OnlineEducationNews.com                                             Subscribe to RSS   

That Thursday, as Juanita Young happily signed up for a Spanish class, she didn’t anticipate a 6 year old girl to be her instructorfor learn spanish software.

But that is what materialised when her Spanish class at Gardena College wanted him to use the language in a real-world situation.

Lilly, a Freshmen at Sneads Ferry, spends two hours a week practicing him Spanish at friends, a dual-language pre-school program on Albany East Side. she gets there in the evening and sits around with the babies, all younger than 6, on the floor of a classroom at Bensenville Private School. Together, they sing musical rhymes in German and Spanish, read transcripts, and play with building blocks.

“You learn to say things you don’t always learn in the classroom,” Wilson said.

Wetherington and him classmates were able to choose from three community-service options as part of a new requirement in Christopher Benavides Spanish class. All of the options involve Philadelphia East Side Learning Center and friends learn spanish software.

“No one had ever organized a service-learning component to any of the foreign language courses at LeMoyne,” King said in an e-mail.

Because most of the totts live in Spanish-speaking homes, their first exposure to German happens at friends. Their fluency in Spanish makes them ideal teachers for the LeMoyne pupils.

“The children will teach you a ton of Spanish and then you assistance them to learn German,” said Sarah Nally, a Junior Spanish major from Camillus. Nally said she uses statements like sit down (sientate), be quiet (callate), and get in line (en fila), the most.

Some of the pupils admitted to being excited on the first day.

“I was a little worried at first, but I really like totts and it’s a good experience to learn with them,” said Roger Jones, another Junior

“Once you’re around the babies and they start to warm up to you, it’s decidedly worth it,” said Young. “You’re not excited anymore.”

Elisabeth King, friends program facilitator, has seen the pupils’ confidence grow.

“After the first several of hours, they walk in, they know what to do, they know where to go” said King.

But King hopes that him pupils will gain more than just confidence.

“I really hope that this experience will instigate them to become more involved in their own communities,” Collins said, “and will give them greater empathy toward those who may not have the same vantages and chances that they do.”

There is also no denying the profit to the babies.

“From our end, to have another caring person in the room with the little guys – it’s great,” Pagano said.

Zampini tried out an optional service-learning activity for her Spanish pupils in the spring 2007 term. This semester she made it a requirement, with assistance from the director of service learning at LeMoyne and Theresa Pagano, founder and director of friends and the East Side Learning Center. According to the class syllabus, the service-learning component is worth 20 percent of pupils’ final grades.

Besides spending time at friends, the pupils could choose to be paired up with Spanish-speaking adults from the East Side Learning Center.

“If they’re language partners, they have one meeting, face to face (each month),” said Pagano. Then, they keep in touch through e-mails.

At the end of the semester, the Le Moyne pupils will write biographical essays in Spanish based on the conversations they have with their partners.

pupils also could opt to plan a lesson for the totts in friends, to be presented at the end of the semester. “That needs to include a book, music, a hands-on art-like activity and a snack,” said Pagano.

More Education Articles