Presentation Day

Well my final day with Josiah was last Wednesday and I couldn't have imagined it going any better. Josiah had the confidence to introduce us and displayed our books pictures like a PRO! But he did forget my name in front of 20 or so people... but I forgave him for it and we moved on real quick.

I'm very proud of Josiah for getting up in front of others and speaking even though it was only a few phrases. I didn't think he'd be able to mutter a single word but he proved me wrong and I'm glad he did.

Reading Buddies was a grand ol' time and I recommend it to anyone who likes fun. Which is everyone. So I recommend it to everyone.

-Eric Silberstein

The Final Goodbye

I am sad to say that this is my final blog post because this will be admitting that I will have to say good-bye to the SWAP program and my student, Valentina, as well. I have had such an amazing time and it is an experience that I will never forget.

However, I would like to happily say that Valentina and I found a good routine with our daily work. I had previously mentioned before that we were going to try and role play with written dialogues. We did try that once but my student wasn’t into it. She also said that she did not like using the flash cards. But by a chance spontaneous moment, we found something that worked for both of us, reading current events from the newspaper. This worked perfectly for us. What we would do is, I would bring a newspaper or a magazine and Valentina would a paragraph and I would then ask her what that paragraph was talking about. She would recite the best she could the meaning of what she just read and I would help her fill in the blanks. Then at the very end of the article we would both have a conversation of how we felt about it and often that would bring up another topic of conversation. Sometimes I would have a hard time understanding what she was saying so I would stop her and in another way she would have to explain in another way. This was the only activity that Valentina said she really liked doing and wanted to continue with. So we did this for the rest of our classes. I did feel a little bit worried that some of the newspapers I could get a hold of had hard concepts and words in them. I could mostly only find the New York Times and the LA times on campus but I figured that this is the level most newspapers are at. If she can get through them and comprehend what a higher level newspaper is saying then this will give her the confidence to pick up any newspaper and understand the content. Not everything, like in the workbooks is going to have simple words and concepts. At first, it was challenging but towards the end of the classes, Valentina was a lot quicker about comprehending what was going on and her reading improved as well.

Another thing to brag about Valentina that made me proud was when Valentina didn’t want to throw away the newspapers when we were done with class. She said that she would bring them home with her and read with her 7 year old niece that was just beginning to learn to read. I don’t know if she actually did read with her niece but if she does just once, then I have succeeded.

Not only was I teaching Valentina, she was teaching me. I have a thousand stories that I could share about Valentina’s words of wisdom or actions but one story particularly sticks out. By the end of the semester, I beginning to get fairly well informed on Mexican politics. Previously, the topic never really sparked my interest until one day in class. I remember at the beginning I was really tired from the night before and I had a million things to do after the class and needless to say I was a little distracted. However, a quick, mindless class was not where the conversation was headed. Fairly close to the beginning of the class we read an article about the new Mexican president that was inducted over the weekend, Pena Nieto. When we would stop at every paragraph to discuss what the article was saying, Valentina would be the one that tell me what was really happening in the artice, with background information, the political party systems and why the previous elected officials are corrupt. I found myself very confused at times with the names of the past presidents and who was associated with which party. I kept on having to ask for clarification and very patiently Valentina would help me. Valentina would even correct my pronunciation of some of the Spanish words and names as I have done with her many times with new English words. From that class, Valentina gained useful knowledge in explaining a difficult idea in English and I gained an insider’s perspective on a subject that I previously would have not known.

The last couple weeks the high school students have been coming to the time I volunteer with the middle school students. Once I was helping one of the high school students write a research paper. I was getting so incredibly frustrated because he was not focusing and did not do any research before hand. I felt like he expected me to write the entire thing for him, and I was not about to do that. But after being frustrated for a while I realized maybe he is just insecure about his lack of knowledge of how to write and organize a research paper. So he is being stubborn because he feels embarrassed. And this made me so incredibly sad that he felt that way. It reminded me about what we learned in ling 1000 about linguistic insecurity. About how maybe he felt his language was beneath the "standard language" and felt insecure about it. After that moment I was no longer frustrated but focused more on giving him the skills to write this research paper and more in the future.

