Prof. Donna Long teaches Spanish 689 in the summer quarter.

Public school teachers are facing the challenge of teaching students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. The state of Ohio is experiencing demographic changes with the growth of the Latin@ population. How can teachers have the opportunity to learn more about the reality, culture, and needs of Ohio’s Spanish speaking population?

The Ohio State University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese has developed an innovative educational opportunity for teachers who want to increase their understanding of the Spanish speaking community in Ohio. The graduate level course, Spanish in Ohio, provides teachers with an avenue to enrich cultural knowledge, improve language skills, and learn about diversity, strengths, issues, barriers, and concerns facing the local community.

Spanish 689: Spanish in Ohio is an advanced Spanish language course. This course requires students to have previous knowledge of the language and the capacity to communicate with native speakers in Spanish. The course aims to provide students with the opportunity to practice and improve Spanish speaking and listening skills, network with Latin@ leaders and community members in Ohio, introduce important issues to Hispanics, and provide an understanding of linguistic patterns and processes of Ohio Spanish. A very important component of this class is developing an appreciation for the Latin@ communities of Ohio.

This unique opportunity prepares teachers to understand the environment of Spanish-speaking students. It also offers a chance to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between Spanish speakers and native Ohioans. This class provides educators with a practical, hands-on, applicable approach to becoming culturally competent and aware of the unique situations of Spanish-speaking Ohio residents.

The class, which meets on Saturdays for six weeks during the spring quarter, involves several different components. “Teachers have to go out and have 50 hours of non classroom contact with the community. That’s quite a bit!” said Prof. Donna Long, associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and professor of the Spanish in Ohio course. “They can do things like talk to people, go to restaurants, do volunteer service, watch movies, listen to radio stations or watch television.” This gives teachers the opportunity to build connections in their local communities and explore the diversity of the local Spanish speaking population.

The course’s final project integrates learning, teaching and community experiences. “For a final project they have to develop a lesson plan for their students that is based on community contact and also aligned in accordance with national standards for foreign language learning,” explained Prof. Long. This allows students to integrate their learning in this course into their classroom planning.

This course is also offered for traditional undergraduate students in a slightly different form. Undergraduate students must complete a minimum of 100 hours of contact with Spanish speakers outside of class, and their final projects have different components. The course fulfills the experiential requirement for the undergraduate Spanish majors.

“I gained a lot of experience and have learned so much about the Columbus Latin@ community I did not know,” said Frank Mendoza, undergraduate student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, who took the class in the summer of 2006. “The class opened up doors to get involved and be part of the Latin@ community in Columbus.”