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AP Spanish Service-Learning Program Thrives

1/28/2016

A new program this year partners AP Spanish students with students in the Saturday Academy at Oak Grove Bellemeade. The Saturday Academy serves students in need of ESL tutoring and homework help. Most of these students are unable to receive help from their parents due to limited English language proficiency. The program partners very recent refugee or immigrant students one-on-one with a Collegiate tutor who uses a mixture of Spanish language and English language to teach. Other students with a basic foundation are partnered in small groups with a Collegiate student to work on an more advanced ESL curriculum. The whole group is also led in a mixture of games, physical activity and life-skills lessons by Collegiate students who design the curriculum with their AP Spanish teacher, Esperanza Soria-Nieto, who oversees the whole program.

The AP Spanish students commit to attending at least four Saturday Academy sessions, according to a schedule, which leaves each session with at least five Collegiate student leaders to work in partnership with the Collegiate faculty and Oak Grove Bellemeade leaders. The AP Spanish students have various assignments and class discussions throughout the year designed to bring their learning from this program into their classroom, encouraging on-going relationships with the same students and families. So far this year, every session of the Saturday Academy has been attended by more AP Spanish students than were required to attend because of their commitment to the students and their enjoyment in the program.

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