English 202H: Literacy

This section includes a selection of projects students have completed in past semesters. These projects provide a good example not only of what is expected during the class, but also of the level of creativity and flexibility available to students in the course.

Advertising Campaign	2006 Spring
Cap and Gown Project	2006 Spring
Elementary Reading Project	2005 Fall
English 202H Website	2006 Spring
Getting Acclimated in State College: A Resource for English Language Learners	2006 Spring
Group Kitchen Project	2005 Fall
Schlow Library Korean Event	2006 Spring
Teaching English Abroad Website	2005 Fall
Telephone Conversation Partners (TCP)	2006 Spring
Trees and Animals at Penn State: A Self-Guided Tour for ESL Learners and Tutors	2006 Spring
Tutoring Korean Learners: a Powerpoint™ Presentation	2005 Fall
Tutoring Tips and Resources	2005 Fall
Visual Art and Tutoring	2006 Spring
Walking Tour of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania	2006 Spring

Trees and Animals at Penn State: A Self-Guided Tour for ESL Learners and Tutors
Leah Budin and Rachel Evans	2006 Spring
Our final project is in the form of a guidebook describing plants and animals on the Penn State campus. Tutors and learners will be able to use the guidebook to take a self-guided tour of the most interesting trees on campus. The directions for the tour are drawn on a campus map. Each tree is photographed, and some information about the trees is given in the packet. Also, there is a "conversation point" for each tree consisting of some questions that might be useful to encourage a more careful examination of the tree or to start a discussion between learner and tutor. As they walk around, tutor and learner are encouraged to notice any animals that they see. The activity is designed to be extremely flexible; tutors and learners can use any portion of it that they find particularly relevant to their goals. The guidebook will be available on the ENGL 202H website. Environmental knowledge is a kind of literacy that is frequently overlooked. Our project will address ESL learners' need to become familiar with the flora and fauna of the region, which is probably different from the ecology of their home countries. In addition to learning vocabulary, the ESL learners will become aware of which plants and animals are edible or dangerous. Plants and trees form part of our culture in many ways: they provide food, beautify land, and serve as base material for structures. This lesson encourages tutors and learners to consider the ways that plants are used in our society and how those uses may be the same or different from culture to culture. Because many Penn State students are unfamiliar with some of the facts about campus trees, this activity will provide an opportunity for tutors and learners to learn side-by-side as partners. In addition, this self-guided tour will provide structure for an outdoor session on one of those days when it is just too beautiful outside to do work indoors. If ESL learners are unfamiliar with the campus, tutors could also make the tour an opportunity to point out buildings on campus where learners may find useful resources. Trees were chosen as the anchors for each stop on the tour because they are long-term landmarks on campus. Hopefully this lesson will be used for years to come. In particular, Rachel wanted to work on this project because she is an Environmental Resource Management major, and saw a chance to apply some of her environmental knowledge to the literacy tutoring program. Leah chose to become involved because this project allowed her to use her expertise in photography and graphic design to produce a clear and professional final project.
	back to top

Walking Tour of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Justin Houser and Kelley Flores	2006 Spring
For our English 202H service project, we have conducted a walking tour of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania with the intention of educating our fellow students and adult learners. By providing this tour to the group, we anticipated promoting literacy of the history of an area with which few people are familiar. This memo presents an outline of the tour of Bellefonte for you and for future English 202H students. In preparation for this project, we planned on conducting the tour on Sunday, April 23, 2006 after meeting at noon in Talleyrand Park. We originally intended on meeting a group of adult learners and English 202H and beginning the afternoon with lunch at the Chinese Wok, a buffet style restaurant. Justin has previously conducted tours of Bellefonte to other groups, which meant he was well prepared to host a walking tour of the town in which he is a resident. He also prepared a detailed script to follow, and though he did not need to follow the script verbatim, it would prove helpful to him so he did not leave out any important information. Kelley planned on videotaping the tour so others may use it both in the center and in future English 202H classes. Despite our initial plans to meet a larger group of adult learners and English 202H students, only Lorena and her friend, 10-year-old Rachel, arrived to participate in the tour. Regardless, we proceeded to begin the walking tour, hosted by Justin, by foot to enjoy the history of Bellefonte. Justin provided us with a great deal of historical information of Bellefonte and its many honorable citizens who went on to do great things for the town. During the tour, we looked at the homes of many prominent leaders and politicians of the town, saw the graveyard that is the final resting place for many of these people and their families, observed beautiful churches with intricate designs, visited some important government buildings, and much more. Justin gave us detailed descriptions of the history behind each site we visited as we traveled around Bellefonte. In doing this, we were also able to enjoy the architecture and the beautiful views in the sunshine and warm weather. At the end of the tour, Lorena treated all of us to ice cream that we enjoyed while we rested after walking all over town. In closing, Kelley has also videotaped the tour, which we will provide to you in the fall semester. The video will be useful and entertaining for you and for future students, though it has yet to be edited into its final form. We hope you look forward to this video, as we think it will be enjoyable. Thank you!
	back to top

