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Spanish and French Students Earn Top Medals on National Exams

Congratulations to Ranney’s World Language students who attained national recognition for excellent performance on the 2013 National Spanish and French Examinations. Students earned a total of 3 gold, 4 silver and 14 bronze medals along with 23 honorable mentions.
 
“Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 156,000 students participating in 2013.”

Ranney students have a long history of high achievement on these exams and were taught by Spanish teachers Mrs. Gurman, Mr. Materasso, Mrs. Reiter and Mrs. Bonney.

The National Spanish Examinations are administered each year in grades 6 through 12, and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

The National French Exam results were even more impressive with students earning national rankings. Tessa Payer ’16 earned a bronze medal with a national rank of 8; Christina Kalinowski ’13 and Henry Miller ‘15 earned Honors certificates and national rankings of 11 and 17 respectively; Michael Kmetz ’15 and Leslie Liu ’16 were ranked nationally at 19 and Rachel Staats ‘16, Sara Awad ‘16, Skylar Bradley ‘16, Jacob Card ’16 and Erin Kennedy ’16 all ranked nationally at 20. In addition, 12 more students earned honors certificates and 15 earned certificates of accomplishment.

The National French Examinations are administered each year for grades 5-12 and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French.

In the Lower School, five fifth-grade French students earned bronze medals for their performance on Le Grand Concours, the French National Contest: Charlotte Clark, Thomas Jensen, Olivia Knoop, Marisa Riebesell and Uzay Takil. The students received a national rank between 4-10 percent (the lower the rank, the higher the score).

At the Middle School level, eighth graders were among 24,219 nationwide participants who took the highly competitive Level 1 French exam, which is equivalent to a year-one high school exam. Approximately half of those Ranney students who took the test placed within the top 20 national ranks.

In an effort to share World Language experiences at all division levels, Madame Daly’s Upper School French and French Honors classes paid a visit to Madame Rosenthal’s second grade class in late April to present the coloring story books “Winnie L’ourson” and “Cendrillon.” The 10th graders wrote and designed the books for the Lower School students. They first read the stories to the class and then read them to individual students, with the second graders helping to identify colors and characters in French. “Both second graders and 10th graders enjoyed the experience,” said Madame Daly.

In addition, Madame Moran’s seventh-grade French students put on a fashion show for Madame Rosenthal’s third- and fourth-grade French students. “My students were excited and loved it and were allowed to participate at the end,” said Madame Rosenthal.

Cross-divisional projects occurred among the Spanish Middle and Lower Schoolers in April as well (read the back story here).

It is also worth noting that the following Ranney School students participated in the William Paterson University World Languages Poetry Recitation Contest on May 16, 2013:

 - Ryan Eaddy, Beginner Chinese
 - Elinor Haney, Intermediate Chinese
 - Ankur Govil, Beginner French
 - Sara Abdelbarry, Intermediate French
 - Henri Miller, Advanced French
 - Evan Schultz, Beginner Spanish
 - Nikita Mikkilineni, Intermediate Spanish
 - Steven Jacobson, Advanced Spanish

Students from New Jersey and New York compete every year in this contest in nine languages: Chinese, ESL, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin and Spanish. The contest is judged on delivery, pronunciation, intonation and poise.

Ankur Govil, whose teacher is Mrs. Marianne Moran, won a first-place medal for Beginner French. Henri Miller whose teacher is Mrs. Isabelle Daly, won Honorable Mention for Advanced French. “We are so proud of Ankur and Henri, and their teachers,” said Spanish Teacher Ina Gurman. “The other students had also worked diligently to memorize and dramatize their poems, and we are all very proud of all of them! Their pronunciation was virtually flawless, as was their attitude!”


*Individual Middle School students who ranked nationally will be announced after the May 31 MS Recognition Ceremony.
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society.