A new Spanish club started by senior Stella Wilkins provides OHS students the opportunity to teach middle schoolers about Spanish language and culture. Wilkins serves as the club’s president. Since the club has been approved, the club has met every Thursday from 3:45-4:30 p.m. at the middle school. OHS Spanish teacher, James “Senor” Jimenez, is the teacher sponsor for the club.
Junior Sofia Cohn, a member of the club, considers the Spanish club as an opportunity to educate younger students about topics they don’t study in school.
“It’s an opportunity for people who have taken Spanish classes here to teach kids at the middle school Spanish because they don’t offer it as a language class at the middle school,” Cohn said.
Although it isn’t required for AP Spanish students to be a part of the club, many members are students that are currently enrolled in AP Spanish. Members take turns coming up with lessons to present at the club meet
rings each week.
“Before fall break, someone brought Clue and they changed all the things to Spanish so we practiced making an accusation in Spanish,” junior Alex Ritchie said. “We’ve also had normal presentations, where we teach
vocab and sentence structure.” These students who have taken Spanish all throughout their time in high school find it important for students to have some sort of introduction to the language before leaving the middle school and being presented with the option to take a Spanish class.
“I think it could get students interested in Spanish who wouldn’t have previously wanted to come to high school and take Spanish,” Ritchie said. But they could come to the club and change their mind and decide that they actually do want to take Spanish.”
Another reason for wanting to teach middle schoolers Spanish is to get them interested at a younger age.
“It’s good for them to have a little bit of pre-knowledge before they go into Spanish 1 so they can have a jumpstart,” Cohn said. “It’s also been proven that kids can learn languages easier the younger they are.”
Senior Julia Bryan believes that the true importance of the club is much bigger than just learning a language.
“We like that it’s something that’s not required for the middle school students because it can be fun, and it can be rewarding, and eye opening,”
Bryan said.
Not only does Bryan think it’s a good experience for the younger middle school students but she believes that it is also an educational experience for the high school students teaching them.
“I think it’s just really important to kind of step out of our comfort zone and put ourselves in a position where it might be uncomfortable or awkward in the beginning,” Bryan said. “Failing and being confused really leads to vulnerability and makes you very close with the people that you learn with. It’s a valuable lesson to learn when you’re young.”
A large goal for the members of the club is to be able to teach more people Spanish so Spanish speaking members of the community can feel more included. This goal has already begun to be met.
“We have one student who comes to the meetings so that he can learn to communicate with his Spanish speaking friends,” Cohn said. “It’s good that it allows them to reach out to other kids in the community that only speak Spanish.”
Right now the club is just focusing on the basics of the Spanish language. “Going into something knowing nothing and having all this Spanish thrown at you can be overwhelming,” Bryan said. “So we are trying to take it slow but eventually we will introduce more advanced vocab.”
The club’s goal is not necessarily for these students to achieve fluency, but rather bring familiarity to the language so Spanish speaking students won’t go days without speaking to another student or even teacher.
“I just hope that it will make the students in the club more comfortable with speaking in Spanish because it can be scary or awkward at times,” Bryan said. “If it makes a difference in someone’s life I think it’s worth a try,” Bryan said.