Cap and Gown Project
Krissy Zeiser, Lindsey Passaic, and Sarah Burnett	2006 Spring
For our Project, we are organizing the cap and gown donation that will benefit the Development Center for Adults at the Central Pennsylvania Institute. The graduation on June 2nd will include over 100 adult learners from the Centre, Clinton, and Clearfield County areas. The learning center only has enough caps and gowns for half of the learners, and so we are attempting to have Penn State students donate their caps and gowns after their graduations on the weekend of May 12th. The main objective of our project is to advertise the donation. We made announcements in our classes and our club meetings, we sent emails out to the Schreyer Honors College seniors and the Sociology/CLJ majors, arranged flyer distribution with the Penn State Book Store, and posted fliers in buildings around campus. We also provided sign-up sheets so that we could estimate how many caps and gowns we could expect during graduation weekend. To date, we have only received about 10 of these forms. We are hoping that the fliers on campus will urge students to donate their caps and gowns without the obligation of filling out paperwork. Over graduation weekend, we will have two drop-off locations. The location on the fliers is the first level of the HUB. This is a central location on campus and could be a stop for graduates on their way from the Lion Shrine, Old Main, or on their way downtown. The Schreyer scholars will have a drop-off in Atherton Hall where the Honors College offices are. Refreshments will be served in Atherton and information about the Development Center for Adults will be provided at both locations. Ginger McCool has graciously donated an abundance of the Center's promotional material. Both locations will also have foil graduation balloons in order to point out to seniors where they should drop off their caps and gowns. The drop-off times will be from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and 3pm to 6pm on Sunday. Through this project, we hope to assist the Development Center for Adults with their graduation ceremony. We also hope to advertise the center to the public so that it may gain more volunteers and recognition at the university. Bridging this gap between the community and the university will benefit both parties as they work together to achieve common goals.
	back to top

English 202H Website
Kristin Dressner	2006 Spring
For my service project for the English 202H class, I decided to accept the small challenge of creating a Web site for the English 202H class. The Web site is intended not only to serve as a mediator between students hoping to take the course and the people in charge of scheduling the controlled course, but also as a source of information about what the class is and what it requires. The site features the course description and the sample syllabus provided by the professor, Lorena Waselinko, as well as the registration form that initiates the process of scheduling the class. Also appearing on the site is a list of projects students have completed to meet the course requirements. If the finished product of their projects is available in electronic form, a link to it also appears. The site is also designed to be easily updatable with the hope that future students in charge of updating project lists will not have trouble doing so under the current design.
	back to top

Teaching English Abroad Website
Jay W. Chamberlin, Erica Karapandi, and Stephanie Kline	2005 Fall
The intention of this project was to research programs for recent university graduates to teach English in a foreign country and then to share that information with interested candidates. We have compiled a list of programs and other valuable resources we have found in our research. The programs are organized in alphabetical order, each entry including a link and a brief description highlighting what the program entails. We hope you find our site useful!
	back to top

Tutoring Korean Learners: a Powerpoint™ Presentation
Danielle Elizabeth Traister	2005 Fall
This project resulted in a Powerpoint Presentation designed for tutors who will be or are teaching Korean learners. This presentation educates the tutor on Korean history, language, and culture, which will aid in the specific and general approaches the tutor can take towards his or her learner. Viewing this presentation will help to eliminate cultural ignorance, which can sometimes lead to embarrassing mistakes and situations.
	back to top

