Alternative Education students edit Philippine essays

Alternative education students edited essays from the Access scholars of Dapitan City, Philippines, as part of their major assessments in their English Language Arts class for the First Six Weeks that culminated this week. The students specifically looked for corrections in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. The essays from the Philippines were about the comparison between the healthcare services of the two countries: Philippines and USA. Majority of the essays recognized that US health services are more advanced than those in the Philippines. One interesting observation was that in the Philippines, patients are not admitted to hospitals or clinics if they cannot afford to pay the required hospital deposit or clinic fees, while in the US, everyone receives health services first regardless of financial status and can always arrange payments after the hospital or clinic visit. One Alternative Education student, however, commented that Filipino health workers are genuinely caring; in fact, his doctor since he was a child has been a Filipino.

Philippine students improve US poems, dramas

Access scholars from Dapitan City, Philippines, as their group activity in their English class, improved the poems and dramas written by the Alternative Education students. The poems and dramas are outputs of the Alternative Education students from their project-based learning (PBL) lesson in their English Language Arts class, Saving Permian Basin through Literature. Aside from revising and editing the papers, Access scholars added pictures depicting the messages of the poems and dramas. They then presented their group outputs to the class.

Alternative Education students 'save' Permian Basin through literature

Alternative Education students completed their small-scale project-based learning (PBL) lesson in their English Language Arts class this week: Saving Permian Basin through Literature. In this PBL lesson, students acted as a team of staff writers of The Odessan Magazine (http://www.theodessan.com). Worried about the news concerning the current oil industry decline in Permian Basin, their Editor-in-Chief assigned their team to research about the situation and individually publish a literary piece of their choice that encourages investors to stay and invites other businessmen to invest in the region. Using local newspapers or internet, students researched about the oil industry situation and other possible investments in Permian Basin. They reviewed elements of selected literary genres using workstations. Students ended up producing poems and dramas and presenting these outputs to the teacher who acted as the Editor-in-Chief. Their writing outputs were sent to their international learning partners for further feedback. 

IJWC participates in 2016 Global Collaboration Day

International Junior Writers Club through the Alternative Education Center, Odessa TX participates in the 2016 Global Collaboration Day today, September 15, 2016. The Club is excited to be a host of an international event in 2017 Global Collaboration Day. Whether or not you are participating this year, we are cordially inviting you to help IJWC improve by responding to our very short survey. Please click here.

Philippine students edit US fiction stories

As their group activity in their English class, Access scholars from Dapitan City, Philippines edited the fiction stories written by the Alternative Education students. The theme of the fiction stories was "Friendship sees no color." The activity allowed the students from both countries to realize that the international collaboration they have just started puts life to the theme.

AEC students write fiction stories

After their fiction lesson in their English Language Arts class, selected AEC students wrote a fiction story with the theme, "Friendship sees no color." The theme was deliberately chosen to extend students' understanding of international learning collaboration. Their stories were sent to Asia for collaboration.

AEC students receive letters from Asia

In response to the letters they sent early this month, AEC students recently received friendly letters from Asia. Each student was happy and excited receiving more than one reply. It's a very historic event to start AEC students' collaboration with Asian friends.

One Alternative Education student commented, "Do Asians really write in English?" The question was a great cultural teaching moment for the teacher and a great cultural learning moment for the students. The answer to the question was "yes" although not all Asians speak English. For Philippines alone, according to Census 2010, 63.71% of 66.7 million Filipinos, aged 5 years or more, could speak English. More likely, these Filipinos surveyed were those who had gone to school because the medium of instruction in the Philippines has been English since the country was conquered by the Americans.

Alternative Education Center goes international

To officially launch the International Junior Writers Club (IJWC) on September 1, 2016, some students at the Alternative Education Center (AEC), Odessa, TX wrote friendly letters to their new learning partners from the other side of the world, the Philippines. An AEC English Language Arts class is partnering this school year with the English Access Microscholarship Program (Access) recipients from the Schools Division of Dapitan City, Philippines to provide participating middle/high school students with opportunities to collaborate with each other year-round in any of their class writing assignments and projects.

Access is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State. The program, which is managed by the US Embassy, operates worldwide. IJWC's collaboration with Access scholars is officially acknowledged by the US Embassy.

With IJWC, participating Odessa and Dapitan City students bypass at least a $1.461 worth of collaboration.