A literary outing for students

For eight years now, TDHS Spanish teacher Brian Greeley has had his students create their own 10-12 page illustrated bi-lingual children’s stories, which they then read to younger students at Colonel Wright.

Last Thursday, a group of 24 students from Greeley’s Spanish 2 class walked the few blocks to the grade school, then split into several classrooms to read to students.

Students filed outside – it was a mild, sunny day – and each high schooler paired up with one or two elementary students and began reading their story.

Varland’s was about a purple dog named Biscuit who couldn’t find her bone. On each page, she had a few sentences on top of the page in Spanish, with the English translation on the bottom.

She said the class had been working on their books for about two months. There were various requirements, such as word count, having a funny element, and having a climax to the story.

“We had to do something besides normal coloring so I did watercolor,” Varland said.

At a nearby table, Steven Preston was reading his book to students. He offered to let them read the book. One student tackled the Spanish. Preston asked the student to translate one word, which meant “very frightened.”

Another girl read the English version. “That was easier,” she explained.

The reading was fun, Preston said.

Sue-Ann Goodwin, an assistant in the kindergarten class, said Greeley’s Spanish 3 class had performed the play “Jack and the Beanstalk” entirely in Spanish earlier in the day, but they used motions and movements, which made it easier to understand.

Goodwin said the yearly visits from the high school Spanish students are “great. I just like that the two schools can connect. Of course, they think these high schoolers are grownups. Yeah, these are pretty big humans. And for the high schoolers this gives what they’ve been doing purpose. It’s not the teacher and I reading another story. It’s amazing how they listen to them.”

Greeley said the annual adventure is a “powerful opportunity” for the high school and grade school to build literacy.

He said he tells the students to simply write “fun, action, goofy children’s stories.”

“And definitely, for the fun factor, both sides love it. It’s a really powerful experience for both sides.”

He said he’s done this assignment for years because “I just love children’s stories and I know the power of older kids reading to younger kids, and they got to read a story they created – they’re published in a way.”

As the teens wrapped up, they said their goodbyes, with one teen said, “Thanks for letting me read to you.”

As they left, a reporter overheard them talking to each other about debuting their book to the young students. The youngsters didn’t exactly let them off the hook when it came to pronunciation. “One girl started critiquing my Spanish,” a student said. She’d asked, “’You don’t speak Spanish, do you?’”