This was the first experience I've had at family learning center where I was very frustrated with a student but it ended up working out and we finished his outline for the research paper. YAY!

Goodbye LING 1900! :(

Well tomorrow is the final day of reading buddies and I'm anxious to see how it goes. Last wednesday Josiah left the library in tears which was not how I visioned our 2nd to last meeting ending. He was upset because the reality of speaking in front of people settled in. My plan was for him to introduce us and thats all and when we practiced the introduction he did a very good job. But when his mom was picking him up and we talked one last time about the introduction I encouraged him to practice his lines and that's when he started to cry. So tomorrow should be interesting. I really hope he decides to introduce us and has the courage too or else it'll be a one man show and I'll be center stage.

Besides that final issue I think our final project together has been a very fun time. Josiah finally expressed a reading preference and it was for Star Wars material so I tried to play off this strength so he'd have some encouragement and would be excited for the project. Because before he really seemed to dread the idea of writing his own story. But my strategy worked and we wrote the story together and it was fun for him and I.

I'm sad that tomorrow will be our last meeting. I've had such a fun time hangin' with the little bugger every Wednesday that it's been a highlight of my week every week. So with a gap in my schedule my Wednesdays are gonna feel empty.

I'm very glad I participated in Reading Buddies and think that it's an activity every student could benefit from. I know it's cliché but reading buddies probably taught me more than I taught Josiah. I've become a better story teller (a personal goal of mine), improved my personal skills, and revisited my youth. I think I enjoyed most of the stories more than Josiah did to be honest. This is Eric signing off. Over and out!

Finishing SWAP!

Being able to participate with SWAP has allowed me to remember how difficult it is to learn English as a second language at an older age. Unlike my SWAP person, I was able to learn English in school and that has made all the difference in my life.

Learning English at a much older age becomes very difficult. Not only are the English vowels difficult to pronounce, but the alphabet of the native tongue may also be very different. For example, when going through the English alphabet with my SWAP person, I noticed how the Spanish alphabet has more letters in the alphabet and how confusing the 'e' and 'i' differentiation (into English from Spanish) is. When certain letters are also put together, the pronunciation of many letters differ: something that was very difficult to explain without confusing my person even more.

Aside from the difficult process of shaping one's mouth into the English form, I more importantly realized the linguistic insecurities that are more common in older people who are non-native English speakers. As a non-native English speaker myself, but having learned English at an earlier stage, I have had certain insecurities with my language control, but the one that my person showed was higher than my own. My SWAP person, who is a female, showed me how linguistic insecurities may prevent many people from fully learning English. Although she knew a lot of English, her linguistic insecurity seemed to prevent her from speaking English to others or offering her answers, in English, too quickly. She showed 'shyness' in using English. She did not volunteer to speak in it, she had to be asked to. This of course did not mean that she was unwilling to have a conversation in English, but that she felt very uncomfortable having a conversation in English.

What I do regret from the program, was not being able to find a way to show my student that she should not be ashamed of her English and that if she continues to practice she will become more comfortable in the language. I attempted to show her that she knew a great amount of English, but there was always that insecurity with her language that many times prevented her from celebrating her capabilities in English.

Hello and once again welcome to my blog about LING 1900 and my wonderful experiences with it. First and foremost I must speak about how fortunate I am to have stumbled upon this opportunity. No I am not being a brown nose, I honestly and 100% truly believe in it. I think you guys should advertise it more. I had no idea that this was a program at CU and I know many other students that would both love to take it and who would benefit greatly from it. I think it is an amazing opportunity because not only do you get life experiences, but you also get credit for it. Now that is hard to come by! Which by the way, I want to especially thank you guys for working with me so I could continue with the program I was already working with.

