Sophia Nieves

La importancia de educacin global

For my internship I spent nine days at the Hennessey School in Lawrence, working in

English as a second language first grade classrooms. I did not simply shadow my on-site guide;

each day I worked as sort of a second teacher and lead my own small group activities. I worked

with students as they read, did math and science, and even just worked on phonics of the English

language.

Next year in college I want to study education and Spanish. Additionally, I needed to find

a global internship to meet my global diploma requirements, so I decided English as a second

language teaching fit well. Most of the students at the Hennessey School come from families that

do not speak English at home. The students that I specifically worked with have some of the

lowest reading capabilities in the grade. Many of them started school either this September or

last year knowing no English at all.

I chose this internship because I thought it would be a practical way to practice my

Spanish, but it ended up teaching me more. I took a risk deciding to intern at the Hennessey

School because this school only has preschool to second grade. I never imagined myself as

teaching anything younger than middle school. Working with younger children requires patience

and creativity that I was not sure that I had. In my two weeks of internship I was able to see these

skills presented by other teachers. My on-site guide, Mrs. Flak, and the other teachers I got to

observe showed me how they could be silly and how they patiently listen to students and listen to

what they have to say even if it makes no sense at all. In my two weeks I was also able to see

how I also have these skills. Each day I directed students in different activities, especially

reading. I worked with two girls, Daisiri and Keina, everyday. The Hennessey School measures
reading levels using alphabet letters as benchmarks. Both Daisiri and Keina are level E readers,

but by the end of first grade students are expected to be level J readers. The two girls read out

loud to me and I was very patient with them and I knew how to lead them to the right words

when they could not pronounce something like they and encourage them to sound things out.

We read short story books about realistic things like animals parts and short stories that taught

different lessons. We read each story two consecutive days in a row so that we could hammer in

the new words.

When I worked with with Keina and Daisiri everyday I was able to see the impacts of

their exposure to English on their reading skills. Regardless of the fact that they are both level E

readers, Daisiri read faster and more fluently. The difference between the two girls is their

outside exposure to English. Keinas parents, like the parents of many students, do not speak

English, and in the less popular case of parents speaking English, work often keeps prevents

them from effectively using it with their children. On the other hand, Daisiri has a brother who is

in fifth grade and he gives her an outlet to practice.

Another small group activity I regularly lead was a phonics activity. In this activity I

would present a student with a note card with a broken word, for example sn_ke. The student

would need to fill in the missing vowel of the word and then read a sentence containing the word

on the other side. The first time I did this activity was with about five different kids. There was a

lot of variation in the speeds that the students moved through the activity, but everyone seemed

to know most of the words and were able to read the sentences. The second time I did the activity

I only had time for two boys, who both struggled with almost every card. Some of the words
were so foreign to them that by the time they flipped over the card to the back to read the

sentence, they had already forgotten the pronunciation.

My internship has taught me a lot about educational standards in the United States and

the difficulties faced by students whose families come from other parts of the world. English is

the language of United States education, not just in obvious things like in reading or science, but

also in math. At the Hennessey School, students do math testing three times a year to chart their

math process and I was able to watch the students complete their last leg of testing. The math

problems they answered were testing addition and subtraction skills, but used heavy English. I

watched a student correctly add two numbers but then proceeded to select a wrong overall

answer because she did not understand all the extra English in the question. Students are not

allowed to be held back for simply language, but understanding English at school greatly impacts

a students ability to succeed.

The students at Hennessey School anticipated my arrival. Mrs. Flak told them that I was

coming and that I spoke Spanish. On my first day many of the students ran up to me eager to find

out if I indeed spoke Spanish. They were all very excited because speaking Spanish is part of

their culture and in turn who they are. The fact that I speak Spanish made them excited because I

could relate them, and knew about their language. The students at the school gave me a lot of

hugs. Some students who I had never even talked to before even gave me hugs. The culture of

the school was touchy. When I was in first grade, we did not hug our teachers. The culture in

Hennessey School and in Lawrence is different from that in Middleton and the rest of the

Tri-Town, this is one of the ways that I could easily see it.
 Coming out of internship, I am still not sure exactly what career I want to pursue, but I

really enjoyed the prospect of being an English as a second language teacher. All of the children

in the school were exceptionally nice and motivated, they all wanted to work hard and succeed.

And though I never imagined it, I can see myself as an English as a second language first grade

teacher. I liked doing something that matters and helping people reach their greatest potential

and accomplish their own dreams definitely matters.