Success Stories

Bilingual Partnership, Humble ISD

“An uncommon partnership for academic success”

"In Humble ISD students in upper level Spanish classes at one of the district’s more affluent high schools engaged in a year long service-learning partnership with fourth grade bilingual classes at a Title I elementary campus. They first met in person and then began a “pen pal” relationship, where the Spanish students would write in Spanish and the bilingual students would write in English, giving each an opportunity to practice their written language skills. The teacher developed both a lesson plan and a summary to help manage the activities."

Students also participated in two video conferences, where the Spanish students spoke in Spanish and the bilingual students in English, to plan a traditional Mexican wedding.  (Reenacting a wedding was already a part of the Spanish curriculum, so the service-learning was simply an instructional modification.)  The video conferencing allowed both groups of students to practice verbal skills through an authentic language experience, which was much more meaningful than relying on the letters and textbooks alone.  Near the end of the year, the high school Spanish students invited the bilingual students to their school. They all participated in the Mexican wedding and reception and reconnected with their “pen pals.”

In this partnership, both groups of students were the “doers” and the “receivers.”  They helped each other, tutored one another, and served one another’s needs. This is an example of a fairly simple yet highly effective service-learning experience.  As one high school student put it, “We need to learn more often like this.  It was really cool connecting with a younger student from a completely different background.  I felt like we helped each other, and just watching him get into what we were doing really felt good.  And for me there was a real reason to learn my vocabulary words; I was going to need them.”