With LING 1900 comes a lot of learning. You learn a lot about working with others, both the child and the parents, and you learn a lot about yourself. I have learned to be more outgoing. This is due to the fact that I need the courage to actually walk up to the parents and ask if I can read with/to their child. I have also learned to be more patient, not the “cliché patience is a virtue,” but the patience with a child who either might not want to read or might be having trouble reading. Additionally, LING 1900 has actually taught me a lot about working with children. I am thinking about becoming a teacher and this is an excellent opportunity to explore what age group I would like to teach. Through this experience I have come to learn that I work best with children around the age of eight. My patience has not yet been perfected for kids younger then that and my entertainment skills are not nearly perfected enough for kids much older then that.

I think all students could benefit from this class. LING 1900 is a way for students to get involved in the Boulder community and learn the importance of volunteering. I think LING 1900 is especially useful because it proves that almost everyone has time to volunteer. Although I can’t prove this I am fairly positive a number of students who have taken LING 1900 or are currently taking it will continue to volunteer in the future. Sometimes it just takes that extra push (like giving credit for a class) for a student in college to realize the impact they could have and that they do in fact have time to make such an impact.

That is a very nice thing about volunteering at Clinica Health Center, there are no strict hours, you can come and go as you please. Although I have come to have a pattern of going mostly on Tuesday morning, if I cannot make it then I am welcomed to go sometimes later in the week. This is especially nice in college where you might have a test later on the day you normally volunteer or you want to go into office hours. Which does bring me to my next point. Kira mentioned that you guys were thinking about partnering up with Clinica Health Center for LING 1900. Although I have enjoyed volunteering at Clinica Health Center, like I said in my previous post I think I would enjoy my time someplace else. I think that I would enjoy volunteering at a place that had more structure when it came to reading with the children. While volunteering I provide positive reading experiences for children in the pediatric waiting rooms, and model reading aloud for parents. My duties as a “Reach out and Read” volunteer are very important and I don’t degrade them at all, I just feel like there are better ways to go about it. Because of the fact I volunteer in a waiting room children come and go on a regular basis, meaning I can’t build a relationship with them, something I think is very important. This is important because it builds better role models and makes kids excited to show their advancements in reading. Secondly, there aren’t always kids, meaning I can be sitting behind a desk with the secretary for an undetermined amount of time waiting for a child to walk in the door. This time waiting could be put to better use at a different reading center.

Volunteering at Clinica Health Center allows me to interact and read to many children, an awesome activity that I love. Unfortunately however it doesn’t allow me to build a strong bond with a specific child since I may only see that child once. Although I am very grateful for you allowing me to continue volunteering at Clinica Health Center and counting this as a credit, I believe that at the end of this semester I will no longer work with them. Yes, I will continue volunteering reading to children after this class is over, but I want to build a relationship with a child. In other words I might transfer over to the buddy system at the library or one of the other programs that you offer. Listening to my peer’s stories about working with one child has made me jealous of the bond that they built together.

All that being said, one of my favorite experiences happened two weeks ago. At any given point there can be anywhere from zero to ten children in the waiting room. Often I’ll go up to one of the children and begin reading to them, and then another child becomes curious and often joined. While volunteering two weeks ago I did exactly that, I began reading to one child, but what was different is ALL the children in the room came over and began listening. This alone made me very happy. Additionally, one of the older girls raised her hand when I asked if anyone else would like to read. This experience was especially enjoyable to me because I could see the joy and excitement on all of the children’s faces and the confidence in that one girl. It takes a lot to say you will read out loud in front of strangers and even more confidence to be able to read out loud in front of other kids.

Volunteering reading to children not only makes me sound like a saint but also allows me to grow as an individual. I can see the appreciation on the parent’s faces when I tell them I am a volunteer and ask if I can read to their child/children. Reading is of the utmost importance and if I can act as a role model, even if it is only one time with any given child, then I have accomplished my goal. I hope to inspire these kids to read and inspire their parents to understand the importance of reading.

