Special project finished

UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

University of Puerto Rico – Humacao English Department

Special Project Phase I: Proposal and Phase II: Final Report Classroom English Corner

Shirlenne Peralta Benabe Jailene Rodríguez Luis R. Torres Cotto EDPE 4018 Cooperating Director: Nilsa Lugo Date: December 8, 2014

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Table of Content Pag. Title.............................................................................................................................3 Purpose........................................................................................................................3-4 Justification.................................................................................................................4-5 Permanence..................................................................................................................6 Action Plan..................................................................................................................7 Action Plan Table........................................................................................................7 Results.........................................................................................................................8 Reaction.......................................................................................................................9-10 Recommendations.......................................................................................................11 Appendix.....................................................................................................................12-13

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Title: The title of the special project is: "Rufino Vigo Classroom English Corner". This title was chosen because it embodies what our final goal is, to change the impacted classrooms with an area dedicated towards English which can be used regularly.

Purpose: The first week in our practice center in the Rufino Vigo Elementary School, we were in charge of our nucleus study which is getting to know our schools. In that week, the library caught our attention. We overheard the Director telling the Social Worker on how things needed to be moved here and there and how the library did not look like one, which is accurate.

Our first intention was to restructure and save the library but we were ultimately not allowed to do so. Our plans consisted of improving the library in certain aspects. The library is lacking organization, decorations, and proper labeling for the different areas of subject-matter. Inside, there are many misplaced books, there are no posters, and no motivation for reading. As English teachers, we also saw the need to integrate English books and stories in the library for the students to enjoy. However, we will now apply these concepts to the English corner in a classroom created for our student’s growths. Thus, this is the reason we chose the thematic of the reading aspects to work on. We want the English corner, a world where students are immerse in the English Language. The corner needs to inspire reading through posters or a special pleasant reading area to relax. We want everything around to motivate the students and the community.

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

We believe that literacy is vital, especially in Elementary Level. We think that by doing an English corner, we can make a pleasant place to be and to read which would also help students to do better in their classes. A passage from Pretorius says:

Research findings in applied linguistics and reading research consistently show a strong correlation between reading proficiency and academic success at all ages, from the primary school right through to university level: students who read a lot and who understand what they read usually attain good grades.(as cited by Shoebottom, 1996-2014 )

Our purpose is to facilitate the learning experience by encouraging reading. We know that a nice place to be in is always a motivator, and it applies for kids and adults. Also, inculcating a love for literature will consequently help students to start social transformation from within and then extend it to their families and afterwards to the community.

Justification: Choosing to create special areas around the school dedicated to the immersion in English as our special project, was without a doubt the best legacy we could leave for the Rufino Vigo Elementary School. The main benefactors of this special project will be the students. That’s our main focus for the project, we’re thinking how they as our main characters, will benefit from having an area dedicated to English. Renovating the classroom by adding these new features, will allow the students to have a place where they can relax 4

UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

reading a book. Since the library does not have many English books, we wanted to add as a bonus the English Reading Corner in a classroom and have a space just for English stories so that students can enjoy literature. It also could serve, in occasions where the homeroom teacher is absent and students who have to stay at school. In occasions like these, students can go to the English Reading Corner and grab a book and spend their time reading and being exposed to the English language.

The teacher can allow the students from their classroom or student visitors to come during a free period. Parents can come after school or during lunch hour and help their child do an assignment by using the computers or finding the information in the books.

Another thing is that teachers can use the English corner with different approaches of teaching their lessons that can enhance the students’ learning such as using the books or even doing a read aloud of a topic they are discussing. We want to make the students fall in love with literature, because by reading they can learn so much more and be greater citizens of our society. The books we want to use for the English Corner, will instill the English Department’s four core dispositions, diversity, creativity, leadership and social transformation.

By doing this, we’re not only leaving our legacy , we are also leaving the UPR-H footprint in the school, letting the community know that our English Department doesn’t prepare teachers to be a robot in a school, it prepares leaders in education.

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Permanence: The English corner is a space for the community, a place for everyone. The English corner will be maintained by the homeroom teachers, the students and the custodians. The intention of this project is to leave the space ready for the teachers to give it use. The space will count with enough items for teachers and students to make use of such, as a reading English corner and more for posterity. While the teachers will control the access to it, the custodians will keep it clean. Until the day the library welcomes back students, they will be taught to take care of the English area in the classroom and help ensure that it remains throughout the school years. The permanence of the English corner will also be assured by the school director. The director is a factor of control that will ensure the corner is kept in good condition and used for future generations. Now, speaking about the parts itself, the project intends to add an English corner that will be managed by the English teacher or homeroom teacher and foment the student into reading and sharing with each other in English. This interaction will linger in those students lives forever, adding significance to the role of our project.

