The lesson of the day concerned the Mayan writing system.

Students huddled over their desks while painstakingly writing out the phonetic symbols from the ancient language that most closely resembled the letters in their name.

That lesson, held one day earlier this fall, was part of a Hispanic culture course held at Waite High School for the first time this year.

Lessons in the semester-long course cover topics from pre-Columbian societies like the Maya up to present day, with aspects of history, politics, language, and culture, said Josh Flores, a Waite Spanish teacher who is teaching the course. Mr. Flores said current issues in the Latino community, including immigration, will be included.

The fall-semester class is filled with seventh and eighth graders from Waite’s feeder schools for Early High School Opportunity, Toledo Public Schools’ accelerated program for younger students to get high school credit. The Hispanic culture class will be offered to high school students at Waite in the spring.

Mr. Flores didn’t have a ready-made curriculum to follow, so he’s been finding lesson inspiration from a variety of sources. For the lesson on Mayan writing, students watched a video showing an expert in the practice writing his own name before trying it for themselves.

Mr. Flores first taught the course when he was a teacher at Scott High School and has brought it to Waite. He said it’s an important addition at the school, where nearly 26 percent of students are Hispanic, according to state figures for the 2013-2014 school year.

“I think knowledge of self is one of the most important factors in developing confidence,” he said. “It says to a student that they’re significant, that their background is significant.”

Several of the students in the class self-identify as Hispanic or Latino and said they wanted to take the class to learn more about their background.

“Most of my family is Mexican and I wanted to learn about it,” said Halannah Ramirez, a seventh grader at Oakdale Elementary who said her father was excited she was taking the class.

Mr. Flores said his students will learn about topics across the Spanish-speaking world, including history, civil rights, and key figures. The class will also give an introduction to the Spanish language.

“The majority of the Latino population in Toledo is Mexican, but we have students from Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic. We have Puerto Rican students,” Mr. Flores said. “I think it’s really important that students understand that there is diverse culture underneath the Latino umbrella.”

While the class is new to Waite, other Toledo schools have had specialized history or culture classes for years.

All Toledo Public Schools high schools offer African-American history through their history departments. Chinese and Japanese culture classes run at Scott and Bowsher high schools, respectively, and are offered through the schools’ language departments.

Xiaobin Han Dai teaches Chinese language and culture classes at Scott. She has one Chinese culture class this year. Students come in to the year-long class with many questions, she said.

“They ask, ‘Does China have McDonald’s?’ ” she said, adding that an understanding of Chinese culture is useful as China continues to have close ties with the United States as another world power. Her class covers ancient and modern Chinese culture, including major festivals, the economy, and its political system.

Mr. Flores said he hopes his students leave his class with an appreciation not just for Hispanic culture but diversity in general and a desire to explore other cultures.

“Culture is something that’s interwoven in who we are,” he said. “If this course can help them open up their eyes a little bit. ... It’s important to have something spark that interest to acknowledge other cultures. I think this course is a perfect gateway.”

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.

First Published November 1, 2015, 6:26 a.m.