BREA : Learning Spanish in Small Doses

First-grade teacher Persida Himmele waved and then walked out her classroom door, saying, “ Adios, estudiantes. “

Her students responded: “ Adios, Mrs. Himmele.”

Himmele was conducting a Spanish conversation lesson at Laurel Elementary School, where everyone is learning to speak Spanish.

Laurel recently started its new Spanish Conversation Program, the only one of its kind in the county. The program involves 15-minute sessions in which all students, teachers and administrators are to converse in Spanish.

It was created by Laurel Principal Tim Harvey and the school’s bilingual coordinator, Carmen Brias, as an enrichment program for the school, which has a 49% Latino student population.

Harvey and Brias said the program does not take the place of other subjects and is integrated into the curriculum. Teachers conduct the 15-minute Spanish conversation lessons, which they helped create, twice or three times a week.

The lessons are helping all the school’s 322 kindergarten through sixth-grade students learn to converse in Spanish with their classmates, Harvey said. He said the program is not mandatory. None have refused to participate.

Many Laurel students already speak Spanish and the program is developing “self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment,” Brias said.

Those pupils who demonstrate thorough comprehension of the day’s lesson are designated as tutors. Each class has about six or seven tutors who make sure small groups of classmates learn the lesson.

On a recent morning, first-grader Nestor Galvez, 7, drilled five students on the names of colors. Holding a blue sheet of paper, Nestor asked Brian Seo: “Que color es este?” (Spanish for, What color is this?)

Brian, 7, enthusiastically answered, “Azul! (Blue)”

In a nearby fourth-grade class, teacher Kim Thornsen placed six sheets of colored paper on the board and had students point to the different colors.

“I thought it would be hard to learn Spanish, but it’s not,” said John Manansala, 10.

His classmate, Joana Serna, also 10, said she likes the program: “I’m teaching Spanish to the kids that don’t know it. It gets me excited because we talk in my (first) language. Makes me feel proud.”

The program was designed to be simple, Brias said.

“It’s easy, fast and fun, yet comprehensive at the same time, and the kids don’t even realize they are learning the language,” she said.