Spanish Classes Plan Community Outreach Event

Students in Alexandra Wong’s Spanish 4 Honors class and Ari Torres’ Spanish 4 class at Oak Lawn Community High School are launching an exciting event for its Spanish-speaking Spartan families. As students study the second unit, titled “La familia y la comunidad,” The Family and the Community, their focus shifts from international issues to the local community of Oak Lawn. A major component of this unit includes a community outreach event. This community outreach event is scheduled for the evening of November 6, 2014. The students will execute this event, and its purpose is to foster a relationship between Oak Lawn Community High School and the Spanish-speaking parent community of Oak Lawn. This will be a wonderful opportunity for students to use the target language with heritage speakers in a safe and fun environment. All parents of the students organizing the event are also invited to participate.

Activities for this event will tentatively include: a video presentation to share information about the students in the Spanish classes; guided tours of the school to the Spanish-speaking parents of the community; student created/student translated documents for the guests to provide them with district information in Spanish; student created visual aids to provide guests with information of other community activities; and games/babysitting area for the small children of the parents attending the event.

Each student will receive up to seven service hours. The hours include in-class time preparation as well as time for the actual event. Students who are unable to attend the actual event will still be able to receive some service hours and will also be given a short alternative assignment relating to the theme of the unit and this event.

Volunteers from Natalia Venturini’s Advanced Placement class will volunteer to help with refreshments and activities at the event. To volunteer or help supervise, please contact Alexandra Wong at awong@olchs.org.