arrowwhiskers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arrowwhiskers) wrote2008-01-25 03:06 am
arrowwhiskers) wrote2008-01-25 03:06 am
Oh crap.
So apparently we're supposed to be blogging about our service learning, but they haven't set it up yet. Still, I should probably...note some things so I don't forget.
The orientation session was really nice. The lady in charge (Michelle?) is really friendly, and she's doing her own strain of community service with the Peace Corps. The organization is the ILC, the International Learning Center at the central branch of the YMCA located right on Huntington Ave on the edge of the NEU campus. The program works with all types of people, both those who are paying privately for English lessons, and those who are part of subsidized immigration programs. One of these is called the Fenway Program, and there's anotehr, but I forget what it is called.
The orientation was really short. It spanned only an hour and a half, in which the nice lady introduced herself and the program, had us introduce ourselves and state our goals for the service (which is sort of an interesting, service-learning approach to community service that I've never experienced before, really), and showed us around the building. We also had huge packets to fill out, that seemed to take an almost uncomfortable amount of information; one of them apparently put me on the registry for sexual offenses (I mean, clearly I don't have any, but if I did, they'd be able to look me up quickly? Or something? I don't know.) There were a lot of people volunteering from NEU, but none from my class, as far as I know. There are two aspects of the program that I personally will be involved in, the ESL one on one tutoring, and helping out in a computer class to help the students get skills in Microsoft word, Excel, etc. There are also job skills seminars, apparently, but I wasn't invited to help in any of those. Basically it seems like a seedier, more cut-down version of the IIB with less wayward seeming students. Apparently, however, they're very accustomed to having students do their service-learning there, and Michelle is sooo helpful. I sent her a bunch of emails to secure if I could get a position, when the orientations were, and when my tutoring and classes would be, and she was always extremely supportive and helpful and EXTREMELY prompt in returning emails and assuaging concerns. She has a career in this, I swear.
Apparently the ILC also does this thign where it requires that student volunteers participate in an online discussion twice over the course of their service with the program. I couldn't (and still can't) get the googlegroups thing to work with my gmail account, but Michelle did the best she could to help me and I am going to ask her about it in person the next time I see her. THat's the type of coordinator she is; really relaxed and accomodating and understanding, such that I'm not worried about the fact that it doesn't work since I know that we'll work something out eventually.
My first day on the job was yesterday, when I volunteered for an hour between classes, helping out in a computer class that is apparently held everyday for students in a particular full-time educational program. There weren't many students there, just 5 as I recall...one Asian looking man whose name I can't remember who "is good at computers so we let him do his own thing". There was an African man named Bismark who was also doing something complicated, like sending email...and then there was a Chinese woman, Shu Ping, practicing with a generic typing program. Her WPM were really good. Two other Muslim women, Zahra and Hanane (I don't know where they were from), were also doing this, but when Michelle offered me to them as a resource, Hanane agreed to work with a workbook designed by other students for the ILC. The workbook we were using had exercises designed to familiarize the student with Microsoft word. We started from the beginning, with highlighting text, changing font size, color, etc. It was a little awkward, because the students in this class were much more advanced than the ones I am used to, so she seemed to know a lot of things about the computer. I was trying not to condescend to her by prodding her to "figure out" or "watch me" do things she already knew how to do, but while some things seemed to come very naturally and easily to her, other things, such as how to manipulate various lines and spaces and backspaces on the word processor, turned out to be not so straightforward to her.
The book itself seemed kind of painful, since it would ask her to do such things as "type out the numbers from one to twenty one, and then save the file under the filename "numbers". Close the file." After making perhaps another few documents, the book would then call for the "numbers" file to be reopened, and the file to be continued by typing out the numbers twenty-two to fifty. (Ouch! I gave her the option of not doing that one, but she was a good sport about it.)
Hanane's English was frustrating in that she was good enough that I thought she understood me on a decent level, but then she made such simple errors at times that I no longer became sure. She falls into the pattern, as do a lot of ESL students, of just nodding when I say something, regardless of whether or not she's acutally understood. I found certain expressions were very transparent, while others, she would pretend to understand but not react. For example, when I told her to "make a new file", she didn't know what I was saying, but "create a blank document", ironically the more technical phrasing, made perfect sense to her and she would instantly comply.
