Spanish Archives - The Friends School of Atlanta

“Noticias! Noticias!” rang out the news carriers on the third floor of FSA as they scurried from room to room.

On any given day, it’s not unusual to hear such enthusiastic footsteps peddling to and fro on the upper levels of the school. In a place where education is always the adventure, hearing chants in another language may be quite the norm.

For the second year, Spanish teacher Brian Ryu has chosen to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month by charging his eighth graders with the task of creating their own Spanish-language newsletter and delivering it to the rest of the middle school community. This year’s end result is El Mes de Herencia Hispana, an impressive collection of article summaries entirely written and produced by students.

For Brian, teaching involves reinvention and innovation. He is constantly looking for novel pedagogical ideas to not only immerse his students into the Spanish language, but the many cultures of those who speak it. This activity is one that encourages students to discover the rich culture and history of Spanish-speaking countries and the Hispanic community that comprises one of the largest minority groups in the United States.

“There is a certain awareness around Hispanic culture that is more visible to mainstream America, including our students,” Brian said. “But asking them to dig deeper and explore the historical significance and contributions that highlight Hispanic heritage brings their awareness to a whole new level.”

Hispanic Heritage Month is meant to emphasize the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans in North America. Beginning as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, it became a month-long celebration in 1988. September 15 was chosen as the starting date for the month to acknowledge the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua—that were all released from Spanish rule in 1821.

It took the Spanish II class about a week and a half to produce the newsletter. This may seem unbelievable when readers first glance the introduction, a succinct paragraph with one central message: “the thing we need above and beyond a united voice is a diverse voice.”

This need to recognize the diverse voices that make up our many communities is the motivation behind the well-crafted language and attention to detail within the newsletter and its production. And for those in need of noticias but unfamiliar with Spanish, the students provide English translations as well as keywords for enthusiasts in search of learning a new language.

Though an article on chocolate may appear rather unrelated to a newsletter dedicated to Hispanic Heritage Month, one student writer wanted to point out that the cacao bean from which chocolate is made was actually first used by the ancient Olmecs in what we now know as Mexico. In fact, such probing into the history and importance of chocolate was a topic some of the students previously explored in World Studies with Alex Zinnes.

Another student chose to report on Celia Cruz, the Cuban singer also known as the Queen of Salsa. “I never heard of Cruz,” she said. “Before I didn’t know about Hispanic music. So that was cool to research.”

Although Brian did the copyediting for the newsletter, his students were in charge of everything else, from writing to selecting the accompanying photos. Even that task he would have delegated to his students if they had more time. Because Brian’s curriculum prepares students to speak, read and write in Spanish, his former students report that they often feel ahead when they enroll in high school classes. This is no doubt due to assignments like this one that require students to be attentive and mindful to the social significance of their work.

If it wasn’t already apparent, Brian’s approach to teaching is always led by the philosophy that students are the bearers of knowledge. In this instance, these future journalists proved themselves to be skilled in more areas than previously thought. And that, too, is quite the norm.

Click here to view El Mes de Herencia Hispana Newsletter 2017

By Malcolm Tariq

Un Proyecto Del Libro De Cocina “The Cookbook Project” (2016)

Food. It’s the gateway into culture, people, and language. In many ways, food is the common vernacular of the people and has a reach-potential that goes beyond lingual boundaries. In an effort to get my students to be bold and venture into the world of the unfamiliar (and there’s nothing wrong with the familiar) and to push them to realize the value in other cultures (and there’s certainly nothing against our American culture), I try introducing our students to things like plantains, rambutan, tomatillos, yucca, and arepas. When I introduce our friends to these strange and foreign items, they look askance at me with raised eyebrows and question:

“What is that THING, and why do you want ME to try it?”

But after the guinea pig of a valiant classmate (who will eat just about anything) gives high accolades (and is apparently still alive after taking the initial bite), it only takes a few nudges for the reservations to subside. Students are asking (perhaps BEGGING) to try each others’ dishes that they prepared for this cookbook project. Hands crisscross as they reach over to grab a few more yucca fries, or dip their chips in the tomatillos “on fire” (en fuego) salsa, or down a gulp of the rambutan shake. It’s a transformative occasion when students realize that they have opened themselves up to culture unlike theirs and tastes that speak a familiar tune yet is otherworldly at the same time.

While the Spanish lesson underlying this whole cookbook project was the grammatical structure known as the imperative form (commands) like “Stir this,” “Chop this,” “Fry that,” the hook (and perhaps the real intent) was exposing our students to the language of food. This endeavor created opportunity for students to drink up (at times literally) the culture of a people different than theirs in an effort to help them understand the other better. A world language class like Spanish affords such opportunities to explore other cultures. And if the language of the people is the key that unlocks the culture, so to speak, the culture’s diverse food is one of the awesome treasures waiting to be discovered.

This project allowed our students to engage in authentic experiences and connect the dots between food, culture, and people. We began our journey dining at and talking to Lis Hernandez, the owner of Arepa Mía, a Venezuelan restaurant in Decatur. The students ordered in Spanish and conversed with Lis and had a personal Q & A with her. Some students had arepas for the first time; they learned about Venezuelan food and heard about Lis’ immigrant story to the United States. The students then took to Your Dekalb Farmers Market to practice the imperative form by completing a scavenger hunt that required our students to “Find this,” “Look for that,” “Write down that,” or “Shake this person’s hand.” This exercise allowed our students to practice this grammatical structure in a fun and meaningful way. An integral wrap-up to this learning experience entailed the creation of a recipe featuring an ingredient that originated from a Spanish-speaking country. They researched a recipe that would be easy for a middle school student to execute (possibly with the help of mom or dad), and they created a dish to share in class and contribute to our cookbook. Students also wrote opinion pieces on their dishes while outlining a basic step-by-step recipe using the imperative forms in Spanish.

This cookbook project brought a lot of smiles to our students’ faces as they ventured out, often stumbling and fumbling over their Spanish, but with a willingness to be brave and open. They made a friend in Lis who exposed our students to new smells, tastes, and flavors. Our students also got strange looks from market shoppers as they literally scavenged the premises with a Spanish dictionary in hand trying to figure out what I was asking them to accomplish. But as our students shared their recipes and dishes on our last day, there was a sense among our students that food matters because people, culture, and language matter. The next time our students find themselves in a foreign place, my hope is that they make a beeline for the closest eatery or market because these places are often the places that foster openness, friendships, and meaningful learning.

By Brian Ryu

Brian teaches 7th and 8th grade Spanish as well as 5th grade math, and he is enthusiastic about project-based learning and opportunities for students to try new foods from different cultures.