This past month, the Spanish Heritage class at West participated in a community project created by their teacher, Senora Rivas-Mintz. This is the first year the class has completed the project. The experience was great but the students put hard work and effort to make the project a success.
It all started off when Senora introduced the class to a documentary called Biblioburro. Of course, like any other class, the students were excited to see a film. Biblioburro follows the life of Luis Soriano, a resident in the small town of La Gloria, Columbia. The town has been plagued with poverty and crime. Soriano who is a elementary school teacher comes up with a brilliant idea. He decides to use his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, to spend weekends trekking through rugged and dangerous backcountry. He uses his donkeys to bring a library of donated books to the children in some of Colombia’s poorest and most remote towns and villages. The documentary was truly inspiring. Soriano used his idea to provide a necessity to children who could not receive education.
The documentary left Senora and the students amazed. When the students finished watching the film, she decided to do something to extend their experience. It became a project. The idea was for the students to think of a way to promote literacy in the community. The final decision was that the students would prepare a creative way of promoting reading and present their project to Cherry Hill elementary students. “This was not planned. It was an accident,” says Senora with a smile on her face.
Immediately, Senora began sending emails to the elementary school principals so they could help collaborate in the project. While Senora did her job, the Spanish Heritage students got to work. Their job was to prepare a lesson. The students created lessons revolving around a children’s book that included Hispanic culture. The book chosen by each group of students related to a certain grade level. Creativity was needed through the whole project. Students had to include an activity that would gain the children’s interest in reading. It was all a process.
Once each group completed its lesson with posters and bookmarks and much more, the group had to wait to travel to the elementary schools. Clara Barton and Joyce Kilmer were the two elementary schools where the students shared their projects. Just like in the documentary, the students had to travel on foot to the schools. When they got there, each group was assigned a classroom. You could see all the nervousness in the students faces but many were excited to present before the kids.
In the classrooms the students interacted with the elementary kids explaining why they were there and giving their lesson. The kids were super happy to have older students in their class. The whole project was very interactive. The kids wanted to read more. The teachers all had smiles. The project was a success!
Senora Rivas-Mintz is thrilled with how it all turned out.  “It turned into a great project. I thought having the students read to little kids would be fun. This whole project is the beginning of cooperation with elementary schools. They were very receptive. This allowed the students to become a teacher.”