Over the summer, local high school Spanish teacher Chris Urban taught a 16-hour Spanish Through Stories course through Hogback Community College in Bristol. If you missed out, or you’re looking for more, Chris will be teaching both beginner and intermediate evening classes in Bristol, starting the week of September 16.
In both courses, Chris will use the Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) method, which uses stories and storytelling to build vocabulary and grammatical structures in a way that mirrors natural language acquisition. Students take part in reading, writing, and speaking activities that provide ample opportunity to reflect, practice, and produce. Supplemental online learning material and activities augment the classes using a "flipped classroom" model.
Participants will also meet and talk with local migrant Mexican farm workers, both in the classroom and at a farm. These interactions provide authentic opportunities to practice Spanish, learn about other cultures, and to reflect on immigration issues.
Students who took Chris’ summer Spanish Through Stories class raved about it. As one student put it, “It was fantastic!! Chris was a great teacher. What I loved the most about this class was that Chris brought the issue of the migrant farm workers in our community into all of our lives. We are hoping to work with the workers now—to keep up our Spanish and help them learn English."
For more information about the courses and to download registration forms, visit the Vermont Family Forests website, http://www.familyforests.org/public-education/events.shtml.
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