Progressive Challenge Project
Being progressive is about creating a positive change in a way that is lasting and helps many people. Preferably moves a group forward in some way. So our goal for this project was to try to make something that is lasting and helpful for a group of some sort. I chose the topic of adult language learners in San Diego. Because I am dyslexic and learned English in a totally different way from most people I've always found language really interesting. Also at a young age I was pulled from Spanish classes because I couldn't read or write so I am very interested in the idea of second language learning because at this point in my life I haven' been able to achieve that goal of mine. In college I hope to study linguistics and become an ESL teacher for high school students. I wanted to focus my project on adults because they are the ones without school resources to help them learn English. I want to teach high school and focus this project on adults because they have passed puberty and are at a point in life that makes second language learning very hard because their brains have changed and made it this way. I'm grateful I got the opportunity to dig deep on this topic because it is and has been such an interested of mine sense I was young.
Stages 1 & 2: Empathize and Define
QSW: Quotes, Summary, Wondering
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IQW: Interview Question Worksheet
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Interrelationship Diagram
First Stages Project Presentation to Class
(Left to Right)
The Videos
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Stage 3: Ideate
I was unable to attend school for this part of the project but this the awesome work my partner did for this part of our project.
Stage 4: Prototype
Our website is full of online and in person resources for people to learn English. We made the website in both English and Spanish in hopes of helping the most people we could. We assumed that Spanish speakers would be the most because we live so close to the boarder. This was a big challenge for both of us because neither of us speak any Spanish.
Again I was unable to attend school for this part of the project but this the awesome work my partner did for this part of our project.
Stage 5: Progressive Day
Progressive Day was a day we went our and tried our prototype in the real world. The goal was to get feedback from those we were actually trying to help. To do this we went to an adult Language college in Barrio Logan. The school was amazing to get to visit. We got to sit in on 3 classes: a level 1, a level 5, and level 7. While we were there we learned a lot about ESL students and what is actually takes to learn English. We showed our website to the teachers and asked for feedback on how to make it better. The majority was that we needed to make our goal for the website more clear and that, if we could, adding more languages would create a more useful tool for people needing to find resources to learn English.
Inside level 5 class while they prepared for their vocabulary test that was the next day.
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This day was so important for both my partner and me because we got to actually meet the people we were trying to help. Well we more met the people we hope we can help people who visit our website become. They were all dedicated English language students trying to improve their English by taking advantage of what is offered to them in their communities.
Project Reflection
Progressivism has been something kind of difficult for me to understand. It's more then doing good, it's something that moves people forward. When we are in a progressive age positive changes are made. But Even after this project and all the studying we've done I still can't find the words to perfectly describe what being progressive means. My teacher probably is annoyed by saying that because I'm sure a perfect definition I shared somewhere with us on google classroom but honestly I was out of school for a while and it made me forget a lot including a perfect definition for what progressivism is.
Being out of school for three weeks made this project really challenging. I came back the week everything was due to help my partner finish all the work, go to progressive day, and help prep for out exhibition. Missing class time made it hard for me to actually be able to help on many parts of the project. I felt really bad because Marina (My partner) is such a hard worked and always gets her part of our projects done so I felt really bad bailing the way I did. We were able to overcome my absent through hard work the week I was bad, good communication while I was gone, and Marinas amazing effort into this project. In the end because of her we were able to put together an awesome project and present it well at our exhibition on Thursday.
Going to the school and actually showing what we planned to do to teachers working to help the same people we were trying to help was really scary at first but also really rewarding in the end. I really felt the value of our work when we got such positive feedback from those who looked at our website. they believed it would help students attending their school and any ESL learners who spoke Spanish. This gave me a new perspective on the kind of work we do at HTHI. This was a project that actually could help people. We made something useful all by ourselves. It felt really cool to be able to show that confidently to teachers and it's an experience I really value.
We received a lot of positive feedback from the teachers we showed by one of the main things they brought up is that not all their students can speak Spanish. Before entering the classes because of the location of the school and my general assumptions about ESL learners in San Diego I thought the majority of students would be Spanish speakers. I was wrong. When we got to level 5 there were only about eight Spanish speaking students in a class of over thirty. If we had the resources we would love to make our website in as many languages as possibly because then we would be able to help more people find ESL classes.
Overall this project was so much fun for me to be able to do. Weather I go into ESL or not /i know I am passionate about helping those in my communities who are unable to help themselves due to something like a language barrier. This project made me feel that even though I am a white girl who speaks no English and doesn't really understand the struggles Immigrants have to go through I am still able to help even if it's just in a small way.
Being out of school for three weeks made this project really challenging. I came back the week everything was due to help my partner finish all the work, go to progressive day, and help prep for out exhibition. Missing class time made it hard for me to actually be able to help on many parts of the project. I felt really bad because Marina (My partner) is such a hard worked and always gets her part of our projects done so I felt really bad bailing the way I did. We were able to overcome my absent through hard work the week I was bad, good communication while I was gone, and Marinas amazing effort into this project. In the end because of her we were able to put together an awesome project and present it well at our exhibition on Thursday.
Going to the school and actually showing what we planned to do to teachers working to help the same people we were trying to help was really scary at first but also really rewarding in the end. I really felt the value of our work when we got such positive feedback from those who looked at our website. they believed it would help students attending their school and any ESL learners who spoke Spanish. This gave me a new perspective on the kind of work we do at HTHI. This was a project that actually could help people. We made something useful all by ourselves. It felt really cool to be able to show that confidently to teachers and it's an experience I really value.
We received a lot of positive feedback from the teachers we showed by one of the main things they brought up is that not all their students can speak Spanish. Before entering the classes because of the location of the school and my general assumptions about ESL learners in San Diego I thought the majority of students would be Spanish speakers. I was wrong. When we got to level 5 there were only about eight Spanish speaking students in a class of over thirty. If we had the resources we would love to make our website in as many languages as possibly because then we would be able to help more people find ESL classes.
Overall this project was so much fun for me to be able to do. Weather I go into ESL or not /i know I am passionate about helping those in my communities who are unable to help themselves due to something like a language barrier. This project made me feel that even though I am a white girl who speaks no English and doesn't really understand the struggles Immigrants have to go through I am still able to help even if it's just in a small way.