3 down and 1 to go

This week has really flown by! I only have one day, Friday left of volunteering. Working with students can be so rewarding. Even though it can take time to see results, if you really pay attention there’s always something there to show progress. So in my short time with the students I’m counting small wins as wins nevertheless. This morning with the four and five year olds, I could tell students were warming up to me asking for help, to be fed, to read, to sit on my lap, etc. We danced together in a circle, read at least 3 stories (or rather looked at the pictures together) and rested during nap time. I can definitely see the personalities clearly now. 

After 12:30 we helped the teachers to understand pronouns and examples of how to use them in English. I haven’t thought about that kind of grammar in so long so it was really interesting thinking about personal pronouns and objective pronouns for the first time in decades!  I think the teachers found it really useful though; we gave examples that applied to their role as teachers. 

After lunch, we met with the students in the village. I really thought they need more books at-hand to read while at home. I don’t think they can check out the books from their school library and I had a strong feeling they really needed to practice more reading aloud. I didn’t know what level of reading these students were so decided to buy books yesterday for a range of levels in order to determine which book they should practice reading with. For instance after sitting individually with about six of the students, I realized some don’t understood the concept of sounding out words; they only have memorized sight words or simply spell the letters as they read. Also some have years between them and are reading English at the same level. Since English is their 2nd language that doesn’t really mean much to me; but it did make me wonder how their comparable skills were in Sinhala… I will never know!

We also gave them a 2ft by 2ft whiteboard to make it easier to learn together as a group. They loved the resources and I really hope future  volunteers will use them too!  Without material to read in English and others to talk with in English they can’t grow. 

I think I will do some research about opportunities for young people who know English in Sri Lanka and perhaps on the last day (tomorrow) I can share that info, which may motivate the students to continue. 💛