Connected Learning Multilingual Learners

A Fourth Grade Service Learning Project Engages English Learners

By Robert Rivera-Amezola
Back to Participatory Media

Curators notes:

 The fourth grade students of Philadelphia teacher Robert Rivera-Amezola produced podcasts about water pollution and conservation as a service learning project, sharing the resulting work with their community through a portal on a school district website. In a thoughtful reflection, Rivera-Amezola describes the process, giving a vision of how participatory work can happen with students and what it means for them to contribute to their community. The interdisciplinary work of Rivera-Amezola's students took the traditional learning of the classroom and transformed it into part of the solution of a local problem.

During the 2008-2009 school year, my class was involved in a service learning project. The project utilized various technologies and digital media to complete the task. These tools proved to be invaluable for the English language learners who comprised the majority of my classroom.

As my class explored many different options for a service learning project, they discovered more about themselves and built a strong community of learners. When they finally settled on water conservation and pollution, they were eager to begin. Their selection of this topic also aligned with Pennsylvania fourth grade science standards.

Podcasts as Practice and Presentation

Podcasts give English language learners a nonthreatening way to practice English.

In my experience, podcasting (like other digital modalities) often motivate English language learners to extend their new language skills as they tackle complex subjects. Working with a local not-for-profit group called “Need in Deed” that helps students apply academic skills with solving social issues, my fourth-graders decided to investigate water pollution and contamination. In the process, they conducted research, wrote scripts, and recorded audio broadcasts for publication on the Internet.

This post is part of the Participatory Media collection.

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