The rising
seventh-graders at JumpStart San Carlos come from five different communities. Those
from San Francisco and Bajo San José didn´t have English teachers during
elementary school, meaning they were at risk of entering high school with no
background in the subject. The camp is being led by two Peace Corps Volunteers:
Bradford, who organized it, and Whitney, who traveled from Isla Chira on Costa
Rica´s Pacific side to help out all month.
Bradford
and Whitney began the afternoon by passing out a cup of M&Ms to each
student. For every color, a different question or subject had been written on
the board, like “What do you do for fun?” and “Favorite Sports.” The kids took
turns taking out their M&Ms and describing themselves as they placed the
candies one-by-one back into the cups. In the classroom, promising to give chocolate to the students who participate always grabs everyone´s attention! To help their kids get
to know their new classmates and feel more comfortable, our volunteers
facilitated the activity mostly in Spanish. They then switched to English and
spent the next few hours teaching what's always covered at the beginning of any introductory foreign language course: greetings and basic introductions.
Near the
end of the day, Whitney pulled out a large, round parachute and led the kids
outside. Everyone grabbed a handle and chose one of the new phrases or
vocabulary words they´d learned. With balls on top of the parachute, the kids
swung it up and down. Every third swing, Whitney called out two of the different
words and phrases, and the corresponding students had to run under the
parachute and switch spots with each other.
It was so
nice to see the students smiling as the dove under the parachute, dodged the balls,
and shielded their eyes from all the dust being stirred up. They had seemed
stiff and uneasy all afternoon. JumpStart Los Santos is shaping up to be a real
success! At the end of camp in February, it would be interesting to see if
the students have learned enough to describe themselves with the M&Ms
activity entirely in English! 