SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Springdale High School students are making reading fun again by collaborating with Bayyari and Monitor elementary schools for a bilingual service learning book project.
Not only do the high school students teach the younger students literacy, learning, and language skills, but they also are working on creating books to encourage them to take pride in their heritage at an early age.
Every time the Bilingual Club meets they say the following chant in English, Spanish, and Marshallese:
"No limits, no limits, my life has no limits / From the east to the west, from the north to the south / Bilingual and smart, so shout it out."
Bayyari Principal Mary Mullican said English is the second language for around 76% of his students.
"I think it really helps promote their native language and for them to have pride in their culture and their language," Mullican said.
The Springdale High School students who work with the younger students are known as the "Bilingual Bulldogs." The high schoolers gather in small groups and share plans for their book projects.
"We take those kids, we bring them on to the journey where they can improve their skills in their heritage language and know more about their culture through us because we're also learning as Bilingual Bulldogs," senior Shumiko 'Nini' Clement said. "We're learning through them, and they're learning through us."
The ultimate goal of the high schoolers' project is to help the younger students connect with their culture.
"I'm hoping my book will help little kids connect with their culture and show the importance of what connecting with their culture can do with them and with family," junior Yisela Mancila said.
This is Yisela's second year in the club. She wrote a story last year but hopes this year's book has a bigger impact on the kids.
"It didn't have much of a purpose," Yisela said. "I learned from that experience to make this book way better and actually have a theme and a purpose that they can learn from. The students gave me lots of big ideas that I think are really good, and they're going into my book."
About 45% of students at Springdale Public Schools are Hispanic and around 15% are Marshallese. This program started six years ago. Mullican said the success of this program shows how necessary it is in the district.
"It allows our students to really have that pride," she said. "They see that other students that look like them and sound like them are continuing to use their native language and how it is helping them with their futures and their success as they're about to go off into the world as some of them are seniors. Our students can have that same pride and continue to use their native languages."
The Bilingual Bulldogs are planning to have the books published as gifts for the elementary students, and they're also hoping to digitally record the students' voices reading together once the stories are finalized.
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