Why Spanish
I love how much a second language challenges me and helps me expand my learning. According to an article Why English is No Longer Enough by Cris Commings, “Today, more than 37 million people speak Spanish at home in the U.S.”. For this reason I feel Spanish is the most relevant and beneficial language for me to learn considering how many people speak it here. As well I would love to travel to a Spanish speaking country one day to really see what the culture and lifestyle is like. I believe learning Spanish will help me when I choose to travel as well as help me in a future job if I need to interact with Spanish speaking people.
Park Elementary
For this project our class went to Park Elementary for 2 days. Our goal there was to assist the bilingual kids with their everyday classes as well have them help us with our Spanish speaking skills. To prepare for this in class we brainstormed lots of basic questions to ask in Spanish to get to know our kids the first day. Questions like what is your favorite color, do you have any siblings? After brainstorming questions we practiced reading our Spanish books in class. We did this in order to be more prepared when reading to our kids as well we made them cute little cards to give them when we left on the last day.
When I met my little for the first time it was a little awkward but after asking a few questions she didn't want to stop talking. The second day we even more fun because when we went out to meet them my little came up so excited to see me and gave me a big hug. Each day we did little games or ice breakers you call them to start the day. First day we tied balloons to our feet and tried to pop them and the second game we did involved blind folds. Through these games and going to class with my little we got to know each other pretty well. She would love to show me which class we were going to next and having me help her with her work. You could tell how much she looked up to me and wanted to do her best to impress me. I felt that just my presence was what helped her the most and gave her a more positive attitude about school compared how she normally is, yes I helped her with spelling and reading in English but other then that I was just along for the ride.
From coming from a person that had lots of reading and writing problems when I was younger I could feel how my little felt when she struggled with these specific things. I can't imagine adding a second language to that equation. She was pretty fluid in peaking both languages but struggles with the reading and writing like me. She would get quickly discouraged in class at times but having me there made her try even harder. I do think that her being at Park with other bilingual kids as well as having the support of the school helps her balance both languages compared to her going to a more white populated school where this support would not be present.
As a language learner it was pretty encouraging seeing these 1st-4th graders learning to balance bath langues. If they can do it I know I can as well. I would say my highlight was going to music class and the whole group wanting to teach us their new line dance they learned to the song "happy". It reminded me how much fun and non stressful elementary school is. If I was to do this project again I would like to be able to go back more days and get more connected with my little and their teachers. IF feel if we were to do this we could help our little's out even more.
All and all this was by far my favorite Spanish project to date. I loved how it had a real life purpose and positive effect on our community. Its always fun to make a small positive impact on someones life. I do feel like I learned quite a but from my little and over the course of this project, it gave me a real life opportunity to apply what I had learned over the years. I just hope my little got as much out of this project as I did.
When I met my little for the first time it was a little awkward but after asking a few questions she didn't want to stop talking. The second day we even more fun because when we went out to meet them my little came up so excited to see me and gave me a big hug. Each day we did little games or ice breakers you call them to start the day. First day we tied balloons to our feet and tried to pop them and the second game we did involved blind folds. Through these games and going to class with my little we got to know each other pretty well. She would love to show me which class we were going to next and having me help her with her work. You could tell how much she looked up to me and wanted to do her best to impress me. I felt that just my presence was what helped her the most and gave her a more positive attitude about school compared how she normally is, yes I helped her with spelling and reading in English but other then that I was just along for the ride.
From coming from a person that had lots of reading and writing problems when I was younger I could feel how my little felt when she struggled with these specific things. I can't imagine adding a second language to that equation. She was pretty fluid in peaking both languages but struggles with the reading and writing like me. She would get quickly discouraged in class at times but having me there made her try even harder. I do think that her being at Park with other bilingual kids as well as having the support of the school helps her balance both languages compared to her going to a more white populated school where this support would not be present.
As a language learner it was pretty encouraging seeing these 1st-4th graders learning to balance bath langues. If they can do it I know I can as well. I would say my highlight was going to music class and the whole group wanting to teach us their new line dance they learned to the song "happy". It reminded me how much fun and non stressful elementary school is. If I was to do this project again I would like to be able to go back more days and get more connected with my little and their teachers. IF feel if we were to do this we could help our little's out even more.
All and all this was by far my favorite Spanish project to date. I loved how it had a real life purpose and positive effect on our community. Its always fun to make a small positive impact on someones life. I do feel like I learned quite a but from my little and over the course of this project, it gave me a real life opportunity to apply what I had learned over the years. I just hope my little got as much out of this project as I did.
Travel Skit
At the beginning of this project my group and I researched what a typical restaurants in Honduras looks like and what they serves. We did this because our goal was to learn a little bit about the culture and to create a skit using the restaurant vocabulary that we had previously learned. We learned lots of words like restaurant, waitress, special, knife, fork, menu ect.... Together with my small group and I we wrote a whole Spanish skit. We created several drafts and lots of refinement to our skit over time before we finally started the memorizing portion of the project. The memorizing and performing part was personally my favorite portion.
I felt that it was beneficial for me to learn to speak in another language in public. It forced me to learn now vocabulary and proper pronunciation of all my lines as well several of my partners lines. I also enjoyed going up on stage and performing our skit. Even though I know we probably made a fool of yourself, I feel sometimes that's the best way to learn. I do feel that coming out of this project I have a lots more vocabulary that has stayed in my memory compared to if I just studied vocab for a quiz. So overall I know I got a lot out of this spanish skit project.
I felt that it was beneficial for me to learn to speak in another language in public. It forced me to learn now vocabulary and proper pronunciation of all my lines as well several of my partners lines. I also enjoyed going up on stage and performing our skit. Even though I know we probably made a fool of yourself, I feel sometimes that's the best way to learn. I do feel that coming out of this project I have a lots more vocabulary that has stayed in my memory compared to if I just studied vocab for a quiz. So overall I know I got a lot out of this spanish skit project.