Tutoring Tips and Resources
Brian and Bithya	2005 Fall
This site was designed and developed by tutors for tutors. The tips were graciously contributed by past and present English 202H students, and the resources, and any pertinent information regarding each resource, may be found at the places indicated on their respective pages.
view project	back to top

Elementary Reading Project
Jordan Lane and Meredith Levine	2005 Fall
We began a project of visiting a local elementary school and reading to the kindergarteners there. We felt that this is important because the earlier children develop a love of books and reading, the more likely they are to continue to read and succeed academically. We also wanted to give our program a cultural flavor by reading books that teach children about other children in other cultures because kids in the area do not often experience cultural diversity. First we had to contact the principal to see if the project was feasible. After consulting with him and earning his permission, we applied for our Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance, which is required to deal with public school children. Then we chose some books that would be both entertaining and educational. We visited the school on Friday, December 3rd, 2004. We want to continue the program in the Spring semester and beyond. We plan to establish a list-serve and contact various student organizations interested in community service to see if they would like to get involved with our program. Because of the connections we made, it will be very easy for this project to continue, hopefully even beyond our graduation.
	back to top

Group Kitchen Project
-	2005 Fall
The Group Kitchen Project was set up in the Fall of 2004 to provide English 202H students with an opportunity to help their learning partners find a sense of community and to provide learning partners with the chance to interact with other native English speakers in a social setting. The project consists of volunteering at Abba Java Coffee House in the basement of St. Paul's church. From the moment you step into Abba Java, you can sense the friendly and inviting and inviting atmosphere. The coffee house provides a comfortable environment in which volunteers and their learning partners are responsible for serving coffee, hot chocolate, other warm drinks and, at times, meals to students and the people of the community just who drop in or those who stay for a while in seek of a quiet refuge. Because the Coffee House is not always busy, volunteering also presents students and their learning partners the chance to casually chat, which is very beneficial to the development of conversational English. Volunteering at Abba Java through the Group Kitchen Project is an excellent opportunity to pick up tutoring hours and provide fundamental social experiences to your learning partner. Although daily volunteers don't have a lengthy job description, their assistance is greatly needed and their minimal efforts yield substantial results. So sign up and enjoy the benefits!
	back to top

Telephone Conversation Partners (TCP)
Justin Towart, Maria Morck, and Laura Doerr	2006 Spring
The Telephone Conversation Partners (TCP) program is an exceptional way for new students in English as a Second Language (ESL) to work on vernacular English acquisition within the context of their own town or city. Our packet is suited for the State College area, which includes some of the surrounding region. The structure is rather simple; there are a number of scenarios that most ESL students would encounter in daily living which are modeled in written dialogue fashion for the student and tutor to participate in. These scenarios include "calling a child's school", "Canceling a lost or stolen credit card", "Talking to a telemarketer", and many others. The dialogues are formatted easily so that the exercises can be both a guide for the ESL student with a tutor and a model for the student to reference when completing the given tasks. Within each conversation, a short statement explaining the need for such an exercise begins; when and why the student would encounter a similar situation. This is followed by a group of "Post-script Questions", encouraging conversation within the realm of the topic between the tutor and the student prior to the exercise, ensuring that the student has adequate comprehension of the current example. Vocabulary is usually listed to explain some of the phrases and words that may be specific to such an exercise. Most everything is reinforced by small explanations of meaning and intention within each exercise. For example, in the Talking to a Telemarketer exercise: "It is always important to remember that you don't have to buy anything from a telemarketer, but if you do choose to buy something, you should try to get the best deal possible." A script from an example conversation that one might have with a telemarketer follows, and all scripts have been tailored to the State College Area. Follow-up questions are found at the end for conversation between the tutor and student, enforcing the things learned and highlighting important points about the dynamic of each conversation. At the end of each exercise, phone numbers are listed for the institutions that relate to each topic within State College. The pedagogical implications of such a program are vast, and can be implemented in one-on-one tutoring through active dialogue or actual phone conversations between the tutor and the student (provided that both parties have a copy). These conversations also serve as models for the student when they participate in these situations personally. The lessons will encourage site-specific learning (State College and surrounding area), and will impart knowledge about basic things that often go unmentioned in textbooks for ESL study. As a group, we are hoping that the TCP program will be continually used at the tutoring center, and will be given to tutors for individual use "in the field", through association with the ENGL 202H class.
	back to top