Creative Process

Alexas and I are in the process of finishing the book. We have edited it a few times and now it is typed up and in the ending stages of illustration. After initially writing the book, every week Alexas would mention details in the book she wanted to change. Sometimes I would make suggestions about altering certain aspects of the story and she would take them and run, adding in her own details after that. Writing her About the Author section was fun because she got to talk about things she found important. One part of her About the Author, which she sadly asked me to take out in a later session, was about wanting to be a hula girl when she grows up. She talked about how she has a “hula girl” skirt at home.

Alexas feels very comfortable at reading buddies now. She openly talks to the other kids, sometimes helping them find a certain color marker or joining in a conversation. However, she does tend to forget the rules. She has a lot of energy and will sometimes run around the library. However, she always listens when asked to stop. I have found it very difficult to get Alexas to do things she do not want to do. She refused to illustrate her book unless I helped her. I tried to help for a bit on the first few and wean her onto doing them herself. She reluctantly did and the process was very slow. Eventually, though, Alexas did do some very nice drawings.

Working with Alexas has been a lot of fun. Learning more about her personality every week is one of the best parts. It has been a long time since I was in first grade but Alexas has reminded me what a transformative time of life it is. She is very observant and keen. I am looking forward to practicing reading our story and seeing how she handles the new challenge.

The last couple weeks not many kids have been coming the day I volunteer, which is a Thursday. Even though not many kids have been there, I have still been able to help out the kids that are there. Sometimes another volunteer and me have to double team a kid, but every kid gets checked on and helped. I love to help the kids with their homework but sometimes the free time after homework is the best. This is when we really get to know the kids. We can sit down with them and talk about their lives and get to know what they like and what they don’t. A couple weeks ago, me and the other volunteers, Meghan and Sarah, were talking to two girls toward the end of the program time. We were telling each other jokes and stories and it was great! But of course we made sure they finished their homework before this :]. The best part was when one of the girls, I would write her name but I have no idea how to spell it, told us we were her favorite volunteers because we always stayed after and talked to them. I think this was so important because I believe we should get to know the kids and not just be there to tell them what to do. And when they actually know us then they will respect us more. This experience really related to linguistics in a sense we are creating a group identity through our discourse. By talking to the kids and each other the volunteers create an identity and a group identity with the kids.

What's Up LING 1900?!

I'm going to try to make this entry interesting, you know, spice it up, but I'm having some issues uploading photos. SO we'll see.

Reading Buddies is winding down and I don't like it!!! I really love seeing Josiah every Wednesday. It's always so fun just goofing around with the little guy. I like to hide from him behind all the books but that kid finds me every time! It's like he does some crazy inception thing on me and makes me think my hiding spot is an original spot but really he planted that thought... I wonder what dream level he's penetrated...

...

ANYWAYS!.. Josiah and I finished his book "Jar Jar Binks and C-3PO" last Wednesday and.... it's good. REAL GOOD. It's got a good fusion of humor and moral lessons as seen on PG 7 when JAR JAR BINKS brings C-3PO a life jacket in hopes it would help the poor rust bot out of quick sand and C-3PO yells "Life jackets are for the water! Not quick sand!". So quick life lesson there and I mean.. it's funnier when you see the illustration I guess.... I'm going to go get the book binded tomorrow and we're expecting Scholastic to publish real soon. It's only a matter of time.

I'm really hoping with my encouragement and help Josiah will have the courage and ability to read a page or two when we present the book. He's really shy though and I don't think he'll be able to get over it. He won't even read for just me.. But no biggie I was really excited for reading buddies because I thought it'd make me a better story teller and it's done that and more!

Bad News, I don't know how to upload photos... no 'bleeding cat bleeding cat' for you!

Is the system fair?