In terms of writing, she has some issues with spelling, but in general she adapted quickly. I noticed that once she made one error, it made it very difficult to, in the end, get the word. She was very aware of the little spellcheck squiggles, however, and always tried to edit a word the moment she realized she was wrong.
Something interesting about her was that she did not seem to have a very good background in phonics AT ALL. This is very strange to me because after working in the level 0 class at the IIB, it's *all* about phonix. Hanane wrote, at first, "teen" for "ten". I asked her to reread the word to me, and she read it how she thought it was, "ten". No, I told her, you pronounce "teen" as in "thirteen". I kept pronouncing Ten. TEHHN. Like in "eggs". My illiterate students at the IIB would have figured it out easily from that kind of a hint and stress, but they've apparently been taught very differently here. I will have to stop thinking in such a phonetic vein, though to be honest I'm not sure how else to give hints on spelling without outright giving the answer, which I don't want to do *all* the time.
The final thing that I noticed about Hanane was that she was very creative. Part of the workbook required that she write 5 sentences in the structure "what color is...?" so I prompted her by saying "what's something that is white?" Often, I couldn't think of something simple and good off of the top of my head when I asked the question, but she always came up with a perfect example. Snow is white. Coffee is brown. When she typed coffee at first, she typed "cafe", and appologized, saying that was the French version. I wonder what her profficiency is in French, cause that's a much more ambitious sort of phonology.
Anyway, after working through exercises, I got the impression I could have stayed much longer than my scheduled hour (as it is I ran over by 5 minutes, and then had to leave because I had class starting in another 15)...so I might end up showing up a bit earlier for the class instead because the hour seemed to simply ZOOM by. After 3 hour shifts overseeing computer use at the IIB, an hour of interactive one on one time is nothing. I do love how even with just 15 minutes to spare, I WAS able to get to class on time.
It has been a positive experience so far. I look forward to having my actual tutoring start next week. I have been assigned a Peruvian woman, and I'm not sure what her level of English skill is yet.
The orientation session was really nice. The lady in charge (Michelle?) is really friendly, and she's doing her own strain of community service with the Peace Corps. The organization is the ILC, the International Learning Center at the central branch of the YMCA located right on Huntington Ave on the edge of the NEU campus. The program works with all types of people, both those who are paying privately for English lessons, and those who are part of subsidized immigration programs. One of these is called the Fenway Program, and there's anotehr, but I forget what it is called.
The orientation was really short. It spanned only an hour and a half, in which the nice lady introduced herself and the program, had us introduce ourselves and state our goals for the service (which is sort of an interesting, service-learning approach to community service that I've never experienced before, really), and showed us around the building. We also had huge packets to fill out, that seemed to take an almost uncomfortable amount of information; one of them apparently put me on the registry for sexual offenses (I mean, clearly I don't have any, but if I did, they'd be able to look me up quickly? Or something? I don't know.) There were a lot of people volunteering from NEU, but none from my class, as far as I know. There are two aspects of the program that I personally will be involved in, the ESL one on one tutoring, and helping out in a computer class to help the students get skills in Microsoft word, Excel, etc. There are also job skills seminars, apparently, but I wasn't invited to help in any of those. Basically it seems like a seedier, more cut-down version of the IIB with less wayward seeming students. Apparently, however, they're very accustomed to having students do their service-learning there, and Michelle is sooo helpful. I sent her a bunch of emails to secure if I could get a position, when the orientations were, and when my tutoring and classes would be, and she was always extremely supportive and helpful and EXTREMELY prompt in returning emails and assuaging concerns. She has a career in this, I swear.
Apparently the ILC also does this thign where it requires that student volunteers participate in an online discussion twice over the course of their service with the program. I couldn't (and still can't) get the googlegroups thing to work with my gmail account, but Michelle did the best she could to help me and I am going to ask her about it in person the next time I see her. THat's the type of coordinator she is; really relaxed and accomodating and understanding, such that I'm not worried about the fact that it doesn't work since I know that we'll work something out eventually.
