Norwin High School students in the Global Scholars program are teaching students at Hahntown Elementary School a new language. With high schoolers offering these young students a chance to be introduced to Spanish, French, or German, children who signed up for the program are learning part of their chosen language every Wednesday after school.
Global Scholars at Norwin High School is a program that allows students to be recognized as not only performing service hours and doing global activities, but being a well-rounded student that has global cultural knowledge. Through this program, many opportunities arise, such as volunteering, listening to speeches, and other cultural activities. Supervised by Mrs. Danielle Llerena, a Spanish teacher at Norwin High School, students began teaching this year on January 10. Although this is now a Global Scholars volunteering program, it has been going on since even before global scholars and for about 15 years.
The reason for teaching young students is because it is easier for them to learn a new language. It is true that learning a different language is much easier while younger because children are at a critical age in their life, meaning that they can retain information better.
“Exposure to other languages and cultures improves empathy,” Mrs. Llerena said. “Multilingual brains have health benefits, they have a language learning benefit by being less inhibited and are much more comfortable than adults learning another language.”
Students who are teaching for the program are responsible for creating and teaching the lessons as well as gathering materials for their elementary students. This gives high school students experience with younger students and teaching, which is helpful information for life and learning responsibility.
“I get together with the other instructors in my group and we discuss what material we haven’t covered yet that we could teach to the kids, and how we will present it to them, whether it be through a worksheet, a verbal lesson, or even a Kahoot,” sophomore Spanish student Sienna DeJesus said. “The kids are so vibrant and enthusiastic; I love their personalities and being around them, because it honestly makes ME feel like a kid again.”
Hahntown elementary students first learned introductions and greetings. From there, they will learn about colors, animals, cultures, foods, and more. They learn through presentations, songs, and other forms of lessons. Many of the students are eager to learn and have a very good learning ability, which makes teaching them even more valuable and interesting for the student teachers.
The teachers chose to participate in this program for many reasons. Some want to become teachers later in life. Many believe that it is not just an activity that looks good on a resume, and teaching young students a language is a lot more meaningful and impactful than that.
“As someone who is bilingual, I feel that it’s crucial for kids to start learning a different language at a young age, so that their exposure and interest for a language can start when they can most easily learn it,” senior German student Arnav Bedekar said.
There are many aspects to consider when teaching kids, especially when they are learning a new language. Children learn differently than adults, meaning the student teachers had to adapt not only to teaching entirely, but teaching the way that children need to be taught.
“I think that the most important factor in teaching kids a different language is to make sure the lessons are actually entertaining for them,” DeJesus said. “If learning the material is fun, then they’re likely to remember it more!”
This program will continue at the other Norwin elementary schools later this year starting with Stewartsville Elementary School, and is going to start again next year as well with old and new students volunteering to teach.