Visual Art and Tutoring
Betty Hart	2006 Spring
I have a great interest in lowering a learner's affective filter by increasing comfort and reducing the amount of assessment or black-and-white ability measuring. Therefore, I created exercises that center on reacting intuitively to visual art, exercises for which there are really no wrong or right answers. As I addressed in my Case Study, doing these types of exercises, when appropriate, can allow for more enjoyable and meaningful learning, which a learner is more likely to value and retain. This project evolved somewhat from the initial proposal. What I designed is 1) a set of instructions and resources for tutors on how to find art to view with a learner and 2) a set of 3 worksheets to use with the learner to guide responses to that art. Due to the free and inclusive nature of assignments that deal with art, and the diversity of artworks that might be chosen, I kept the worksheet questions somewhat broad. More specificity came into play with the instructions for tutors. I included detailed instructions for how to view art in person (the best way), in books or magazines, and on the Internet. I included a list of State College Art Exhibition Spaces, including contact information, and a list of online galleries that feature large images of art for viewing, websites that offer more art-related activities, and sites that offer clip-art and other related tools. But where and how to initiate the viewing of art, the type of art to view, and whether both learner and tutor complete the project is largely left up to the tutor to consider, based on the individual learner and situation. I successfully tried the activities with my own ESL learner. We found art books together in the library, which actively showed her how to search the library. Interestingly, she chose an American art piece, and I chose an artwork of her culture. Then we both completed the responses, writing first and then sharing aloud. She was very enthusiastic about the activity, and it was a great way to practice writing, speaking, and understanding while she was absorbed in the art. She even asked me to correct her answers grammatically on her paper. Overall, I was thrilled by her engagement and creativity. My overall goal for this project was initially to provide art-related activities for learners, taking advantage of the often overlooked or underrepresented powers of visual art in learning. But it also became focused on giving tutors themselves the ability to mold their own activities for learning from the resources I provide. In this way, /both/ parties can engage their creativity.
	back to top

Advertising Campaign
Joanna Blackwell and Lindsey Dinsmore	2006 Spring
Our final project for English 202 was essentially an expression of the value and importance of the course, manifested in an advertising campaign created to encourage other Penn State students to enroll in the course and get involved with Literacy Corps. The joint English 202 and English 495 courses are uniquely designed in that they offer students a literature and discussion-based academic environment of theoretical literacy concepts, in conjunction with an internship opportunity for real-life application. Discussing concepts and putting them into practice fundamentally supports the main motifs of the course: the importance of educational equality and the dissemination of literacy on a global scale. By participating, even in a small way in a single community, we felt empowered by the messages of the course to take action in the problems we identified in class discussions. It seems that we concluded in many discussions that taking action, rather than simply considering the problem or sympathizing, is the critical step that many don't take. If more people saw the problem and wanted to actively participate in the solution, it's possible that global literacy would not suffer the inequities and injustices it still does today. By posting fliers across campus, we hoped to get the attention of our two target audiences: students interested in taking the course and earning the internship credits, and foreign students interested in honing their English skills. Penn State's demographics reflect a very international assembly of students, and opportunities to practice English are essential to assimilating into this culture. The Center provides an incredible service to the community, and spreading the word and encouraging more students to take advantage of the Center's tutoring services will certainly help unify the student body. We created fliers encouraging these international students to contact Ginger McCool regarding the courses and tutorials available at the Center. We also created two sets of fliers for students interested in taking the 202H course, as well as earning internship credits through English 495. We hung the fliers in both the public and Schlow libraries, at the International Programs Department in Boucke, at Shreyer's Honor College, and we also put fliers in all of the mailboxes of the tutors at the Writing Center. We hoped that these locations would attract the kinds of students most suitable for both the course and the Center tutoring programs. We were intrigued by the Global Connections Program in the International Programs Department; we exchanged our fliers with pamphlets about the conversation programs that this PSU program already organizes. The lady with whom we spoke said that many more ESL students request help than the program is able to accommodate, and that this opportunity at the Center in Pleasant Gap would help these students get the help they need faster. As it is, there are too few English tutors and too many ESL students who require help. We have received a handful of responses from students interested in both the course and the internship. We are very excited that students began expressing interest almost immediately after we posted the fliers; their enthusiasm will surely make next semester's course even more productive. Hopefully, the course and the internship will continue to grow in popularity as former students spread the word, and new enthusiasm and new ideas are brought to the classroom and the Center.
	back to top

