Juniors and seniors in the Colorado Academy Advanced Seminar Spanish class recently wrote and read picture books to Sonnia Marsh’s Lower School Spanish class.

 

The books, which were written in both Spanish and English, were modeled after those of award-winning author of more than a dozen bilingual children’s books, Monica Brown. Brown visited with Pre-K through fifth grade students in an assembly earlier this month to read from her books and teach about the importance of literature.

 

Brown, whose books include Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, an NAACP Image Award nominee, and Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, recipient of the Américas Award for Children's Literature, is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specializing in U.S. Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature.

Says Upper School Spanish teacher, Daniel Lopez, “My students were told to not just read the story, but to engage the Lower School students in the themes and content and to ask them questions.”

 

Much like Brown, the students wrote stories that examined stereotypes and cultural diversity, appropriate for the Advanced Seminar class, which utilizes readings and themes to teach the language through project-based learning.

 

“We’re studying current events and communities in Latin America,” says Lopez. "So, we put some of those themes into the books. They’ve taken serious themes and put them into a fourth-grade context.”

 

After reading their story about kids who don’t “fit in,” seniors April Edwards and Justine Jones reiterated the title of their book and asked the students, “What’s Wrong with Us?” Lower Schools students replied almost in unison: “Nada!”