Weeks have passed since I have met my student, Valentina, and with each class that we are both improving. I have gained some more confidence in teaching the material and have learned how to better prepare for each class. I am constantly modifying my style to better fit what Valentina wants. My student has mentioned that she wants to get better at conversational speech. At first I was wary of venturing away from the book but now I keep trying new techniques because my current strategies are not working. At first I started off with just going through the book’s suggested activities however they are only working to some degree. Whenever I would review the previous day’s material at the beginning of class, it would be as if my student was seeing the content we spent a whole class on, was new again. This worried me because it showed that I was not teaching effectively and I was letting Valentina down as a teacher. While experimenting, I next made flashcards for the day’s material because I figured that helps me when I study. This tactic only works to a degree because the examples are so specific to a particular type of sentence that it is hard to apply the new word in conversation. For example, using the word “on,” it makes sense that “I have class on Monday,” but my student is having trouble using the word in conversation when she talks to me. So I think my new idea for fluency in speaking is to start writing stories. I will use the words in the book as guidelines but I think it is best to step away from individual non-related sentences. I am also going to try the suggested “role play conversation” that was given from my last blog post. This week will be the first time I try this so hopefully it works better!

My relationship with Valentina has also dramatically improved. We are talking about more personal topics and I find it very easy to talk to her. Even though I am teaching her, she is becoming more of a mentor to me. Valentina once told me about how she studied for the immigration test for weeks in order to pass. I am still amazed by one question on the test in particular. One of the questions Valentina said she had to know was who said the quote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Off the top of my head I thought it was, John Locke. Well I was wrong because the answer is Patrick Henry. What does this say about the credibility of the immigration tests? I, was born and raised in the United States, graduated at the top of my class in high school, a sophomore at one of the top State Universities didn’t get a question right on the test that would require me to live here. As Valentina continued with her experience, I was getting more and more upset. At the end of the story, I told Valentina, “it is crazy some of those questions you had to know, even ridiculous.” Her response took me by surprise. She just shrugged her shoulders and said “that is just what you have to do to become a citizen.” Here is a person who has reason to be bitter but in fact she is still humble and grateful to be an American citizen. That is amazing. We criticize, especially Latino immigrants, for coming to America illegal and not taking citizen tests but when they do, we fill these tests with information that many natural born Americans probably can’t pass. That is not fair.

SWAP: Moving Away from the Book Nov 9, 2012 3:55 PM

As part of SWAP, each person was handed a teacher's handbook and student's workbook. On about the second week my student accidently misplaced her workbook. Faced with this ordeal and having the teacher's handbook differ from the student's workbook, I made the decision to 'wing it' without the book.

My lessons changed from simply 'filling in' the necessary information to more code-switching style. I was already aware that my student knows a lot of English words so I decided to have a type of oral quiz with her. I asked her questions about the days of the week, months in the years, numbers 1-100, and important holidays that are celebrated in the US. As we went through this orally, I realized that although she knew many words, she was mixing up a few or relying on me to supply her with an answer when she did not know. Unsure of how to enrich her experience, and not just feed her the information, I asked my personal friends after having an unproductive day with her. The advice that I received from the majority of my friends was to have her write down the information and that supplying it is sometimes necessary--it's important to not expect her to know every English word that I ask her about.

With this in mind, the next teach day I went in with a pen and notebook. I once again quized her orally to see what words she was able to retain and which ones she still needed help with. As I was going through the quiz I noticed that there were still a few words that she was struggling with. I decided that perhaps seeing the words written down would help her visualize them better. Once I did this she asked me if I would go through the alphabet with her, because she had a few anxieties about her English writing. I went through the English alphabet with her and was stuck with the "e" 'i" differentiation. The English "e" sounds like the Spanish "i" This differentiation had come easily to me, because I had learned English as a 5 year old, but it was a very difficult concept for her. I stumbled my way through different explanations why the phonology of the letters was different and provided word examples, but she still seem confused. This was a bit frustrating for me...but I was able to calm myself down and remind myself that she had not grown up surrounded by these distinctions.

