Something New for Summer

It's summertime, your kids have been in the house all day playing more video games than they should and eating way too much ice-cream. You're sitting in the kitchen thinking, “What can I do to get these kids outside or engaged in a productive activity?”

Well, you're in luck! Myself and the other Public Allies have found a solution for your summertime blues. START A BOOK CLUB! It’s simple, free and a lot of fun! You can invite the the children in your neighborhood, your friends and family members. The group doesn't have to be just for kids- reading is an activity that both young and old can enjoy!


All you have to do is create a simple schedule Monday-Friday and have your child or teen track how many pages they read each day. They will feel a sense of accomplishment and they will also learn along the way.

At your book club meetings, you can ask the group different questions about all the various books each of them have read. Some good questions to ask are: “What character can you relate to most in your book?" or "If you can add another character to the story, who would it be and what would they do?"


Questions like these should encourage lively discussions and encourage your kids to think critically about what they read.

We hope you’ll enjoy this summertime activity and read some fantastic books with your family and friends!

Guest Blog: A Pledge of Allegiance

A class uses flash cards to review questions for the citizenship exam.

Students prepare by using
this study guide.

  

GINA SOLOMON

 ALL Adult Education Director

Last week, I was invited to attend the citizenship swearing in ceremony at the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Orlando. My ESOL student, Yency, was finally seeing her hard work and dedication pay off as she was sworn in as a new U.S. citizen. I remember meeting Yency five years ago, when she came to ALL to get help with her English language skills. She came from El Salvador and had been living in the U.S. for several years already.  When we met, Yency was a shy but sweet young woman who was eager to learn English so that she could fully embrace her American Dream. Yency has 2 children of her own who were born here in the U.S.  Approximately 4 years ago, she became guardian of her 3 youngest siblings—a role she accepted wholeheartedly after her mom passed away in El Salvador.

Fast forward to present day … and imagine my pleasure (and surprise) when Yency walked into the League to drop off brochures from the immigration attorney for whom she is now employed. She was bubbly and confident and speaking English BEAUTIFULLY!  I was so excited for her and wanted to celebrate her successful journey, so naturally, I accepted her invitation to attend her swearing in ceremony. What an honor it would be to share this day with her!

I have been to one previous “swearing in ceremony” at the Immigration Services Office and it was beautiful. However, Yency’s ceremony, held at the Federal Courthouse with the Honorable Karla Spaulding presiding, was unforgettable.  I brought my 5-year old son with me so that he could learn a little bit about how special it is to be born an American and the sacrifices that other people make just to become U.S. citizens. While we were waiting on the bench outside the courtroom, I noticed a pretty blonde woman staring at me. It finally dawned on me that this lady was ALSO an ALL student, Maritza, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. She, too, was being sworn in as a U.S. citizen!

I wrote down the countries of birth for the roughly 50 new Americans as they were read aloud by Judge Spaulding: Albania, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Haiti, Hungary, India, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Montserrat, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.

ALL instructor Vince Scalise works with
volunteers during a citizenship workshop.

 It was like music to my ears to listen to all of the different voices and accents reciting the Pledge of Allegiance after being sworn in.  It made me think about all of the students here at ALL, who speak over 20 different languages and come from 55 different countries. Most of them have similar dreams like Yency and Maritiza; they come to the U.S. to provide a better way of life for themselves and their children. So far this year, we’ve had 17 students become U.S. citizens thanks to the help of our dedicated volunteer tutors and the very popular ESOL instructor, Vince Scalise, who teaches citizenship classes twice a week. Students enrolled in Vince’s class have a 100% passing rate on their citizenship exam. The national average is about 94%. 

I think my favorite part of Yency’s swearing in ceremony was when Judge Spaulding appealed to all of the new citizens and asked that they not lose their native cultures. Judge Spaulding encouraged the new citizens to embrace their languages and traditions and to proudly share them with other Americans. As we prepare to celebrate America’s birthday on July 4^th, let us not forget that it is our willingness to understand one another -by respecting and celebrating our differences- that makes our country so great.

Alphabet Soup!

As technology and the internet become more readily available, why not take advantage of the fun resources for your children online!?

One we would like to highlight today is the "Alphabet Soup" game on the Sesame Street website! This game is perfect for the beginner readers. Words are spelt out but are missing one letter. You just have to insert one letter!

