{"id":3266,"date":"2011-04-07T02:12:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T06:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webdesign.jessica-lily.com\/elisewitt\/?p=2094"},"modified":"2018-02-25T23:20:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T04:20:13","slug":"cary-academy-learning-the-international-language-of-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/cary-academy-learning-the-international-language-of-song\/","title":{"rendered":"CARY ACADEMY | Learning the International Language of Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well-known polyglot singer, composer visits Middle School<\/h3>\n

Learning to speak a new language can be tough, but try to sing in it. The eighth-grade World Language students attempted just that recently with the help of an internationally known performer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Singer and Composer<\/h3>\n

On April 7 singer and songwriter Elise Witt led the eighth-grade Spanish, French, and German students in song. Since 1977, she has been working professionally as a singer, composer, recording artist, educator and community activist around the United States and the world. \u201cElise plays with sound and words to teach language and culture through songs,\u201d said German instructor Margit Lanze.<\/p>\n

Witt speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish and English and sings in at least 12 languages. My students were mesmerized by Elise\u2019s talent and interactive performance,\u201d said Lanze. \u201cElise emphasizes the musical aspects of language and sound in her work with students and uses it as a springboard to reinforce, demonstrate, and teach the sound system of languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Open the Window<\/h3>\n

Witt also employed sign language as a tool to aid the students in learning the songs they sang. Spanish student Julia Sawchak said, \u201cI loved learning sign language as a part of singing in the language. Even if we didn\u2019t necessarily speak sign language, moving our hands helped cement the meaning of the words we were singing.\u201d Witt led the Spanish students in a rhythmic song with alternating parts that mimicked instruments like bass and claves, and in an original song Abran La Ventana (Open the Window). \u201cIt had become a class favorite since we had practiced singing it for her visit,\u201d said Sawchak.<\/p>\n

The multi-lingual Witt emphasized to all the classes the importance of listening in learning a language, and relayed her experience at learning English to accentuate the point. \u201cHer story about learning English as a second language taught us that listening is also an integral part of learning a language,\u201d said Sawchak. \u201cShe moved from Switzerland when she was 3, and said she didn\u2019t understand anything anyone said when she was thrown into preschool. But after listening for six months, she magically began talking to the other kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

French student Sydney Tucker said Witt, who played the guitar on many songs, enjoyed working with the students. \u201cShe made it exciting, and you could tell she was very passionate about what she does,\u201d said Tucker. For the French students, Witt pulled Ratatouille, La Vie En Rose, and Le Carillon out of her repertoire. \u201cThe singing helped me with my French because Ms. Witt had us pronounce all of the French words in the songs and made sure we understood all the words in the songs,\u201d said Tucker. \u201cIt also helped that she made us speak French the whole time!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cary Academy is a learning community committed to discovery, innovation, collaboration and excellence.<\/p>\n

CARY ACADEMY, 1500 N. Harrison Ave., Cary NC 27513 www.CaryAcademy.org<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"CaryAcademy\"<\/p>\n

\"CaryAcademy-02\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apr 7, 2011 | by the Cary Academy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[369,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","category-in-the-news","entry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE-300x199.png",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"large":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"square-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",400,266,false],"vertical-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",400,266,false],"horizontal-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE-500x369.png",500,369,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE.png",554,369,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/CaryAcademy-FEATURE-100x100.png",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jessica Lily","author_link":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/author\/jessica\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Apr 7, 2011 | by the Cary Academy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}