severe orthopedically impaired/cognitively disabled students - early childhood, primary and intermediate.
Our staff represents a spanish blend of Hispanic backgrounds...Mexican, Nicaraguan, Puerto Rican, Ecuadorean, Colombian...as well as staff members who have lived and studied in the Spanish-speaking countries of Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Perú, and Spain. The cultural mix found in our student body and staff dovetails beautifully with our dual focus of language learning and multiculturalism.
Accomplishments of which MSIS is very proud include:
The Milwaukee Public Schools Language Immersion Schools provide a total language experience in a multicultural setting for pupils whose parents would like them to have the advantage of becoming proficient in two languages - English and a second language - by the time they complete the kindergarten through grade five sequence of the program.
Children learn the second language in a natural way in everyday classroom conversational situations and through subject content instruction. This makes language learning more meaningful to them and helps them develop listening comprehension, spontaneous verbal expression, reading and writing skills.
Culture plays an important role in each program. In addition to emphasis on customs and traditions of the target culture, there is also a very strong focus on multiculturalism as well.
The curriculum is basically the same for pupils in this program as it is in all other Milwaukee elementary schools. Students study reading and language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, through the medium of another language. Thus, pupils learn to understand, speak, read and write a second language as well as English. At the kindergarten level - through regular kindergarten activities - vocabulary, short sentences and passive comprehension of the second language are stressed. The teacher speaks in the second language while making use of many visual aids and a great deal of body language. Although the children may use English, they are encouraged to use the second-language vocabulary and expressions with which they are comfortable. Upon completion of kindergarten, students should have acquired an extensive listening vocabulary.
In the first grade, the teacher and pupils use the second language for classroom communications and in subject instruction. Students learn to read in the second language and are expected to make consistent use of the second language expressions, vocabulary and structures.
In first grade all classroom procedures and subject content instruction are in the second language. The only exceptions are the special classes of Art, Music and Physical Education because these specialists do not speak the second language. With regard to English reading, parents of first graders are advised to encourage any natural interest of reading in English expressed by their child at home. When children begin to read in English in the second grade, the many skills that transfer from the second language enable the students to "catch up" in English reading within one or two years.
At the second grade level, English reading and language arts are introduced for approximately 30 minutes per day. All other content instruction, including reading and language arts in the second language, continues to be taught in Spanish.
In the three upper grades, approximately 80% of the instruction is in Spanish and 20% in English with most of the latter devoted to English reading and language arts. This percentage does not prevent students from acquiring the necessary English skills. Our students have always fared very favorably on the State's and District's assessments which are administered in English.
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Send e-mail to MSIS's webmaster!The MSIS Web Site was updated by Señora Martel .