Reader to Reader’s literacy
program, Encamínate, is back in full swing at Kelly and EN White Schools in
Holyoke, MA! Parents from the fall have welcomed in nine new parents in the first
week alone and both groups are excited about moving forward. These parents
bring a special brand of optimism and enthusiasm for learning to the program
each day, which is what enables quality learning to take place in our multi-level
language environment.
Let’s take a close
look at how multi-level classes function at Encamínate. For example one lesson last week was focused
on a theme, the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr Day. After the morning
routine of basic conversation and weather, we started with the whole group
together calling out words to describe MLK and forming a word cloud on the
board. Those who didn’t have enough English to express their ideas were
encouraged not to hold back but to go ahead and use Spanish. This way everyone
benefited from the debriefing of MLK’s persona and life’s work. New English
vocabulary words were explained and noted down by all. Next everyone listened
to the last 5 minutes of the I Have a
Dream speech, while reading along with a transcript to enhance
comprehension. Afterwards the group made another word cloud all together
about the emotional content in the speech and how they felt while listening to
the recording, even if they couldn’t understand all of the language. More
advanced students verbally translated the main ideas of the speech into
Spanish, explaining more vocabulary words like “freedom” and “prodigious.” Next the group analyzed a hand out with
graphics comparing racial discrimination today with that of the 1960’s, which led
to a quite vigorous bilingual discussion amongst all.
Finally, after a brief break, the group split
into levels. Those who were more advanced read a short biography of MLK Jr, and
while reading worked on identifying irregular past tense verbs and regular past
tense verbs in the text. After the first silent read through, they took turns
reading sentence by sentence out loud, snapping when an irregular verb in past
tense was read and clapping when a regular verb in past tense was read. After
this they formed teams of three and used the biographies and a short timeline
of important events in the life of MLK Jr to make a poster using images that
were provided and put together a 2 minute oral presentation for the rest of the
class.
Meanwhile, the less
advanced students worked on practicing sentences in simple present with the
verb “to be” in negative and then question forms. First they completed fill in
the blank worksheets to warm up. Then they put away their notes and started the
speaking activity: taking turns making sentences by drawing a card with a pronoun
written on it, conjugating the verb “to be” accordingly and then pairing it
with one of the emotion words that we had written on the board to describe the I Have a Dream speech earlier in order
to form a full sentence. For example someone might draw the pronoun card “we”
and select the word “inspired” from the
board to then form the sentences “We are inspired,” “We are not inspired,” or “Are
we inspired?” For the last ten minutes,
the three teams of more advanced students gave their presentations on the life
of MLK Jr for the rest of the group.
Parents come to Encamínate to learn English and
to benefit from the family literacy and school engagement opportunities that
the program offers. Learning or reviewing about MLK Jr, just as their children
are doing at school at this time of the year, will help parents support their
children’s learning and will naturally boost conversations and sharing of
information at home amongst the family. Every parent can be an asset to their
children’s educational experience and Encamínate strives to empower and inspire
parents in their role.
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