This morning Damián, Miguel, Sam and I took about 50 of our Spanish 112 students to East San José Elementary school. This was our second semester taking our students there to read children's books to them in Spanish. As you all know, we teach this level without a textbook. Instead, we use Spanish and bilingual libros infantiles! For their final project, they are required to write, illustrate and bind a children's book and take it to the elementary school to read to 1st and 2nd graders. As with last November, today's visit was another hit! It is so neat to see our students interacting with these kids. Everyone of our students comes out of the classroom beaming not only because the kids are so cute but because they just carried out multiple conversations with these kids in Spanish!
It is also so uplifting to see these 6 and 7 year old kids so incredibly bilingual. As we talk in class about language maintenance, its great to see that these young kids are maintaining the language and that our students are learning (and sometimes relearning) the language in an authentic setting. All of the signage around the school is in both languages and the teachers all speak in both languages to their students. Many of my students kept commenting on how cute the school was and they wished they had gone to elementary school like East San José when they were little so that they could be bilingual now as well. Many of the kids corrected my students as they spoke, but my students took it well and knew that they were only trying to help.
One of the most rewarding parts of the experience was when one of the 1st grade teachers pulled me aside and said that she really appreciated having us there because it is great for these kids to look up to college students. She said many of these students come from broken families whose brothers and sisters normally do not attend college. She said the school is always looking for volunteers and college-age role models! I told many of my students this information and they asked a few people about volunteering next school year. Hopefully they will!
As we were leaving one of the little boys even said to a group of girls
from my class, "You may speak funny, but at least you can still read."
:) I guess we did well when we read exactly what we had written in our
books but when it came to "freestyle" conversation, we spoke funny! I
think child honesty is the best!
This was awesome, Thank You for sharing this!!
ResponderBorrarThe main take-away for me is that as instructors we must make our students understand that not only is language culture, but that there is meaning and value to what they do. We have seen it in class consistently, however with what you guys did, you put it into action and made a very real impact on very many lives.... WAY COOL!!!
¡¡¡Son un orgullo - Muy Bien Hecho Colegas!!!
-Rubén.
LIKE LIKE LIKE!!! This is sooooo fun to do every semester!! Me gustaría hacerlo en una manera más ongoing!
ResponderBorrarAwesome stuff Christi! I think that is so cool and wish I had teachers like you guys when I was in elementary school!! Being able to speak/learn both languages at a young age has ton of benefits and is much easier to learn!
ResponderBorrarSide-note- My little brother (now in 6th grade) was in the immersion program in Las Vegas, NM from 1st-5th grade. Its cool how the program works because each year english is introduced after they learn how to speak Spanish. So Spanish would be taught 100% 1st grade, 80% 2nd, 60% 3rd....so on, but the one thing that I dont like is that now that he is in Middle school, he is taking the same level of spanish classes that non-immersion students take! Hopefully this can be adjusted because now that he is not "immersed" in Spanish he does not speak it as often! I always tell him to speak spanish with his friends because if he doesnt he may forget how to speak spanish! He just looks at me with a funny face and says "i know" lol!
Well see you guys on Thursday
Justin
Wow, that is so cool Christi! I think it is great to empower the students and encourage them to take what they learn in the classroom and share it with others. As you have shared, I agree that this is a great way to have the students connect with the language and their community. I do see why this would fit very well in the SHL classroom, but I also think it would be a great opportunity for SSL and wish my students had a similar opportunity! I think that is a very unique experience and what a rewarding project for all everyone involved.
ResponderBorrar