17 | The COVID-19 pandemic prompted students and teachers to abandon their physical classrooms and embrace distance learning. Although this new setting severely impacted community service programs, new initiatives and successful collaborations emerged from the challenges posed by the pandemic. Feliz en la comunidad is a community outreach program that, since 2014, allows students enrolled in SPAN 220, SPAN 240, SPAN260 and SPAN270 to work with various schools in the greater Los Angeles area. Through this service-learning program, students practice their Spanish, teaching, and leadership skills while increasing their involvement in Los Angeles’ culturally and socially diverse neighborhoods. With the guidance of the program directors’ participants engage in activities such as preparing and conducting brief classes in Spanish for elementary or high-school students. or preparing supplementary Spanish activities for elementary or high-school teachers. All the materials created by our students are later shared using our own OER Spanish site, OERinspanish.org, an online repository of educational materials with all participating institutions and other middle and elementary schools and well as the Spanish Consulate in Los Angeles. This particular OER site is the result of the development of a multidisciplinary project at USC. |
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