I visited the UWEAST on Tuesday May 8th and I tutored at the Southern Sudanese Community Center for the Refugee Student Resource Program with other UCSD undergraduate volunteers. I was tutoring Beatrice, 9th grade student at Hoover High School, with grammar worksheets focusing on reading comprehension and vocabulary. Unlike my previous experiences in teaching material, I found it challenging to explain and go over the reading material and the questions from the worksheets. How do you encourage bilinguals learners to learn and grasp the material without them feeling discouraged with the provided content and losing their native tongue? However, after going over the reading multiple times Beatrice started to get the gist of what the questions were asking her and how to refer back to the text. I feel like an hour or two is not enough to hang out with the students and the staff! The image shown of me reading with one of the students took place after I worked on 2 worksheets with Beatrice before she moved onto other activities. She was reading a book to me parts she understood, she was more intrigued by the maps and was showing me where she is from and what she considers home, Africa and USA. All the students are unique and have a lot of energy, so far, it has been great hanging out and tutoring them!
