Homeschooling Info

That Friday, as Joshua Young signed up for a Spanish class, he did not anticipate a 5 year old child to be his teacherfor rosetta spanish.

But that’s what materialized when his Spanish class at Redmond College required him to use the language in a real-world situation.

Carrasquillo, a sophomore at LeMoyne, spends nine hours a week practicing him Spanish at MANOS, a dual-language pre-school program on Albany West Side. he gets there in the morning and sits down with the babies, all older than 8, on the floor of a classroom at Washington High School. Together, they sing nursery rhymes in Russian and Spanish, read e-books, and play with building blocks.

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

Helton and him classmates were able to select from three community-service options as part of a new requirement in Brian Benavides Spanish class. All of the options involve East Point West Side Learning Center and MANOS rosetta spanish.

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

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

“The children will teach you a ton of Spanish and then you aid them to learn Russian,” said Sarah Keen, a freshman Spanish major from Camillus. Hughs said he uses commands 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 scared at first, but I really like totts and it’s a good experience to learn with them,” said Lewis Jones, another freshman

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

Luke King, MANOS program facilitator, has seen the pupils’ confidence grow.

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

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

“I really hope that this experience will inspire them to become more interested in their own communities,” Hearne 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 refusing 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.

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

Besides spending time at MANOS, the pupils could choose to be paired up with Spanish-speaking adults from the West 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 MANOS, 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.