Reading with 5th grade ELL students
Kevin Castro Rivero
For the service-learning project, I attended the New York Care project “Reading with ELL students” from 1:30PM to 2:30PM on Friday, December 2nd. I traveled to the Williamsburg Bridge Magnet School to work with students and build a connection with them.
The experience
The Williamsburg Bridge Magnet School is located in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In total, there were seven 5th grade students and 3 other volunteers including the organizer. The purpose of this session is to build a close-meaningful bond with students by reading different books and helping them become a stronger reader. I enjoyed getting the chance to meet the 5th graders, because they reminded me so much of my younger self. I personally felt like I was able to offer what the organizer was expecting and what the kids were. I was very social and interactive with the kids, we spoke about the things we liked, our favorite holidays, and most importantly what type of books we enjoyed reading. For the most part I had the students read to me so they could feel comfortable and have confidence when reading out loud because they were shy at first. We read a total of 3 different books; I would ask questions about the book towards the end so I could test their reading comprehension as well. Also, we wanted to speak on class rules everyone must agree on and almost everyone if not all, agreed on respect. This ties back to the article Trust and respect: the world’s greatest currency, it states “The greatest currency? Trust and respect, she shared. That is the currency that moves civilizations.”¶1. I was happy to see that the future generation understands the importance of respect, which is the only currency in the world that everyone acknowledges. On the other hand, the other volunteers were great people who take the time out of their day to volunteer because they want to. I felt a connection with someone named Tony, he is a 63-year-old man who always volunteers during his free time. He spoke on how he volunteers because growing up he would admire individuals who would help at food banks and clothing drives. That motivated him to help others in need, and it also reminded me of myself who always tries to help others when I can.
From this experience, I learned that patience and understanding of others are two important traits everyone must acknowledge, most of the kids did not understand these concepts and would usually bash each other from time to time. This was the only challenge I encountered during this session, getting the kids to understand the importance of patience, and understanding others. The individuals I worked with did not speak on anything they wanted to improve in their lives, the only change they wanted to do was to make life easier for others. In the same article Trust and respect: the world’s greatest currency it mentions “It is the force of human kindness that will change this trend – but it will take every person, man, woman and child, to act to create this wave of change.”¶ 11. This statement speaks on how kindness can help end the trend of hate which ultimately contributes to people experiencing a “bad” life. The individuals themselves are trying to improve the societal life of the community by offering their time to help kids strengthen their reading skills.
References
Paquin, N. (2019, May 28). Trust & Respect: The World's greatest currency. Points of Light. Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://www.pointsoflight.org/blog/trust-respect-greatest-currency-world/