World Languages
Bio
Education:
B.A., Boston University
M.A.T, Florida Atlantic University
Brief Background:
A veteran educator with over a decade of classroom experience, Ms. Palazzotto taught at the Pine School, North Broward Prep, and Quality Schools International in Košice, Slovakia, before joining Oxbridge Academy in 2013. At Oxbridge, she has initiated study-abroad programs in Canada, Spain, and France.
Oxbridge Academy’s World Language courses promote the development of the four basic skills of language acquisition: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Strengthening these skills fosters active, student-centered communication in the target language by emphasizing what students can *do* with their chosen language of study in various situations. We emphasize and value any skills related to effective communication in the target language, from the most mundane conversational exchanges to deep philosophical inquiries. By the end of their time at Oxbridge Academy, students will have a solid linguistic foundation upon which to draw when continuing the study of their target language in college or when traveling abroad.
MARISA PALAZZOTTO, WORLD LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT CHAIR
Faculty
Maria Dona-Morice
Spanish Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Spanish and French, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
M.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Phoenix
M.Ed., Latin American and Spanish Literature, San Francisco State University
Brief Background:
Before joining Oxbridge Academy in 2017, Ms. Dona-Morice taught Spanish at the San Francisco School, San Francisco State University, Montverde Academy, a private college-preparatory school in Florida, and Pine Crest School.
Amy Jonas
Spanish Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Linguistics and Spanish
M.Ed, Latin American and Spanish Peninsular Literature, Florida Atlantic University
Brief Background:
A certified IB and AP Spanish teacher, Ms. Jonas has taught at institutions in the U.S., Europe, and South America for more than two decades, before joining Oxbridge Academy in 2017. A former world language department chair, and current hiking enthusiast and CrossFit athlete, Ms. Jonas is known for bringing her personal experiences with life and nature into the classroom to inspire students and bring new perspectives to learning.
Francia Lamus
Spanish Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Special Studies, St. Francis College
B.A., Languages and Linguistics, Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), Colombia
M.Ed, Reading,
Nova Southeastern University
Brief Background:
Mrs. Lamus joined Oxbridge Academy in 2018 after teaching for 11 years at Palm Beach County High School. Before moving to Florida, she taught in Brooklyn, New York. She is the co-chair of the Palm Beach County World Language Fair.
Errol Putigna
Spanish Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Spanish,
Florida State University
Brief Background:
Born in Toronto to Italian parents, Mr. Putigna spent three years studying Spanish and classical/flamenco guitar in Spain. He also worked in Spain for the American Institute for Foreign Studies. Mr Putigna has traveled to 40 countries, and is passionate about teaching and sharing his experiences with his students. A member of the Oxbridge Academy faculty since 2012, he wants to invest in the future through education.
Christelle Monawar
French Teacher
Dr. Sheilagh Riordan
French Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Occidental College
M.A., University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of Maryland
Brief Background:
A member of the Oxbridge Academy faculty since its opening in 2011, Dr. Riordan was a Fulbright Fellow at Uppsala University, Sweden, and spent 14 years living and teaching in France, Sweden, Ireland, and Australia. She managed the study abroad program at the University of Melbourne in Australia and was director of the study-abroad program, IES Australia. She taught at Florida Atlantic University’s Honors College in Jupiter for six years, where she won an outstanding faculty award.
Joyann DiGiovanni
ASL Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.S., ECE
M.A., Deaf Education, New York University
Brief Background:
An educator for over 30 years, Ms. DiGiovanni, who joined Oxbridge Academy in 2016, has extensive experience teaching American Sign Language (ASL) at the preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels. She is endorsed in ALS and has received numerous awards, including the Berger Scholarship from New York University, National Fraternal Society Outstanding Student, Alexander Graham Bell Meritorious Award, New York City Leadership Recognition Award in the Deaf Community, Adjunct Faculty Award, and New York University Outstanding Student Teaching Award.
Mark Levine
Mandarin Chinese Teacher
Bio
Education:
B.A., Asian Studies, Swarthmore College
M.A.,East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University
M.Phil, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University
Brief Background:
Mr. Levine, originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, is an alumnus of Springbrook High School and Swarthmore College, where he earned a B.A. in Asian Studies. He further attained M.A. and M.Phil degrees in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University, focusing on modern Chinese literature and culture. With a research stint at Peking University, Mr. Levine has dedicated over 15 years to teaching Chinese language, literature, and film at various educational levels and has led numerous Summer Study Abroad programs to China. In his leisure, he enjoys tennis, traveling, coffee, studying art, and caring for his tabby cat.
