Sigrid and I had a story circle of sorts with an adult ESL class at Pacoima Skills Center. The teacher, Arlene Simmons, met us at the community center "fair" last month. She contacted me again and we arranged to spend two class periods with her advanced ESL class. The school, at the Skills Center, is part of LAUSD's Adult Education program.
We joined the class at 6:30 and stayed until 9p. There were 33 people in the class! And the room was full of lots of tables and chairs and not really made for any on-our-feet activities. But the students and Arlene were all very warm and receptive to us. As is usual, we threw out a bunch of our plan over the course of our time there, but that was fine.
We introduced our company and our project and ourselves and our goals for the evening. The goals were for us to learn from them about their lives and viewpoints in this community and to open up some creative ideas for them to explore with us next Monday in a second visit and with Arlene in future classes.
We spent about 15-20 minutes on a series of I-Statements. I had planned it then axed it from the curriculum but brought it along just in case. The list was a little unfocused but it was a great exercise for getting us started. We didn't get to the conversation questions.
We did a check-in around the room-- basic introductions. This was great for us -- and the students were all very patient with each other-- to at least hear names and get a tiny sense of people. People referred to how long they'd been here and sometimes it meant taking ESL classes at the Skills Center and sometimes it meant in this country. A lot of the students have jobs. Everyone is working to improve their English to advance the quality and experience of their life with better work opportunities and for some, to teach their kids English, too.
We did 3 rounds of Cultural Mapping. We worked on writing 5 Senses. I was very glad to have realized that this was a great occasion to use a fill in the blank worksheet for this. Everyone began writing and it took them longer than it does with many groups. But they were really working on it and not only struggling with vocabulary and such. It was also fascinating how different people interpreted the 5 senses and how they translated ideas into English. There are many poets in the class.
Everyone in the class was very generous in how they listened and responded to each other, often helping each other out with translating certain words or ideas. A lot of people shared what they wrote. Sigrid has their written work.
We did a one-word (not) check-out. I gave them the homework assignment of thinking about the 5 senses experience of Pacoima over the next week: look around and notice what stories are happening all around them. And to think of a Pacoima song or music style.
Next Monday we'll spend one more class period with them and it will include some performative exercise, even in the cramped room.
The students all seem very willing to jump into things. I think some of them are interested in the play and maybe auditioning. Also, we are visiting them while they are in a period of working Financial language, ideas and vocabulary. Which might add to their extra creative energy.
In any case, they were very appreciative of the class and what we did together. My favorite check out was one guy who said, "I am happy," (a common check-out choice for this group along with "comfortable") "but I am also thinking about Pacoima a lot. There is a lot to think about."
The very enthusiastic 17 yr old boy-- miguel lopez, 11 months in United States-- is part of the Unusual Suspects project I am going to see tomorrow night at SFHS.
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