As I was reminded of this, I took a deep breath and apologized for expecting her to understand this information right of way and attempted to expalin it once again at a slower rate and explain the different positions that the tongue takes with the vowel distinctions and common words that have an "e" or an "i." I am not sure how much she understood the second time around, but I decided to move on. I explained to her that I needed to think of a different way to illustrate the differences between the vowels, because she had been unable to understand my different examples, and that we would get back to it at a different time.

These lessons allowed me to understand that having Spanish as my native tongue and then learning English at age 5 was difficult for me, but evenmore so for adults who are past the critical age of learning a different language.

Getting to Know Alexas

Going into the Boulder Public Library for the first day of reading buddies I was eager to meet and help shape my little buddy as a reader. However, what I have found is that Alexas has shaped me to be her ideal mentor. She is a bubbly six-year-old with blond hair and huge blue eyes. She has a happy go lucky attitude and does what she pleases as long as it complies with the library rules. Every time she arrives she always has a big smile and gives me an even bigger hug. She admires her brother a great deal, which is apparent from the stories she tells about him and her desire to sit near him during our sessions. Her brother, Nick, is a very good reader and I think that motivates Alexas’s desire to read.

A part of Alexas’s personality is revealed to me during every story I read to her. While reading Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann I learned that Alexas is a ballerina because she demonstrated what the word “pirouette” means when we read it in the book. That was the first day and still she will twirl around the library as we go to pick out books. I have also learned how insightful she is. She is constantly making predictions about what is coming on the next page. I was particularly impressed by Alexas when we read My Mother’s Secret Life by Rebecca Emberley. In the story a girl takes a nap and dreams her mother is in the circus but when she wakes up her mother is actually just her mother. Alexas’s love for illustrations led her to realize that in the girl’s dream her mother was wearing a sparkly outfit with sparkling nails and when she woke up her mother’s nail polish was the same as in the dream.

Alexas is very much in charge of how our meetings go. If I pick out a book that does not appeal to her she will simply put it back. She is very particular about what books she likes to read. She likes books with only a few words on each page. That way, after I have read it to her once she can reiterate it back to me. She is always pleased with herself after she reads a book to me and often will read the book a few times over again. One book she particularly likes is a book called Pickle Things by Marc Brown. She wants to read it every session. As soon as we have finished decorating our name tags she goes straight to the shelf that Pickle Things is on to read it again. This past session we could not find it and looked on the computer and found that somebody had checked it out of the library. So, we used its absence as a chance to start writing our own story.

Alexas decided she wanted our book to be about a mermaid. Her ideas were a bit jumbled so I asked her several questions to get the story more on track. In the process she dropped the mermaid idea, which complicated a part of the story that had to do with whales, but in the end the story came out quite nicely and she even started thinking of pictures she could draw for each page. Admittedly, there were a few instances that I had to fight laughter because her ideas did not necessarily flow together. Still, it was fun for both of us to play with her imagination and create something unique.

Alexas has showed me how empowering reading can be. Reading teaches you things. For example, How to Build Hair-Raising Haunted Houses by Megan Peterson taught us how to decorate our houses in spooky ways for Halloween. Alexas enjoyed the ideas in it so much she checked it out of the library so she could test out the designs on her own house. Since the first session, Alexas has developed much more of a taste for books. She knows which books she likes and she knows how to find them. On the first day, I told her we would be writing a book and she looked puzzled. I told her to start thinking about things to write about and she had a rather blank look on her face as though nothing came to mind. Last session, when I asked her again what she might like the write about, she immediately lit up with all the possibilities then finally decided on one she liked. We were able to write a story that we are both proud of and one that, hopefully, everybody will enjoy hearing on our last session when Alexas will read it aloud.