Course Offerings
Spanish Courses
SPANISH 1 This course introduce students to the Spanish language and the culture of the Spanish-speaking world. This class emphasizes the spoken language and verbal communication, by teaching words, phrases, and idioms that one needs to communicate in a Spanish-speaking country. SPANISH 2 (Honors Available) Students develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills from a novice-low to a novice- mid proficiency level. Students exchange information on a variety of topics, including Latinos in the world, pastimes, technology, holidays, the arts, sports, transportation, and health. Cultural aspects of the contemporary Spanish-speaking world are studied through communicative activities and projects. SPANISH 3 (Honors Available) Students in Spanish 3 expand the depth and breadth of their proficiency through communicative activities emphasizing speaking and auditory comprehension. Students can express events in present and future tense, with the use of new and previously acquired grammatical structures. Students apply their knowledge and understanding of grammatical structures and vocabulary to the production of projects, presentations, and short writing assignments. SPANISH 4 (Honors Available) This advanced-level course improves students’ communicative skills in Spanish through various contexts, with an emphasis on spoken communication. Students can exchange biographical information, write their résumé, and prepare for a job interview. Grammar is learned contextually through hands-on activities including designing an ideal city, planning a dream vacation to a Spanish-speaking country, and creating an advertising campaign for an original invention. Students deepen their cultural appreciation of art, history, and traditions from across the Spanish-speaking world. |
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SPANISH 5 (Honors Available)
Year • Spanish 4 or Instructor Approval Required
This course addresses the speaking skill and the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal and presentational). Students demonstrate proficiency to communicate preferences, feelings, emotions and opinions. The students apply knowledge of the target language to converse with others and to exchange ideas. Students apply interpersonal, interpretive and presentational mode by exchanging simple messages, form simple sentences on very familiar topics. Students use learned vocabulary and high frequency phrases, answer simple questions and understand short, simple conversations and narratives when using objects, visuals, and gestures. They would use language resources, including authentic materials, to identify daily products that are unique to the target culture and common to other cultures.
HONORS SEMINAR IN SPANISH LANGUAGE & CULTURE
Year • Honors Spanish 4 or Instructor Approval Required
This course develops language mastery with a focus on interpretive, interpersonal, and presentation skills. Students sharpen their communication skills through advanced study and rigorous grammar, literature, and culture. Students learn about culture through the use of authentic materials that are representative of the Spanish-speaking world. This language acquisition course is designed to provide students with the necessary skills and intercultural understanding to enable them to communicate successfully in an environment where Spanish is spoken. This class is conducted completely in Spanish.
SPANISH FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS
Year • Dept. Approval Required
This course provides students with real-life communicative situations and settings, with opportunities to reflect and appreciate their own culture and its relationship with others. Students synthesize and negotiate meaning across language and culture in order to explore problems and issues from their own and different perspectives. Students gain practice in three modes of communication in pair and group activities, in reading authentic texts, in listening to authentic audios recorded by native speakers. This course allows students to take what they have learned and apply it to situations beyond the classroom.
