The Hands That Bind Us

Students at St. Stephen’s experience one of the school’s core values across campus and in the classrooms on a daily basis — inclusive and equitable school community that respects and celebrates the unique individuality and dignity of every human being.

 

In Upper School Spanish instructor Ann Befroy’s Modern Language classes, that core value is exemplified with a project she calls, the “Hands Up” display. Adopted from the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Language convention (ACTFL) in Chicago last summer, the project ties into the school’s 2024-25 school theme of Create. 

 

Befroy says she enjoyed the “terrific” creative hands session at the ACTFL convention for its simplicity of instruction and differentiation for various language levels. 

 

“Too many activities designed to increase belonging and inclusion must be carried out in English,” she explained, “as they ask students to use language more sophisticated than their novice language skills allow.”  

 

As part of the project, students chose a piece of construction paper color they felt represented their identity. They traced their hands, cut them out, and wrote various words and phrases representing themselves. Advanced Spanish students wrote sentences, intermediate Spanish speakers focused on opinion verbs, and Spanish I students used adjectives about themselves. Befroy hung the decorated hands up in the room (as if the students were raising their hands) along with the question ¿Quién eres? (Who are you?). Below the display are the phrases "Pertenezco" and "Importo" (I belong and I matter).  

 

While making the hands, Alina Bunch ‘25 thought the activity felt a little “kindergartenish” and then once the project was complete, Bunch decided she liked seeing how “other students identify,” learning about her classmates’ interests and added, “I do think the hands themselves are kind of cool.”

 

Jasper Oehler ’28 mentioned that right after Thanksgiving break Ms. Befroy asked students to practice their Spanish conversation by talking about their breaks. He likes the way Befroy focuses on students getting to “know each other a little bit.” When asked about the “creative hand” activity, he lit up while saying, “I do art, so I liked doing that specific project.”

 

Nine out of 12 teachers in the Modern Language Department attended ACTFL conference last year “to see new trends in language teaching and then to share interdepartmentally what each of us took from the sessions we went to,” explains Spanish instructor and Dean of Students Phil Doig. 

 

Befroy says the project “reflects” several things about the Modern Language Department’s approach. Befroy and other instructors teach in the target language rather than teaching about the target language. They also teach students who enter St. Stephen’s from various educational and language learning backgrounds. Click here to learn more about the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Language.