First sessions with SWAP!

As I looked at the sticky note with my name, posted outside the SWAP door, I quickly scanned the few details about my student. The first thing that I noticed was that her native tongue was Spanish and that she was a 1A student. I wasn't sure what to think about my students English knowledge, I knew that 1A means that she is in the begining level, but other than that I was a bit anxious to see how everything would turn out.

As I met up with my student, I was able to learn that she knew a lot of English vocabulary. What perhaps prevented many people as seeing her as knowleadgable about English was the fact she is very shy. My student seems to gert a bit anxious about speaking in English, stating that she is very old (she is around 50) and started learning English very late in her life. Her trepidations about the English language were ones that I had heard before coming from my own relatives. It is very difficult for adults to have the role of learner, or ignorants as they sometimes view it, when speaking to a younger person. Their self esteem is injured, but that is something that they don't want to admit and so they cling to the idea that it may not be possible for them to learn perfect English.

Although I agree that adults are past the stage, because there is research that support this idea, of becoming 100% proficent in English, I always point out the fact that I have my own problems with English. I explained to my student that I understood her fears about speaking in English and looked down upon for her inproficent English, but that speaking it was still important. I continued to explain that she should feel comfortable speaking English with me, because it is a learning environment. A learning environment where mistakes will happen, but they will lead to further knowledge. After explaining all of this to her we proceded to go over the first lesson in the learning book about greetings.

As we began to cover the first lesson, I was able to see that she already knew this information. Here again I realized that her shyness and trepidation about speaking English with others, had made others believe that her English skills were lower than expected. So with this realization, I modified the lesson to include types of translations. I would give her examples of situations in Spanish and tell her the words, but then would ask her how that would translate into English. She did very well in this exercise and even admitted that she was glad that I am bilingual. This ability to communicate in Spanish, when her English skills failed, allowed her to gain more background information than would be possible if I only spoke in English.

Overall, I am very excited for the rest of semester. I am sure that she will continue to progress in her English vocabulary and hope that she will gain more confidence about speaking in English.

First Post

Many people often go about their daily lives somewhat mindlessly and most times do not take notice of the workers around them. These unseen people are doing jobs such as cleaning buildings or preparing our food which are crucial to running the CU campus. I have had the fortunate opportunity through the SWAP program to meet one of these behind the scenes workers. I have been helping Valentina for two sessions now with her English. She is an amazing woman with so much to say. First coming to the United States about 30 years ago from Mexico, she has worked at CU for 20 years and is currently working at Smith Residence Hall in the custodial department. Even though I am just starting to get to know Valentina, her persistence and drive to wanting to learn English amazes me. She is constantly repeating to herself concepts we go over in hopes that she will remember the new information.

Just the other day, during our second session, we started talking about past tenses and I asked “What did you do yesterday?” Her reply was, “I cooked.” Next was followed by a fifteen minute tangent about her sister’s birthday party she cooked for. She was describing how to make all of these traditional Mexican dishes. Even though I was not entirely able to decipher all of her Spanglish, it was clear her passion for cooking. I am constantly trying to find new ways of teaching the material in interesting ways and I believe I have through food. Overall, this has been a great experience and I continually find myself being challenged with explaining English rules that I haven’t been thought about since Elementary school.

At Family Learning center I don’t have a specific reading buddy, I mostly go around and help all the kids. I had one really awesome time on October 4th. I was helping a middle school boy named Benny to do his Algebra homework, and he at first was really turned off of having me helping him. But once I began to help him it was great working through his homework and seeing him understand! I would walk him through one problem and then have him do the next one and help him if he got stuck. Also we completely finished the worksheet even though he was not assigned the back of the sheet yet, but we finished it so he could be ahead for next week! He was really open by the end of the two hours and really understood the material, which was great! I feel like all the kids are more welcoming to me now that it is my third week. Also they are coming up to me for help instead of me having to go up to them and ask them if they need help. Since I have started family learning center I have really been exposed to a group of kids I was never exposed to when I was there age. I grew up in a really non-diverse county and growing up I always had everything I needed and was provided an outstanding education. To see these kids not having the same privileges I had growing up is very upsetting but I am happy I am able to help them grow and develop in the academic world! Also it has been cool seeing the kid’s switch from English to Spanish like it was no problem. It has shown me how their Spanish really is part of their identity, they will talk about things like "its a Mexican thing" or "its a Mexican drink". I have really enjoyed my experience and can’t wait to continue volunteering!