French Courses
FRENCH 1 (Honors Available) Students learn to introduce themselves and speak about their interests. They focus on home, school, family, and daily lives using the present and the near future tense. Students learn phrases and idioms necessary for friendly social exchanges and learn to ask for information used in shops and cafés. Dialogue, role play, and pronunciation are important components of our communicative approach to French. FRENCH 2 (Honors Available) Students build on their vocabulary and understanding of how French is similar to English and other languages. Students learn to discuss activities that have occurred in the past. As students discover the different countries of the French-speaking world, they learn phrases and idioms vital for travel. Projects allow students an in-depth investigation of the countries of their choice and allow them to plan a virtual vacation. Students focus on reading and writing French and become familiar with famous poems by Vigneault, Gautier, and LaFontaine, and stories of France and Québec. FRENCH 3 (Honors Available) Students review different ways of discussing the past and learn to recognize other past tense forms used in poetry and literature, particularly the tales of Charles Perrault. New emphasis on written expression as students rewrite endings to classic French stories. Students learn to talk about the future and speak about hypothetical events. They delve deep into French gastronomy and learn to make suggestions and give orders with varying degrees of politeness. Emphasis is placed on understanding and using different ways of asking questions. |
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FRENCH 4 (Honors Available) |
Students synthesize their knowledge of ways of discussing the past and the future and learn idiomatic expressions of time. They discuss topical issues using expressions for hypothetical situations in the past, present, and future. Students study the building blocks of French, Québec, and North African society, with particular attention to festivals, traditions, and legends. Students read the poetry and prose of Saint-Exupéry, Laye, Camus, and Molière. HONORS SEMINAR IN FRENCH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE Honors Seminar in French is designed to advance students’ proficiency through the study and discussion of short stories, poems, plays, art, movies, and contemporary news sources. The structure of the course will be similar to a college survey course in which students engage in close readings and analyses of thematic material and make inferences about a work’s meaning. Students study art and music and discuss how they relate to direct historical events in the French-speaking world. Students will continue to develop the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking through extensive interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational tasks. |
Honors Courses are offered to students who show substantial motivation and previous experience in French and who wish to advance at a faster yet also more in-depth pace. Department Approval is required.
Chinese Courses
HONORS CHINESE 1
Year • No Prerequisites
This course is for students with no prior experience in the Chinese language and are interested in learning about the language and culture. Oral communication is emphasized through listening and speaking activities. Students can ask and answer questions on topics such as greetings, numbers, date and time, self-introduction, and hobbies. Students learn reading and writing skills in basic simplified Chinese characters.
HONORS CHINESE 2
Year • Honors Chinese 1 & Dept. Approval Required
Students continue their study of Chinese by expanding their knowledge of key vocabulary topics and grammar concepts. Students can handle basic conversation, such as making appointments and bargaining. Students can write about their daily routine, study habits, and sports.
HONORS CHINESE 3
Year • Honors Chinese 2 & Dept. Approval Required
At this level, students should actively engage in their own learning, understand common vocabulary terms and phrases, use a wide range of grammar patterns in their speaking and writing, participate in conversations, respond appropriately to conversational prompts, and analyze and compare cultural practices and products. Main topic areas covered are weather, food and restaurant culture, travel, asking directions, and seeing a doctor.
HONORS CHINESE 4
Year • Honors Chinese 3 & Dept. Approval Required
Students further develop their language skills across the three communicative modes: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. Students will learn about various aspects of contemporary Chinese society, including Chinese geography and population, ethnic and regional diversity, travel and transportation, holidays, and current affairs.
HONORS CHINESE 5
Year • Honors Chinese 3 & Dept. Approval Required
Students develop advanced proficiency in Chinese and the capacity to respond in culturally appropriate ways to questions on familiar topics, to understand conversations among native Chinese speakers, and to comprehend and compose emails as part of back-and-forth communication with other Chinese speakers. They express personal views or exchange opinions on topics of Chinese education, jobs and interviews, gender imbalances, and environmental protection.
American Sign Language (ASL) Courses
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE 1
Year • No Prerequisites
This introductory course develops the basic expressive and receptive skills necessary to communicate with deaf communities. Course content includes signs, fingerspelling, numbers, songs, activities, and grammatical and cultural information. Emphasis on skill development, correct usage of signs, and a general understanding of signed languages used by deaf communities.
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE 2 (Honors Available)
Year • ASL 1 Required
In ASL 2, students continue to expand vocabulary and concepts acquired in level one. Expansion of conversational range include talking about other people and activities, giving directions, and making requests. Students develop discourse skills appropriate for establishing connections with deaf acquaintances and handling a variety of interruptions. This course expands on fingerspelling, numbers, vocabulary, sentences, and conversation, with a focus on interaction in ASL to allow them to apply what they have learned.
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE 3 (Honors Available)
Year • ASL 2 Required
ASL 3 is based on nonverbal foundation and focuses on developing expressive and receptive skills in American Sign Language. This course is to develop basic skills in ASL through a linguistic, communicative, and cultural approach to language acquisition. Emphasis on receptive and expressive signing, applied grammar, and real-life applications.
Honors Courses are offered to students who show substantial motivation and previous experience in American Sign Language and who wish to advance at a faster yet also more in depth pace. Department Approval is required.
PLEASE NOTE: Course availability fluctuates from year to year. Please review the 2024-2025 Course Catalog for information on course availability and enrollment requirements.