For our most recent project, our class visited Park Elementary School on two separate occasions to share in a bilingual experience. Both times that we visited, our class goal was to assist bilingual kids in their everyday schoolwork as well as to use this interaction as an opportunity to improve our Spanish skills. Each AHS student was assigned one bilingual student for both visits to Park. To prepare for meeting “our student”, we each were required to prepare at least ten simple questions in Spanish to act as conversation starters. We also were assigned to read our student a children’s book in Spanish. We practiced our questions and reading our book out loud in class multiple times. Before our second and last visit we also crafted a card with a Spanish phrase that we wrote to give our students right before we ended our last visit.
The student that I was assigned was Lily who was in the second grade. The first day I met her she was initially shy, but after spending some time with her and asking her my prepared questions she loosened up. The second time we met was even more exciting as she was no longer shy and actually happy to see me. We began each day with our students by engaging in a little fun; we would participate in games like balloon popping tag and a blindfolded directional game. After this I would follow Lily to her classroom where for a few hours I would assist her in her work such as composing letters, improving handwriting, and helping her to check her spelling. Following this we would go to recess for about 20 minutes where the kids mostly went off to play with their classmates. Before leaving each day I would sit outside and read Lily a children’s book in Spanish that I had previously selected.
It was quite obvious that Lily struggled with reading and writing more than some of the kids whose first language is English, but she still was not far behind everyone else. Her writing and reading skills actually seemed more advanced than some of the other students that I observed in her class. She just seemed to have to put in more effort than others students and it showed. It was apparent that other bilingual kids struggled with learning to read and write in English quite a bit more than Lily. Having dyslexia myself, I understand the extra effort needed and the struggle to learn how to read and write. I do believe that attending Park Elementary School is beneficial for Lily since there is such a large population of bilingual students and she has peers experiencing the same struggles. Also with a large bilingual population the school has been able to hire a full time teacher to individually help the bilingual students thrive.
As a language learner seeing such young kids balance the knowledge of both languages amazed me and encouraged me to improve my Spanish. I realized the benefits and negatives to being a bilingual student from this experience, which was eye opening. Overall the highlight of the experience was being able to assist Lily in her everyday work and also having the opportunity to observe how she would push through the struggles of being bilingual. If I were able to do this project again I would have liked to gone back to the elementary school many more times. I feel if we could have done this, the AHS students would have had the opportunity to create a much stronger bond with their student and to have accomplished more with them. Also, it would have given us the chance to understand more of what it means to be a young, bilingual student.
Overall this project was very enjoyable and hands on. I enjoyed the opportunity to bond with Lily and to explore more of what it is like to be a young bilingual student. I also felt that this project gave us an opportunity to make a small positive impact on the community. This project allowed me to apply my Spanish speaking skills in the real world, which was very beneficial. I learned so much from observing these students in and out of class. In the future I would love to participate in a similar project or opportunity.
The student that I was assigned was Lily who was in the second grade. The first day I met her she was initially shy, but after spending some time with her and asking her my prepared questions she loosened up. The second time we met was even more exciting as she was no longer shy and actually happy to see me. We began each day with our students by engaging in a little fun; we would participate in games like balloon popping tag and a blindfolded directional game. After this I would follow Lily to her classroom where for a few hours I would assist her in her work such as composing letters, improving handwriting, and helping her to check her spelling. Following this we would go to recess for about 20 minutes where the kids mostly went off to play with their classmates. Before leaving each day I would sit outside and read Lily a children’s book in Spanish that I had previously selected.
It was quite obvious that Lily struggled with reading and writing more than some of the kids whose first language is English, but she still was not far behind everyone else. Her writing and reading skills actually seemed more advanced than some of the other students that I observed in her class. She just seemed to have to put in more effort than others students and it showed. It was apparent that other bilingual kids struggled with learning to read and write in English quite a bit more than Lily. Having dyslexia myself, I understand the extra effort needed and the struggle to learn how to read and write. I do believe that attending Park Elementary School is beneficial for Lily since there is such a large population of bilingual students and she has peers experiencing the same struggles. Also with a large bilingual population the school has been able to hire a full time teacher to individually help the bilingual students thrive.
As a language learner seeing such young kids balance the knowledge of both languages amazed me and encouraged me to improve my Spanish. I realized the benefits and negatives to being a bilingual student from this experience, which was eye opening. Overall the highlight of the experience was being able to assist Lily in her everyday work and also having the opportunity to observe how she would push through the struggles of being bilingual. If I were able to do this project again I would have liked to gone back to the elementary school many more times. I feel if we could have done this, the AHS students would have had the opportunity to create a much stronger bond with their student and to have accomplished more with them. Also, it would have given us the chance to understand more of what it means to be a young, bilingual student.
Overall this project was very enjoyable and hands on. I enjoyed the opportunity to bond with Lily and to explore more of what it is like to be a young bilingual student. I also felt that this project gave us an opportunity to make a small positive impact on the community. This project allowed me to apply my Spanish speaking skills in the real world, which was very beneficial. I learned so much from observing these students in and out of class. In the future I would love to participate in a similar project or opportunity.