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Last month, kindergarten students from Cesar Batalla School visited campus for the annual Read Aloud event. The day is a culmination of a semester’s work for Fairfield students enrolled in Professor M. Covadonga Arango-Martin’s Elementary Spanish class. At the beginning of the semester, Fairfield students learn about a group of Cesar Batalla students who they are assigned to write a story for. They’re told the children’s age, interests and other details they take into consideration when writing their stories. The stories are written in Spanish and then read to the students who are bilingual, or learning English.

“The Read Aloud event is a wonderful day for our students because it gives them an opportunity to practice their Spanish speaking skills and share their stories with the students from Cesar Batalla,” said Professor M. Covadonga Arango-Martin. “It’s wonderful seeing how much the kindergarten students enjoy the stories. And the best part is that they get to take the books back to their classrooms at Cesar Batalla to read on their own.”

The event is one of many collaborations that takes place each semester with Cesar Batalla School and ������ý��Ƶ�����ƹۿ�, organized by the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions (GSEAP) and the Center for Faith and Public Life (CFPL). The event serves as an opportunity for Fairfield students to put their foreign language skills into practice, and for Cesar Batalla students to be taken out of their typical classroom setting and experience learning on a college campus.

The kindergarten students gathered in small groups in the lower level of the BCC where Fairfield students sat with them and read their stories out loud. This informal story time was made even more special with a visit from Lucas the Stag.