Click the Picture Below:

As always, with any internet activity, please keep a close watch over your child. With ads and random pop-ups, anything can accidentally clicked on. I would advise disabling pop-ups, if your internet browser doesn't already have that setting in place AND setting up parental settings that restrict certain websites. Google has some resources you can check out it too (especially if you plan on leaving your young child unattended for any period of time while he or she is playing online). http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/familysafety/

Happy Friday everyone!

Write Your Own Folk Tale.

After reading an article about African folktales, we thought it'd be a fun activity for your little one to write a folktale of their own.

African folktales are cultural stories that have been passsed down from generation to generation filled with experiences, animals, environment, and more. Folktales tend to explain events people couldn't understand, or the reasons why animals act and look the way they do. For example, ask your child what he or she thinks about why the moon rises or how the zebra got his stripes. Be creative and work together!


What you will need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers, crayons, or paints
• Lined paper
• Pencil or pen
• Yarn or pipe cleaners

Step 1: Do a thought jogger with your child to help them come up with creative animals to use.  Be sure to discuss the parts of the story with your child too.


Step 2: Have your child practice by writing down the details of the story one line at a time neatly. Have them draw a picture to match what they describe.

Step 3:Have your creative genius make a final copy and bind it together with pipe cleaners or colorful yarn!

Step 4: Have fun!

We hope you and your family enjoy this activity and we hope you have a great weekend!

Guest Blog: Great Internet Resources

Vince Scalise, 

ESOL Instructor

Students working on their language skills today have wonderful free resources available to them. In our age of technology there are numerous web sites, YouTube videos and blogs for language learners. As an ESL instructor working with multi-level students I have found the Internet invaluable.

Most of my lessons I pull from different sites, but I will always tweak them a little. I go to Google Images to add pictures whenever possible, and I have found that extremely helpful for our ESL students. I also send out some cyber lessons every Monday to my students. These are mostly from YouTube but also from a few web sites I like, which correspond with the class lessons for the week.

I would like to share a few of these sites with you.

http://www.youtube.com/ - type in the lesson you are interested in. I recommend adding some music videos with the lyrics. This is a fun way to practice diction.

http://www.engvid.com/ - One of my favorite sites, this is from a language school, their instructors are great.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL - An ESL instructor has posted her lessons on YouTube

http://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/index.html

http://www.englishclub.com/ - check out their idioms

http://esl.about.com/

http://www.uic.edu/depts/tie/coolsites.htm - this list from University of Illinois in Chicago has numerous sites.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. I encourage everyone to explore the web for helpful lessons. It is a free source of great information. And these sites are not just for ESL students, any topic can be found. I even found some of the old “Schoolhouse Rocks” videos, which I used in my citizenship class. If anyone would like to be added to my distant learner e-mail group please email me at yanks78915@aol.com.

It's all in the eyes.

When you think of reading to your children, your class or a young child, you usually think to point out the pictures, the colors, and all the pretty things on the pages. Now all of that is wonderful, but what about the actual text of the book? Isn't that what we want them to eventually understand so they can be successful readers? Well, a recent study shows that pre-school children who are read to and have help focusing on the text of the books are better readers as they grow up. In part of the study, they watched children's eye movements to see where they were focusing on and usually it was on the teacher or the picture, but not the text! They gave a few tips on to how to get children to begin focusing on the text so they could familiarize themselves with the letters and full words.

Try it yourself! See if your child is focusing on the words by simply watching their eyes when you read to them. Perhaps their only focusing on the pictures or looking at you? Of course its difficult to get a young child to focus but there are some great ways to make it happen! For instance you could use "matching cards" made out of pieces of paper or flash cards with the words and letters on them from the book you are about to read. Then, after you read a few sentences ask the child to match the letter or card in their hand with the word or letter on the page. You could also ask the child to find the first word on the page, or the last word on the page. This matching game will have their reading skills soar and they will be independent readers before your very eyes!

I hope you enjoyed learning something new today and be sure to share it with others. Have a Happy Friday everyone!

National Musuem Day- Free Admission!

This Sunday the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) will be offering free admission as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors national Museum Day!

 Be sure to be that at 2pm for The Storytellers of Central Florida who will be telling folk tales, Cracker tales and other stories about Floridians.

All ages welcome. Free admission to the OMA May 20/noon-4pm.

2416 North Mills Ave Orlando, Florida 407 896 4231

 Bring the family and enjoy a FREE afternoon of art, reading and fun in our great city!