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Action Plan: The objective of this special project is to make the Rufino Vigo school a school that promotes English beyond classes. It is an area for teacher and students. The persons involved in this project of restoration are the teacher candidates, Shirlenne Peralta, Jailene Rodriguez and Luis R. Torres, and Sra. Laboy from English and second grade. The school director Rose Mary Lopez, the school custodians and the rest of the community that wishes to help are also included. The restoration will be carried out during the month of November every Friday. The various activities that will be carried out are cleaning the area for the English corner, decoration and books organization. Aside from that, the official activity is the read aloud which will be carried out on a day set by the homeroom teacher to introduce the students to the English corner.

Action Plan Table Objectives Meeting with director

Persons Involved Practice Teachers: Shirlenne Peralta, Luis Torres, Jailene Rodríguez.

School Director

Meeting with Home room teacher

Practice Teachers, room teacher

Cleaning and wall Decoration

Practice Teachers

Book Arragement and Decoration

Practice Teachers; Any other November 17 - December 4 volunteer from the school went periodically to work on community. special project.

Show the English Reading Corner Practice to the students students

Teachers

Timeline October 8

home October 24

November 13 & 14

and December 5

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Results During our journey with the special project we had many hardships. At first, we have reached an agreement with the director that our goal was to restructure the school library. Nonetheless, the second meeting with the school directors brought unpleasant news and we needed to change the whole core of our special project. Everything needed to be changed and restructured. The aim stayed the same, that we wanted our students to appreciate and be attracted to reading in English, but the rest needed to be made knew. That is how the concept of the English Reading Corner in one of the English classrooms took place and the special project was born again. The three main people that contributed greatly towards the completion of this project aside from the practice teachers were the homeroom teacher Mrs. Laboy whom kindly offered her classroom and the two custodians which we are deeply grateful for their help. Form supplying with the materials needed to decoration to the assembly of the book case, the teacher and custodians helped out in any way they could. In the end the project was a big success thanks to teamwork and great effort overcoming all the obstacles that took place.

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Reactions This special project was harder than I thought it would be but I’m glad about the final product. It took us more than we expected but it came out beautifully and the students’ reactions were priceless. When they walked into the room of Mrs. Laboy, second grade English teacher, their faces were like if they were seeing gifts. It was amazing! I’m proud of the work we did as a group of teachers. We had a few setback but it didn't stopped us from doing what we wanted to do, that it was a special place for the students.

It was a little discouraging when we were not allowed to work the library because we already had a plan for it. Regardless, as a team we were able to pull off a wonderful Special Project and still stay close to our first line of thought for the project which was to focus on reading. I loved that we picked a super hero design for the reading corner because it is timeless and it will always be attractive to children of all ages. The teacher of that classroom would tell us her students’ reaction when they saw the wall. At first, since we only put up the paper, the students were asking her what that going to be was. Not even the teacher knew, because it was still a surprise, so she told them they had to wait. After we made the

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

buildings, the room was taking shape. The teacher told us that the students loved it. When the Special project was finished, I took my group to see it. There was a group taking a class, so I told my students to be very quiet. My students loved it! They said it was beautiful and then started mentioning what superheroes they were. I am glad we could leave something beautiful and useful in the Rufino Vigo School that will also promote the four core dispositions, creativity, leadership, diversity and social transformation.

The Special project experience embodies our strongest wishes to see our students learn and prosper. Making the area appealing to them with a super heroes thematic and the books were half the work, now it is up to the teachers and students to value what we have left for them and to give it as much use as we hoped. The road was indeed presented with many hardships but everything pay forward in the end when our students saw what we had for them. They played and get to know about the English Reading Corner enthusiastically as we hoped they would. Finally all we have to expect is that our footprints around Rufino Vigo School stays and that generations of students enjoy and learn.

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Recommendations No matter what obstacles, never give up. During this type of huge project we usually get very scared. In our mind is placed this concept of that we need to do something big and relevant that impact the whole school and it ends up giving us a lot of nerves. The first thing to do is, during the Nucleus Study, to assess what the school really needs and that is possible for you to accomplish. Secondly, ask around your teacher and other people you are fond of making conversation that tell you what they would like to see in the school. These two steps can guide to what you will ultimately do as your special project. During the process it is recommendable that you make the necessary reunions with the director and assure clearly that you can perform whatever you have chosen without having later on a turnover and having to end up doing something else. This is what in our experience took us down, we have arrange what we were going to do and the school director approved but later on turned down the idea without no clear explanations and other project idea needed to be done. What really helped us was to listen to what the school really needed from the teachers so that we in the end made an impact in the school. I remember fondly how teachers once said, "Please don't come to paint a wall; that does not help anyone" I chuckled but understood from where they were coming from. When you perform the steps from above you are to be sure to know already what you want to do in the school that really helps out the community. Finally, never give up no matter the circumstance there will be countless obstacles along the way but steadily you will reach and accomplish the special project you set your eyes on. Good Luck!

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix

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UPRH English Program – Practice Teaching Special Project – Rufino Vigo Elementary School ________________________________________________________________________________

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