Week two was a calmer, less anxious experience for me. I arrived early to the church and waited in my car while the others trickled into the parking lot. I was surprised to see that not all the students from day one were present at the de-briefing; I liked our group and seeing the separation was a little saddening. However, I realized that some students opted to only take this ESL class, including me, for only one credit hour, which means that not all meetings are mandatory. I immediately felt my mood shift when it hit me that this experience is only a quarter long and that most of the students will not return after the grading period in order to pursue a voluntary presence here.
I entered the church excited nonetheless and as the other students and I took our seats, I noticed that the body of spanish-speaking students had changed as well. This night I noticed some familiar faces, such as my previous partner, as well as a new, fresh face of a young woman in a stylish orange jacket. She looked so well-dressed, I felt a little too casual doning my sweatpants and oversized coat.
The students and volunteers were partnered up as usual and I was elated to be paired with the same student again from last week. However, the dynamic was drastically altered. Instead of teaching with another Service Learning student from my class, I was flying solo on this one. Without another volunteer, I was the main source of learning for the student and I was somewhat nervous to take on such an important role.
We went on to cover ten pages in the textbook in the two hours we were there, which doesn't seem like a lot of work, but in reality the lessons are dense and I made sure to go slowly to give him the opportunity to ask questions about word meanings, grammar, spelling and translation. The book assignments were similar to last weeks; reading passages, answering questions about the reading and choosing the correct words to complete a sentence were the main styles of learning in the book. I took a different approach, hoping to switch up the routine that he had been doing on a weekly basis since May of last year.
I decided to do some listening exercises, because being able to hold a conversation is the most significant part in learning a new language. I would say an English sentence such as, "Can you go to store with me?", and he would write the sentence in English as I said it. Next, I would say give a response to the question such as, "No, no I can't go to the store with you because I have to study.", in which he wrote down and after he would read what he wrote and we would converse using these sentences. From this basic sentence structure we were able to go through several examples of the use of "can" and "cannot". He seemed to retain the information better doing this technique and I noticed that he was much more attentive when he was writing and engaging in the language, rather than just reading from a page.
Overall, my experience was equally satisfactory as the first visit and I am looking forward to going back. I have realized that having another person in the group to teach English is beneficial in keeping the lessons fresh and unique as well as keeping the flow of teaching natural and casual.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Teaching While Learning
The doors were locked and the weather was the coldest it had been all year, or so it seemed. I stood and chated with a few classmates I had only meet hours prior but not even the winter wind could wipe the noticable excitement from my frozen face. Like the others, my nerves decided to tag along and I began to fear the unknown. Will the students like me? Or better yet will they understand me? Will I be a decent teacher? Is my Spanish good enough for this type of responisibility? My thoughts were scattered but as soon as the church door opened all that remained was pure excited curiosity. My service learning had begun.
The other students and I tried convincingly to wait patiently while the spanish-speaking students entered the cafeteria after dropping their children off with other caretakers. I shook hands with my assigned student and my partner and we were able to introduce ourselves to him as well as each other for the first time. The man, who was a Mexican-native, was 33 years old and a proud father of two girls. He had a sense of humor that even a language barrier could not destinguish. I don't think he went more than five mintues without smiling, he was an optimistic learner and he wasn't afraid to ask questions, which I found to be very brave and attentive.
My partner and I were also paired up with a church volunteer, who spoke no spanish, but who was eager to help teach English as a second language. Unfortunately, I did notice a gap of communication and understanding between the church volunteer and the spanish-speaking student. I saw the utter confusion written across the student's face and my partner and I stepped in to help translate and answer the questions that arose during the time period. My partner was especially keen on filling silent time with interpretation and different exercises, which seemed to benefit the overwhelmed student.
By this time my emotions had shifted, I went from anxious to engaged and inspired almost instantly. I was surprised by the spanish-speaker's high level of reading English and by his attempt to understand the difficult words. He carried around a green notebook with him, in which he wrote down the harder words in order to comprehend them better. Words like "perspire", "blush" and "thirsty". I was happy to see that "my" student was going the extra mile to learn English and I wish that more English speakers would put forth an ounce of the effort that the students did during those two hours in the church cafeteria.
Lastly, I left feeling a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment. I had achieved more in those two hours than I had done in an entire week's work. There is still a plethora of things I would like to share, but I will keep it relatively short. Next time I would like to get to know the other students more too and perhaps slow down and take breaks during each chapter, because I know firsthand that learning a new language is difficult and feeling left behind is never a good feeling.Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my first service learning experience and I now regret not taking the service learning class for more than one credit.
The other students and I tried convincingly to wait patiently while the spanish-speaking students entered the cafeteria after dropping their children off with other caretakers. I shook hands with my assigned student and my partner and we were able to introduce ourselves to him as well as each other for the first time. The man, who was a Mexican-native, was 33 years old and a proud father of two girls. He had a sense of humor that even a language barrier could not destinguish. I don't think he went more than five mintues without smiling, he was an optimistic learner and he wasn't afraid to ask questions, which I found to be very brave and attentive.
My partner and I were also paired up with a church volunteer, who spoke no spanish, but who was eager to help teach English as a second language. Unfortunately, I did notice a gap of communication and understanding between the church volunteer and the spanish-speaking student. I saw the utter confusion written across the student's face and my partner and I stepped in to help translate and answer the questions that arose during the time period. My partner was especially keen on filling silent time with interpretation and different exercises, which seemed to benefit the overwhelmed student.
By this time my emotions had shifted, I went from anxious to engaged and inspired almost instantly. I was surprised by the spanish-speaker's high level of reading English and by his attempt to understand the difficult words. He carried around a green notebook with him, in which he wrote down the harder words in order to comprehend them better. Words like "perspire", "blush" and "thirsty". I was happy to see that "my" student was going the extra mile to learn English and I wish that more English speakers would put forth an ounce of the effort that the students did during those two hours in the church cafeteria.
Lastly, I left feeling a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment. I had achieved more in those two hours than I had done in an entire week's work. There is still a plethora of things I would like to share, but I will keep it relatively short. Next time I would like to get to know the other students more too and perhaps slow down and take breaks during each chapter, because I know firsthand that learning a new language is difficult and feeling left behind is never a good feeling.Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my first service learning experience and I now regret not taking the service learning class for more than one credit.
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