From Urbany:
Hey everyone - you guys are doing a great job, it was nice to see everyone in action again last night.
Per Carmen's request, could you please provide feedback by responding to this blog post (hit the little "X Comments" link below and type away). At a minimum provide responses to these questions:
1. What do you like most about the program?
2. What do you like least?
3. What is most helpful to you?
4. What changes would you recommend for next year?
Your feedback might consider: the Sed de Saber machines, dinner, parent tutoring, parents/children working together, HCC students & kid time, individual tutor vs. whole class tutoring, intercambios.
Thanks very much - your feedback will be very important for planning next year's program.
4 comments:
1) What I like most about the La Familia program is the connections that I have made with my family. There is a certain closeness that we have developed thanks to the program and the mutual goal of learning the English language. You really feel as if you are helping someone build a better life for themselves.
2) What I like least is the language barrier that sometimes arises. It is sometimes frustrating when I do not know how to clearly translate phrases/sayings
3) What is most helpful to me is the individual, one-on-one learning objectives that direct us each week. Another part I enjoy is the Intercambios at the beginning of the program, due to the Spanglish we talk. It gets me involved with other families and allows me to hear about the lives of the parents in detail before we start working one-on-one.
4) Some changes I would recommend is to provide the instructors with guided lessons much earlier in the week (i.e. not on Sunday nights). It would help me organize my lessons and learn more vocab, verbs, etc. that would be helpful for my family. I also do not utilize the Sed de Saber machine much...I am not sure how these are intended to help the student learn, but they lend themselves to individual learning, not group work, in my opinion.
1. My favorite aspect about the program is the relationships with the families. I think that is an integral component to the succes of the program. I think the intercambios and weekly dinners before the session were very effective. "People don't about what you know until they know you care..."
2. I feel as though the program wasn't structured optimally. We used many different tools for educating the families and I was a bit confused at times. **BUT** I love the scrapbooking idea!
3 and 4. It would be helpful, perhaps, if we allocated some time for the families to teach us spanish. This way it truly becomes two way communication.
1) What I like most about the program is that it makes this a family process which I think is really helpful in continuing participation by the families. I also think it is great that we can send the participants home with the Sed de Saber machines to continue their work at home.
2) I feel sometimes like I don't have the expertise necessary to make the learning sessions the most efficient possible. It is hard to strike a balance between wanting the participants to feel comfortable and not embarassed and also challenge them. Another difficulty is that the language difference between the children and their mother is so vast that it is difficult to manage the time together.
3) The Sed de Saber machines are great and the packets have helped to encourage new skills. We've progressed to writing out and translating something the participant wrote in English and the packets helped to begin that transition. It is always good to have something that the kids and parents can both do independent of their language skills...the writing stories about pictures this week was awesome.
4. I would like some more ideas on the family time on how to calm down young children enough and keep them interested enough whiel also going slow enough for their parent to keep up. One concern that the parent has mentioned is that she wants to help with schoolwork but isn't sure how to get her daughter to focus when she's struggling with the language and I'm not sure what the children's homework entails. Maybe at some point during family time we could all work on helping with kids homework? She has expressed frustration that she doesn't know how to help her daughter focus on schoolwork at home which I am unfortunately able to answer, maybe some interaction with teachers would be helpful there?
1. What I like most is the relationship I've built with my family. They are so appreciative and that makes it feel even more worthwhile.
2. I like the PACT time least. I like the theory behind it, because the children usually speak spanish with their parents, so it is a half hour where they have to get used to speaking english with them to help them practice. However, without a structured activity for PACT time, it is a mess because the kids are very high energy and I feel like a lot of concentration goes out the door when they arrive.
3. Having a set topic for discussion each week is helpful to me. We usually deviate from the specific lesson plan, but the subject matter from the plan always provides a conversation starter and we take it from there.
4. For next year:
a. I think a "train the tutor" session before starting the program would be helpful since most of us have never taught a language before.
b. I would recommend more adult material in the packets. While they speak english at an elementary level, they are clearly not so sometimes I feel the material is too young for them. I always find our time is best used conversing in english though, and an activity/set work is not necessary for parent time (but definitely needed for PACT time!).
c. I think once a week is good.
5. Other than showing them how to use the machine early on, we don't use the Sed de Saber machines in our sessions. Instead it is something Mary uses at home to practice and then comes back with questions about any words she didn't understand.
6. What about the format/structure?
a. I love having dinner with everyone beforehand because I think it fosters the family feeling the program is going for. It seems everyone has a tough time making it there by 5, I think it would be better to change the start of the program to 5:30pm.
b. parent tutoring- see above
c. Parents and children together- see above
e. I like the idea of having all the parents together for a class, then breaking off to do individual tutoring. Perhaps this could replace the PACT time.
7. I am going to spanish mass at St. Adalbert's on Sunday with my family so I'll get to meet their extended family. I like the chance to do these intercambios where I am speaking spanish so they get to see I have some of the same problems they do with a second language!
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