Getting Acclimated in State College: A Resource for English Language Learners
Stacey Gathers, Kelly Nowlin, and Gabriel Uriarte	2006 Spring
For our final project, we developed a resource guide for English language learners who are new to State College, more specifically those who are parents. The goal of this project was to provide an organized presentation of materials for common experiences in State College. The guide is presented in three sections: (1) Taking your Child to the Doctor; (2) Your Child's School, and (3) Where to Find More Information. We developed this guide in hopes that future tutors and learners at the CIU #10 Development Center for Adults will be able to use it to begin discussions of the local community. These materials will provide a starting point for tutors and those learners, who are new to State College. Each of the three sections in the guide is designed to provide the most important information about each topic. Each section includes basic information, visual displays, and sample forms. We tried, considering our audience, to incorporate as much visual display as possible. For example, the school and doctor sections both include sample forms with guidelines to help fill them out. The section about where to find more information includes a map of the library. These materials are good for visual learners and learners with limited English knowledge, and they can be easily interpreted and verbally described by future tutors. Also, the last section, Where to Find More Information, is especially important because it will allow individuals to become more independent. Even individuals with limited English vocabulary will benefit from knowing how to find more information in and about State College on their own. We hope that tutors and learners will find these materials useful in their shared experiences. In addition we hope that future tutors/202H students can add sections to this guide to provide a more comprehensive resource. This project can, and should, be an ongoing venture to make State College and the vast resources available here, more accessible to English language learners who are new to the area.
	back to top

Schlow Library Korean Event
Loren Heinbach, Emily Quinn, and Matt Blecher	2006 Spring
English as a Second Language learners, and Koreans in particular, have very specific challenges to overcome when learning to read and converse in English. For example, standard South Korean tends to have a very flat intonation whereas English uses a great deal of stressing patterns. Additionally, all ESL learners tend to struggle with mastering pronunciation. To deal with these issues, our group has decided to create a safe and comfortable environment for our adult learners to practice their oral English. In order to establish such an ideal situation, we decided a great and fun way for adult learners to practice speaking English while gaining confidence is to read to children. The vocabulary necessary is often not very complicated, and the stories are generally fairly short. According to Peggy A Sharp, in the Journal of Reading November 1991 issue, "...an adult literacy program based on reading children's picture books can emphasize learners' roles as competent parents rather than their roles as deficient readers." Additionally, the handbook Tips at your Fingertips: Teaching Strategies for Adult Literacy Tutors by Ola Brown, explains that the child-parent shared reading model is a teaching technique which provides adults and children with opportunities to enjoy reading and develop their skills naturally. For these reasons, we believe having our ESL learners read to children will be mutually beneficial, and more specifically will aid our adult learners in developing greater intonation, pronunciation, and confidence in their spoken English. Our group will be working with the Schlow Library to host the event on the afternoon of Saturday, April 29th. The readers will all be Korean ESL learners from the PA Literacy Corps, and they will read two to three Korean folk stories to the children at the event. Furthermore, child-friendly Korean dishes will be featured, and the overall presentation will be marketed as a Korean cultural event. Arts and crafts related to the stories will be incorporated into the afternoon as well. The Schlow Library is willing to provide us with advertising, space, and the necessary arts and crafts materials. Korean folk stories have been obtained from the Pattee/Paterno Library at Penn State University.
	back to top

	Site created by K. Dressner in April 2006, 2007.
	Wikipedia : Literacy \| Lorena Waselinko \| psu.edu
	The English 202H Web site is available on alternative media upon request.