Category: Viviane Eng

May 2, 2010

Social Justice Teach-In Reflection

I was really surprised about how well the Teach-In went for my workshop group. We were pretty on track time wise and the workshop members were occupied most of the time. After we brought them downstairs to Louise’s Kindergarten (this was the first workshop), the middle schoolers began to read to their small group of kids. Fifteen minutes into that, Naomi and I realized that forty-five minutes of reading for both Kindergarteners and Middle Schools is A LOT. So we decided to change things at the last minute. We talked to Louise about what other activities we could do, drawing a picture about what happened in the book, or something else. Louise told us that before we came in, the Kindergarteners were already working on their own paintings, so we had the workshop members do that. Some might argue that painting, has absolutely nothing to do with illiteracy, but there is some relationship. During our visits at LINC, only a little bit of time was spent reading. Getting to know the child is also very important. In order for the child to be more comfortable asking questions and being more engaged, they have to get to know the reader. During the second workshop, we gave middle schoolers about twenty minutes to read to Gina’s first graders and then we had them switch. We had the first graders read to the 5th-7th graders. It was really interesting to see that because all the kids had different reading levels. Some of them were reading the most basic picture books, but then there were others who were already reading chapter books. It made me think back to our social justice issue (illiteracy) and how many kids in the world weren’t reading at certain levels because they didn’t get read to enough at home. Could the amount of reading at home affect a child’s reading level even right here at LREI?

Being a “teacher” for two hours wasn’t as difficult as I thought it’d be. During all our social justice visits, Kyla, Naomi, Nora, and I had to work with kids that were really young and not so well behaved, so decently behaved 5th-7th graders were no big deal. Plus, there were two teachers in the room the entire time. However, it definitely wasn’t all easy. At the end, when we asked workshop members to complete the reflections, two 5th graders were trying to be funny (it didn’t end up being funny at all) and wouldn’t write anything down. For example, when we told them to write something, they would literally write the word “something.” This went on for 10 whole minutes. Now I understand that being a teacher can be really hard sometimes.

If I could change anything about both workshop sessions, I would make sure we introduced ourselves during the first one, and most importantly actually plan a back-up activity if people got tired of reading. I liked the idea of the assemblies because it gave groups a chance to share what they were doing with the whole Middle School. And as for suggestions to making the Teach-In better for the whole middle school next year, I’d suggest not doing that final reflection with the found poetry thing. Many workshop members/leaders thought it kind of took away from the Teach-In.

March 29, 2010

Viviane-3/25/10-LINC

Today Naomi and I attended Pj Night! An event that is supposed to encourage reading before bed time.It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately, Kyla and Nora were in Costa Rica and couldn’t join us. We met up at the school, took the downtown “F” train one stop, took the”6,” and then finally transferred to the “4” express train, and got off at 125th Street. When we got out of the station we had to walk under this bridge on Park Avenue. It was very quiet and almost completely empty, which made it a little scary. We then walked up two blocks and found the Harlem Branch New York Public Library.

Once we walked up the stairs to the second floor, there saw there were little rooms for small children to read with their parents. Deborah (the coordinator) read a book aloud and a mother did the same afterwards. The room was almost empty. There were three mothers with their toddlers/babies, until the same children from our first visit piled into the room. We then began singing songs; Old MacDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, and If You’re Happy and You Know It, just to name a few. Once we were done with that, Deborah introduced our activity of the evening. The kids would be making their own paper bears. We were responsible for passing out the supplies and helping the kids use gluesticks. It really surprised me that five and six year olds weren’t familiar with them. Overall, I had a good time, but I still wonder why most of the program doesn’t revolve around reading when it’s supposed to.

Helping Evin construct his bear

March 14, 2010

Viviane – 3/10/10 – LINC

On Wednesday, Kyla, Naomi, Nora, and I went to our fourth LINC visit. It was another reading program at St. Jude, but in my opinion, it went a lot better this time. We took the “A” train as usual, but Naomi and Nora wanted to transfer to the “1” at 168th Street because we would only have to walk one block instead of five. However I thought the “1” would be way to slow, so we decided to race. Naomi and Nora vs. Kyla and me. Despite the longer walking distance, Kyla and I won, so next time we would all take our route.

When we got to the school, we were assigned one or two Kindergarteners to read with. After reading just one book, it was basically just free time for all. Some kids decided to draw, others just sat, and the rest talked amongst themselves. Well, that left us 8th graders without much to do, so I suggested we play a drawing game at my table. We would have one sheet of paper and each person would draw the first thing that came into their minds, even if it’d be something completely unrelated to everyone else’s drawings. Naomi joined the game and it was a lot of fun. Once the paper was full of drawings, Naomi, Kiarra (a fifth grader), and I led a couple rounds of the hand game Quackadillioso and all of us had a great time. The Kindergarteners learned a new game, the fifth grader at my table was very helpful, and we all could’ve agreed that no one was bored.

