Through a formal partnership between the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and the Alexandria City Public School District, advanced Spanish students enrolled in Dr. Serafini's SPAN 480-Spanish in the Schools this semester had the opportunity to participate in a service learning experience at a local Spanish-English dual language school. To fill a need identified by the school, students primarily served as 1st and 2nd grade classroom aides to support Spanish literacy development and also had the chance to carry out a lesson plan with small groups of bilingual students focused on promoting biliteracy and building prediction strategies while reading aloud. At the end of the semester, students were able to conduct one-on-one interviews with various stakeholders, including the vice principal, a language acquisition specialist, the Spanish literacy coach and several Spanish and English dual language teachers.
Future educators modeling reading strategies in a Spanish 2nd grade dual language classroom.
Group shot during the last visit to the school - click photo to enlarge.
December 06, 2016
