English Classes

English classes were not originally a part of the Initiative. However, at the first brainstorming session of the Humanitarian Committee, the youth let me know they wanted to learn English. In addition, before this session, the school principal had also requested to have English classes for the students. The Tsmakahogh village school had not had an English teacher until the 2007-2008 academic year. Students were eager to learn English. I assessed each student’s knowledge and made three groups. The first group was learning the English alphabet. The second group knew the letters and was learning beginning grammar and vocabulary. The third group was learning advanced grammar and acquiring some speaking skills.  


The more advanced group of youth volunteered to help me teach the class to the first group. We often thought of a letter for the day and would associate it with a word. The word had to be a noun, and we needed to be able to make the letter look like that word. For instance, when we were teaching the letter M, the youth decided to choose the word mouse for us to teach the students and draw a head of a mouse on the letter M. In addition, the youth assisted me in writing examples of letters in the notebooks of the students to practice writing the letters in class and at home. The youth were very excited about the opportunity to volunteer during class.