A nice little group shot Naomi suggested we try to be investigative journalists, so we went around different floors of the school

March 3, 2010

Viviane – 3/3/10 – LINC

Shya the fifth grader and I coloring with Kindergarteners

Today Kyla, Naomi, Nora and I attended an after school program at the St. Jude School on 204th St. in Upper Manhattan. St. Jude is a Catholic elementary school that has a reading program for its Kindergarteners every wednesday after school. The fifth graders who have to stay late after school on wednesdays are required to attend the event also to help out the coordinators and the Kindergarteners too. Our organization LINC, works with schools like St. Jude who have activities and reading programs after school to make them even better for everyone who is a part of them. So that was what our mission was for today.

At first we got a little lost. We were unfamiliar with the streets. There were no numbers. Instead, the street signs read Port Ave., Sherman Ave., Nagle Ave., and a bunch of other streets we weren’t familiar with. Plus, to top it off, many residents only spoke Spanish, but believe me, we even tried that. After fifteen minutes of searching, we finally found the school.

Once we arrived inside, Albania, the LINC coordinator led us into a classroom where there were four tables of Kindergarteners. Seated at each of these tables were one or two 5th graders who were to help. We started by sorting handouts. Today is the day after Dr. Seuss’ birthday so there was a little theme going on. There was a coloring sheet of Horton the elephant from “Horton Hears a Who!,” an observation sheet, and a sheet with Kindergarten level addition problems. Once each child had a handout, the two fifth graders at my table and I read Dr. Seuss’ “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.” To be honest, the fifth graders were not interested at all in reading to the kids, which led the kids to not be engaged listeners, which led my table to become a big table of disengagement. One little boy, Remy even pretended to fall asleep (I couldn’t tell if he was pretending or not). It only got a little better when the kids started working on their math sheets. I helped them with their addition, and taught them the finger counting trick (If you have one finger and add another, you get two). Once the kids finished their math, they started coloring their elephants on their own, not wanting anything to do with the 5th graders or me of course. So we just sat their saying, “I like that color,” every time they changed crayons. Needless to say, I had a much better time last visit at the McDonald’s reading. Overall, I still had an okay time, and it was nice experiencing the two very different programs and being able to compare and contrast them.

February 25, 2010

Viviane – 2/23/10 – LINC

Today Kyla, Nora, and I attended one of the reading programs at the McDonald’s on 125th Street. We took the C train up to 125th Street and St. Nicholas Ave. Prior to arrival, I wasn’t sure what we’d be doing. I knew it was going to be somewhere along the lines of reading to kids; but would a couple of picture books really take up two hour’s worth of time? I hoped not. That would’ve been a lot of reading. Luckily, we did much more than read.

We started with singing “The Wheels on the Bus.” Personally, that was a lot of fun for me. It felt like I was back in pre-school. At that very moment, I realized how long it has been since I sang those songs and how much fun it was for me. After that, I was determined to make the experience as enjoyable for the kids as possible. Once that was over, Nora, Kyla, and I shared a song we knew from our toddler days, “Great Big Moose.” At first, it was a little awkward because they had never heard the song before, and weren’t singing, but by the second time around, they were singing and doing the little moose motions.

After the singing, we finally got our chance to read with the kids. There were fifteen of them there and three of us; so each of us had a small circle of five kids. We picked three books, and began reading. Once I began reading, I noticed how excited the kids were about being read to. They asked questions and were very engaged. I never thought that reading a thin little picture book to a first grader could make a difference in his or her life. But now I see that literacy skills develop early, so being read to at a young age exposes the many wonders of reading. Plus, when a kid enjoys reading, they’ll have an easier time in school, and for me, that’s enough to make a difference.

: Here are kids very kindly posing for a photo. It took us a while to think of a word to spell because of the lack of letters, but in the end, we finally did it!

February 13, 2010

Viviane – 2/12/10 – LINC

Today, Kyla, Naomi, Nora, and I took the subway to LINC’s (Literacy Incorporated) office on 27th street and 7th avenue. Before arriving, none of us had a single idea of what we were going to be doing during the visit. Would we get to work with kids? Maybe do office work? Something else? We were all eager to find out.

Turns out, this visit was more of a meeting. We finally got the chance to meet Debora Mulrain (the person we had been contacting through email), who very kindly told us about what LINC does and the mission of the organization. LINC’s goal is to promote literacy as early as possible in children’s lives. This is important because kids that have the opportunity to practice reading (or at least be read to) before they start school have a better chance of succeeding. But what exactly does LINC do to expose these kids to the joy of reading? Well they organize many events where they partner with many neighborhood resources (such as libraries, health centers, shelters, schools, etc.) to show kids that reading can be fun. One event, that Debora told us about was something called Pajama Night. LINC partnered with NYPL (The NY Public Library) to organize a night where kids can come in their pajamas to listen to stories and play games. I really like this idea because it seems like a very fun way to promote reading before bed time.

During yesterday’s visit, I learned so much that I didn’t know about the LINC. I had a good time and hope to be able to work with them in the near future.