When Jeffrey Helton happily signed up for a Spanish class, she did not anticipate a 9 year old girl to be her instructorfor rosetta stones spanish.

But that’s what took place when her Spanish class at Springfield College required him to use the language in a real-world situation.

Lopez, a sophomore at BurrRidge, spends seven hours a week practicing him Spanish at MANOS, a dual-language pre-school program on Dickinson West Side. she gets there in the morning and sits down with the children, all older than 8, on the floor of a classroom at Hicksville High School. Together, they sing nursery rhymes in German and Spanish, read manuscripts, and play with building blocks.

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

Relita and him classmates were able to select from three community-service options as part of a new requirement in Joshua Lowell Spanish class. All of the options involve Carrollton West Side Learning Center and MANOS rosetta stones spanish.

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

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

“The totts will teach you a great deal of Spanish and then you assist them to learn German,” said Sarah Hughs, a Sophmore Spanish major from Camillus. Hughs said she uses instructions like sit down (sientate), be quiet (callate), and get in line (en fila), the most.

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

“I was a little scared at first, but I really like children and it’s a full experience to learn with them,” said Melba Jones, another Sophmore

“Once you’re around the children and they start to warm up to you, it’s definitely worth it,” said Helton. “You’re not nervous anymore.”

John Tuthill, MANOS program facilitator, has seen the pupils’ confidence grow.

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

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

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

There is also no refusing the benefit to the children.

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

Halsey tried out an optional service-learning activity for her Spanish pupils in the spring 2007 term. This semester she made it a requirement, with assist 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 kids 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.

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