West Haven High School Italian teacher Anna Porto prides herself in helping students to learn and improve upon their language skills, even if that language is English. While learning Italian, many of her students are not learning a new language for the first time.

“I’m lucky I have a lot of Spanish speakers,” she said. In addition to teaching a number of native Spanish speakers, as of this year she also is teaching a group of published authors. Porto connected with the Clinton-based author Jennifer Degenhardt last year to give her students a task: translate Degenhardt’s books from Spanish to Italian.