Last Monday and Tuesday were our last two days of AmeriCorps orientation. On Monday afternoon, we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about issues affecting migrant students in North Central Washington. As a little background knowledge, this part of Washington state is APPLE COUNTRY! Literally, looking out my window right now I can see multiple apple orchards. And if I looked out another window, I would see more. Workers and their families will come from all around, especially Mexico, to work at these apple orchards. We learned about seven areas of concern when it comes to migrant students, and discussed ways in which to help these students succeed in school.
What made the most sense to me though, and what had the most impact on me at the end of the day, was a game we played called Barnga (I am still unclear on why it was called this, if anyone has any insights, you can help a girl out in the comments section below).
***Spoiler alert!! The description of this game will probably ruin it for you if you are ever asked to play it in the future. So if you think you might....not that you have a way of knowing...maybe you should not read this. Yeah...anyway...just wanted to get that out there. Spoiler Alert!!!***
To begin the game, we were split up into seven groups, and each given the directions to a card game named Barnga or Tricks. In our groups of 4 or 5, we learned how to play the game. After practicing it for a while and once we got the hang of the game, we were told that we could no longer talk while playing the game. We would play in our groups for a while, and then when the speaker told us the round was over, we would figure out who had won the most rounds of the game, and that person would move up a table. The loser at the table would move down a table. Out of pure luck, I was the winner of the first round, so I moved to a new table. And this is when things got interesting!
As soon as I got to the new table, I realized that they were playing a different game. The format of the game was the same, but it was clear that the rules were different somehow. BUT WE STILL COULDN'T TALK! So I had no way of telling the girls in the group that I didn't know how to play, and that they were not playing by my rules. Anyone realize the point of this game yet? Well, I had at that point. I was now the migrant student that did not understand the language at her new school, and had no way of telling her new classmates that she didn't understand what was going on (besides confused facial expressions and hand gestures). At this point, I did what an ELL student might do in the classroom, and gave up on the game. I didn't know what I was doing, so what was the point? (I also was not feeling very competitive, and got the point of the activity, so it didn't seem worth it to try to enforce my rules.) This continued UNTIL someone from my original table came to my new table! I was saved! There was finally someone that spoke the same language as me. So we took over that table and were able to play the game with our original rules.
A Few Things I Learned About Migrant or ELL Students From This Game:
1. It is easy for them to just give up, so they need that extra attention in a classroom to make sure this doesn't happen.
2. Likely, they are going to feel confused and helpless in the classroom depending on their language ability, so this is another reason to give them extra support and the tools they need to succeed in the classroom.
3. Right when students get used to the classroom and start to succeed, they could very likely just get pulled away and have to move somewhere else with their family, just like we would get pulled away from our card game and have to learn a whole new game at a new table. Although the student may know the language better at a new school, it is a whole new environment and culture to get used to.
4. Students will feel more comfortable when someone that can speak their native language is able to help them whether this be another student or a teacher. Luckily, at the school I am serving at, since most of the migrant students are native Spanish speakers, we have a teacher that can interpret things into Spanish for them. This is helpful for the students as well as the parents. In many cases, the students have learned English, but their parents still struggle at home, especially with newsletters or informative letters that can have a lot of school jargon in them. This is where an interpreter like this becomes very helpful.
After the game, we debriefed as a group, and learned that this game is always played at orientation. The returning members played along with the game, but did not reveal the secret to the new members. People that had played it before, and the AmeriCorps staff members, said this was one of the calmest groups they had seen play this game. In the past, people had been so competitive that they have run of the room crying. This same amount of frustration could be present in an ELL student that is having a difficult time in a new school, not understanding the rules or language.
And that's Barnga! Now that we are done with AmeriCorps orientation, we still have weekly trainings and meetings until November. I am excited to get into more of a routine at my school, since from now on, most of our meetings are on Fridays. Tomorrow will be my first day in an elementary school band class! Oh boy! I better read Karlie's blog so I can learn how to teach music.
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