This philosophy is directly related to the overarching RBCS educational design: Expeditionary Learning Schools. The ELS model operates on a set of principles and practices that focus on integrated learning. One of the core practices is the learning expedition: extensive studies of a single topic that usually last six to 12 weeks and instruct academic subjects through a set of interconnected projects. Education in the ELS design and the expeditionary practice involves the teacher and student in partnership. It involves personal responsibility and authentic research; and it involves cooperation, appreciation of diversity, and service work.

The RBCS Spanish Program builds this inclusive approach. Students learn age-appropriate vocabulary and language skills that they can -- and are expected to use -- every day. Students learn greetings and the words for numbers, colors, and days of the week and months of the year. These are then brought into daily life.

Students are expected to use Spanish greetings -- and the morning hours may ring with cries of "Buenos Dias." They must also be able to ask and answer the question of the week, which may start: "Cual es tu color favorito?" and reply: "Mi color favorito es rojo." Students learn basic sentence structure by writing about these favorites in Spanish and also by learning Spanish nursery rhymes, which they print and illustrate. And there are Spanish vocabulary words posted in the classrooms.

Another component of the program is immersion in Spanish culture. Students celebrate holidays like Carnaval, for which they make masks and costumes and play instruments. They also learn facts about the holiday and about Brazil. In addition, they visit Spanish-speaking institutions in their own city, such as Taller Puertoriqueno, the Puerto Rican arts and education center.

The Spanish Program is also using technology to strengthen language skills and cultural awareness. Using the Internet, students will build global connection and improve their language skills by adopting a sister school in Quito, Ecuador. Inspired by their communications with long-distance friends, students will study geography, current events, Earth science, and social studies -- all related to Ecuador and South America.

RBCS students will be assigned e-pals at the Quito school, with whom they will communicate in English and Spanish -- thus acquiring more Spanish skills, while being of service at a distance to other young people. These emails will also become small-scale cultural studies projects, with students discussing their own lives and communities and reading about the similarities and differences in a place far away. Students will also use the RBCS Web site to post news about their school, their community, and their country that the Quito sister-students can read and respond to with similar information.

Speaking Spanish takes on an immediate and personal purpose at RBCS. It becomes, for many students, a new means of communicating and a new point of pride -- as they connect their world with another language and another culture.