Profiles of Engagement:
The Other Side of LISTOS!

Partnership Teaching Spanish to African-American Second and Third Graders
also Enriches UCLA Curriculum

The LISTOS! program has given African-American second and third graders at the 42 nd Street Elementary School a special opportunity to begin developing Spanish language skills that will be invaluable in a community with a growing Hispanic population. The program will also enable the children to bridge alarming racial fissures within “brown-black” communities.

Miles away, on the UCLA campus in Westwood, LISTOS! has also had a profound impact. The project, a joint undertaking between UCLA Spanish Professor Susan Plann and the non-profit organization, Abrazar, has provided undergraduate and graduate students with valuable opportunities and significantly enriched the university’s curriculum.

LISTOS! is just one of dozens of campus-community projects supported by UCLA’s Center for Community Partnerships, all of which benefit the community and enrich the educational experience at UCLA.

In the case of LISTOS!, UCLA students helped tailor a teaching method for their elementary school students, developed lesson plans, then led the Spanish classes themselves. Their work was tied directly to an independent study course taken for credit in the Department of Spanish.

Within the UCLA’s Spanish Department, preparation for LISTOS! began last summer as graduate student Maritza Fonseca prepared undergraduate Brenda Walsh for the classroom teaching experience. Fonseca trained Walsh, who had no previous experience teaching, how to employ the “direct method” of instruction where only Spanish would be spoken. Fonseca also taught Walsh how to construct lesson plans, how to maintain a structured classroom setting, and how to be flexible enough to adapt if the lesson unexpectedly veered off course.

In the fall, a second student joined Walsh and both started teaching at the elementary school three days a week, for a total of six hours of weekly class time. In addition, each UCLA student consulted regularly with elementary school administers and met with parents of the children. As part of their enrollment in their independent study and internship course, the UCLA students also met with Professor Plann.

The UCLA students were required to write weekly journal entries detailing subjects related to their work at the 42 nd Street school. For the first five weeks of the course, they were assigned topics by Plann. Afterward, the students chose their own topic, approved by Plann, and conducted research on the subject for the remainder of the course. At the conclusion of the course, the students submitted a paper between eight to ten pages long with at least five published sources.

It’s not unusual for courses at UCLA to include a service-learning component. In fact, the department of Spanish has its own Service Learning Committee. The 195 course, however, required students to take service-learning to the next level. This required them to test their independence, develop resourcefulness and have confidence in their self-sufficiency. Plann, for one, was greatly impressed by how they fared.
“They showed incredible maturity,” she said. “It has made me wonder what else can we do to give the students this kind of experience.”