Reading Buddies First Blog

I was a little nervous for reading buddies before the first meeting and information session. It didn't help when I was the only one to show up 20 minutes late either. But, once I got my buddies information my anxiety turned to excitement. I've never held a job that doesn't involve working with youth. And I've learned a lot about myself during the years and hours I've spent with kids like the fact that 5-7 year old boys are my favorite age group to work with. So when I saw that Josiah, my buddy, is a 5 year old boy I knew we were going to have a good time.

When Josiah and I first met I could tell a lot about him by the way he hugged his mommy's leg to hide from me and was slow to respond when I asked him questions about his self. But I broke his nervous shell when I made a horrible joke about him owning 3... BILLION cats (He really only has 3 cats). After that incident I just became the silly 5 year old me so we could relate and get comfortable. Since that first day Josiah and I have had a ball every wednesday.

Our reading sessions usually begins with some silly name tag antics followed by us fighting over the big yellow rocking chair. Once its time to read Josiah heads straight for the next "Fly Guy" book in the series that we've been reading through. In one day we read 5 "Fly Guy" Books and every time I asked Josiah which one was his favorite he'd just stare me in the eyes with a wide grin and say "All of them!" and we'd keep on reading. I've started to notice Josiah's literature taste and I think he is too. Which is a big step for him and I because the very first day he had no idea what books he liked. I think this will really help us plan his own book.

My favorite part of my time with Josiah is the last 15 minutes. Because during that time we put our books away and break out the markers. Its my favorite time because I get to see the creativity Josiah puts on paper. He has made 2 masterpieces of scrap paper art. The first one titled "bleeding cat bleeding cat" and the second one is called "dog". All titles were his idea.

Overall I look forward to reading buddies every week and it's definitely a highlight of my week. I can't wait to go tomorrow!

Hello bloggers!

My Ling 1900 experience is somewhat unique. Last year I teamed up with a program called “Reach out and Read.” The “Reach out and Read” program partners with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Therefore, for this program I go to Clinica Health Center and encourage/read to children in the waiting room. I also have a mentor at Clincia Health Center and at the end of the appointments we inform families on the importance of reading and then give the child a free book to take home with them. Because I was already involved in this program I was allowed to continue with it AND become a part of the awesome program that Ling 1900 offers.

The patients at Clinica Health Center are often those who speak Spanish. Therefore, I have the opportunity to help the children learn/read English as well as to the opportunity to expand my Spanish. Often I talk to the parents first, asking if it is ok if I read with their child. When I encounter the families that do not speak English I pull out some of my Spanish books. I then start attempting to read Spanish, getting giggles here and there from the children due to my obvious lack of excellence with this language. This gets the children to open up. They often proceed to come over and help me with my Spanish, which in return helps them with their reading! Then after we are comfortable with each other I’ll pull out a beginner English picture book. This is a great way of helping the children read English. Seeing that I mess up at Spanish and need help they are no longer afraid to try reading English and ask for help.

If the child does speak English we take turns reading out loud. I help them with the words they have trouble with and encourage them to read more and more. Often when I’m reading to a child other children become curious and come over to read with us. This is a great way to demonstrate to families how reading can be fun and to help encourage the kids to read!

Overall, my experience at Clinica Health Center has been wonderful. I walk away knowing that I have made an impact in the lives of the kids and families.