My first day on the job was yesterday, when I volunteered for an hour between classes, helping out in a computer class that is apparently held everyday for students in a particular full-time educational program. There weren't many students there, just 5 as I recall...one Asian looking man whose name I can't remember who "is good at computers so we let him do his own thing". There was an African man named Bismark who was also doing something complicated, like sending email...and then there was a Chinese woman, Shu Ping, practicing with a generic typing program. Her WPM were really good. Two other Muslim women, Zahra and Hanane (I don't know where they were from), were also doing this, but when Michelle offered me to them as a resource, Hanane agreed to work with a workbook designed by other students for the ILC. The workbook we were using had exercises designed to familiarize the student with Microsoft word. We started from the beginning, with highlighting text, changing font size, color, etc. It was a little awkward, because the students in this class were much more advanced than the ones I am used to, so she seemed to know a lot of things about the computer. I was trying not to condescend to her by prodding her to "figure out" or "watch me" do things she already knew how to do, but while some things seemed to come very naturally and easily to her, other things, such as how to manipulate various lines and spaces and backspaces on the word processor, turned out to be not so straightforward to her.
The book itself seemed kind of painful, since it would ask her to do such things as "type out the numbers from one to twenty one, and then save the file under the filename "numbers". Close the file." After making perhaps another few documents, the book would then call for the "numbers" file to be reopened, and the file to be continued by typing out the numbers twenty-two to fifty. (Ouch! I gave her the option of not doing that one, but she was a good sport about it.)
Hanane's English was frustrating in that she was good enough that I thought she understood me on a decent level, but then she made such simple errors at times that I no longer became sure. She falls into the pattern, as do a lot of ESL students, of just nodding when I say something, regardless of whether or not she's acutally understood. I found certain expressions were very transparent, while others, she would pretend to understand but not react. For example, when I told her to "make a new file", she didn't know what I was saying, but "create a blank document", ironically the more technical phrasing, made perfect sense to her and she would instantly comply.
In terms of writing, she has some issues with spelling, but in general she adapted quickly. I noticed that once she made one error, it made it very difficult to, in the end, get the word. She was very aware of the little spellcheck squiggles, however, and always tried to edit a word the moment she realized she was wrong.
Something interesting about her was that she did not seem to have a very good background in phonics AT ALL. This is very strange to me because after working in the level 0 class at the IIB, it's *all* about phonix. Hanane wrote, at first, "teen" for "ten". I asked her to reread the word to me, and she read it how she thought it was, "ten". No, I told her, you pronounce "teen" as in "thirteen". I kept pronouncing Ten. TEHHN. Like in "eggs". My illiterate students at the IIB would have figured it out easily from that kind of a hint and stress, but they've apparently been taught very differently here. I will have to stop thinking in such a phonetic vein, though to be honest I'm not sure how else to give hints on spelling without outright giving the answer, which I don't want to do *all* the time.
The final thing that I noticed about Hanane was that she was very creative. Part of the workbook required that she write 5 sentences in the structure "what color is...?" so I prompted her by saying "what's something that is white?" Often, I couldn't think of something simple and good off of the top of my head when I asked the question, but she always came up with a perfect example. Snow is white. Coffee is brown. When she typed coffee at first, she typed "cafe", and appologized, saying that was the French version. I wonder what her profficiency is in French, cause that's a much more ambitious sort of phonology.
Anyway, after working through exercises, I got the impression I could have stayed much longer than my scheduled hour (as it is I ran over by 5 minutes, and then had to leave because I had class starting in another 15)...so I might end up showing up a bit earlier for the class instead because the hour seemed to simply ZOOM by. After 3 hour shifts overseeing computer use at the IIB, an hour of interactive one on one time is nothing. I do love how even with just 15 minutes to spare, I WAS able to get to class on time.
It has been a positive experience so far. I look forward to having my actual tutoring start next week. I have been assigned a Peruvian woman, and I'm not sure what her level of English skill is yet.