Video Project Presentation

Honestly, I don't really have any ideas for this video project yet. I haven't really been hit by any inspiration yet, so I may have to do this the hard way - making a list of possibilities and then just choosing the best one.

Project ideas:

• Various clips (audio and video) from my interviews
• Stock footage of "vegetarian things" with narration about my project
  
• Shock video- factory footage kinda stuff
• Story video - my experience with killing an animal
• Video talking about arguments for vegetarianism

Personally, I think the story video would be the most powerful and easiest to make. I'd just need a camera or two, a nice day, and a few good takes. I feel pretty comfortable hearing my voice, and I'm a good story teller if I'm in the right mood. I probably just need some good takes of me telling the story, and then about 3-4 minutes of stock footage to break up the story.

I'm planning on recording most of this, if not all of it, at home. There's a lot of great nature trails and such, so that should provide a good natural background for my project, which is so related to the question of nature, specifically what in it we should eat.

Final Service Learning Reflection #2

Prompt 2: Consideration of materials and/or social space.

NALC is located in a building that used to be a high school, so upon entering one immediately has a sense that the building is for young people. Lockers line the hallways and the classrooms create that unique "high school" feel. Though I can only guess, this may not be the best space for adult learners. There's the potential of feeling out of place, or feeling too old for this building. Also, since high school was probably a place they felt alienated from, or a place where they really struggled, their initially feeling upon entering the building may be negative.

Regardless of the initial reaction, entering the tutoring area is definitely a more intimate and comfortable experience. Most of the times when I went to volunteer, there were people chatting at the entrance area, and anyone who arrived was always greeted warmly by the receptionist. The actual tutoring stations were a table with two seats divided by cubical walls. Some tutoring stations were back to back with no wall in between, and this occasionally created problems with four people all trying to talk at the same time. It posed a particular difficulty if the student really need to practice listening and speaking, but fortunately this occurred infrequently.

The books we worked with were better used as tools that could be used when needed, or as something to get us started. Though we always began with a lesson from the book, we usually branched off to a different topic or activity. The lesson plans worked about the same way. I feel like if a tutor was less comfortable and tried to rigidly follow the book exercises or the lesson plan, it would be a be a bit too constraining, but with the right attitude towards them they are a very useful tool.

Final Service Learning Reflection #1

Prompt 1: Connection to your own literacy experience.

A lot of the students I have had at NALC have been foreigners; they are learning English as a second language. Many of them were very literate and fluent in their own language, but simply needed more help with acquiring English literacy. This fact creates both and interesting parallel and and interesting contrast. I can relate to them quite strongly as a person that has spent some time, albeit a short period, abroad. Often when you are thrown into a new language, speaking comes before reading, and the struggle is often just finding the right words to express what you mean, not being unsure of what is going on. A few of my students were clearly quite intelligent, but just lacked vocabulary or practice. I know from my experience as a foreigner in Germany that the most frustrating experience is knowing what question is being asked of you, but not knowing how to respond in the foreign language simply because one lacks the knowledge of a verb tense or a few nouns. That's why I always tried to write down every odd vocabulary word, even if it wasn't part of the lesson, and if we were finished with the lesson, I always tried to teach them something new, be it a new verb tense, or a set of word endings.

At the same time I also had a few students who were simply illiterate in their native language. My experience with these students was quite different. I grew up in an upper-middle class family, and there was a big emphasis on school. My parents supported my sister and I by buying us books and always getting involved in our education, something I did not always appreciate. Learning to read and write were a matter of course. But for some of these students who are twenty years old and older, literacy is something they have to work for. I've been lucky enough that I gained a high level of literacy throughout my childhood, when I didn't have to work a job, support a family, or deal with other responsibilities. Becoming literate in adulthood is immensely difficult, and really require dedication.

Through my experiences at NALC, I've come to appreciate the problems that illiterate people, both foreign and native, have to deal with in their lives. It has fed my conviction that childhood is the most important time in any human life. The sooner you start to develop literacy, the farther you will go with it. The converse holds as well: the longer you wait to develop literacy, the more difficult it will be to make progress.

NALC 4th Week

Planned for November 28th.