ACE Spectrum
ACE Spectrum
Ace Spectrum is about you — the ACE Learning Centers.
It’s a quick sharing of ideas, inspiration, opinions and best practices among our continuing education organizations.
Please join the conversation.
There’s Poetry in Learning a New Language at Alpha Parent Center
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, Assisted by Adrian Parra Salas, Teacher, ESL for Spanish Speakers at Alpha Parent Center
See, if you learn a new word, you get a treat!
Learning another language is difficult. Just ask John, my friend who hangs out with me and gives me treats. He is getting much better at understanding dog language, but it’s hard work. He had to learn how to say, “Do you want a pet? Do you want a treat? Do you want a walk? Do you want outside?” And he had to understand the words when I say, “Sit John. Go play John. Good boy John.”
John’s a fast learner, just like many of the parents at the Alpha Parent Center who are learning English. It takes dedication and commitment to learn a new language, and these parents are working it. They come to the Alpha Parent Center, an ACE Learning Center, several times a week to learn English words and how to put those words into sentences so they can communicate and make conversation. Arf! Not easy.
Riley says, “Even parents at the Alpha Parent Center use technology to learn English.”
And guess what? They are writing poetry as part of my contest – the ACE Poetry Contest. How cool is that? Alpha parents are writing poetry in English, a new language to them.
But that’s what poetry is all about. It’s hard to write poetry that tells a story and evokes a thoughtful message. It’s especially hard to write poetry in an unfamiliar language. But that’s the poetry of language. It can communicate thoughtful messages to create insightful moments to people around the world.
My friend Mr. Adrian has captured some of these Alpha Parent learning moments in video clips that you can see below. He made lots of clips, so this is just the first of them that he asked me to share with you. Watch them because it shows the poetry of learning language. (I’ll have to see if Mr. Parra can film my friend John as he learns how to give me treats more often.)
Check out this video: IMG_0013
And this one: IMG_0065
Don’t forget to treat your self to a poem. And look out – this Thursday, April 27, is Poem in Your Pocket Day.
SF International High School Poets Perform on Stage at Hamilton
By Chupe, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, San Francisco International High School
Ready to write my poem! But how do I hold the pencil in my paw?
I know I’ve got poems to share, but I’m still really struggling with getting them out onto paper. Maybe it’s the paws. Lobo, how did you do it?
Luckily, the young poets at San Francisco International High School are showing that poetry is sometimes just as good performed live. On Wednesday, they went to see Hamilton, An American Musical (before this young pup’s time, but I hear it’s a phenomenon) with 2,000 other students from San Francisco.
Leading up to the play, 11th and 12th graders studied the founding era of the United States and produced their own creative pieces about the time period. Two 11th graders, Yawen and Jinghao, wrote a poem about the Boston Massacre in Chinese and in English. (See it below in both languages.) Their performance was selected by the Hamilton cast, and they performed it live on stage at the Orpheum Theater. Check it out here:
SFIHS students rock attending the play Hamilton!
Talk about pressure to get my own poem written…
Big congratulations to our poetic performers.
Many wags and woofs,
Chupe
八时的钟声响彻云霄，
革命的号角悄然响起。
时间仿佛停顿了几秒，
一团接一团雪球飞出。
在阴霾的天空下滑行，
划下僵硬杂乱的曲线。
高傲的红衣染上雪白，
虽冰冷却传递着愤怒。
人们的呼声渐渐涌起，
如洪水般淹没制止声。
突兀的枪声拔地而起，
苍白的雪地染上血色。
那是句句无声的控诉，
那是阵阵凄怆的呼喊。
蜂拥而至的自由之子，
踏着鲜血的步伐前行。
讯息如同野火般蔓延，
是非争议如暴雪卷袭。
怆惶失措的红色身影，
渐渐消逝在海岸线中。
It is a cruel spring day.
Eight in the evening,
The ringing of the bell resounded to the sky,
symbolizing the horn of revolution.
As if the time had stopped for a few seconds.
The icy snowballs flew through the night,
leaving a messy curve under the skies.
The red coat dyed with the soft-white,
under the ruthless is endless anger.
The call of people swell like a wave,
and destroy the enemy like a flood.
The sound of gunfire rises up,
blood drops down like the rains;
the red dyed with white snow field.
It was a silent indictment,
It was the voice of the miserable.
The son of liberty,
with the steps on blood.
The names of the victims will not be forgotten,
The message is like the wild fire,
spread out around the whole country.
People dispute the build-up of power,
protest against British troops.
Thousand people joined the funeral procession for the dead.
With the praise of victory,
Red coats fade away in the coastline.
Hamilton and Langston Hughes – Oakland International High School Explores Poetry
By Guest Blogger Sailaja Suresh, Director, Oakland International High School Learning Lab
On rainy days like these, Breakfast likes to nap, so I’m filling in for her to tell everyone about how National Poetry Month is unfolding here at Oakland International High School.
This year, our after school program joined in on the fun by having a poetry-themed month in the drop-in tutoring program. Each day, students were given visual prompts, questions, ideas, and assorted words to use in constructing their own poems. We even had a few days focused on writing about technology (you’ll see the best of those poems soon!). Students wrote, read, and recited poetry in English, Spanish, Arabic, Tamil, and Farsi.
Langston Hughes’ poem inspired the play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
The spring here has been busy with the arts at Oakland International High School–in addition to poetry, our 11th graders were selected to go to San Francisco to see a production of Hamilton: An American Musical, and are currently in rehearsals for their own production of A Raisin in the Sun, one of my all-time favorite plays, referencing one of my all-time favorite poems! We are also celebrating the close of our 10th year as a school, serving the immigrant and refugee community here in Oakland. We just had a celebration dinner for our alumni, staff members, and volunteers, and it was amazing to see more than 100 of our old students return to visit and update us on their lives. It’s been an honor to be a part of so many students and families’ lives and a tremendous joy to help them achieve their dreams.
It’s always a great reminder to read the words of Langston Hughes and reflect upon our work as educators, particularly in the ACE Learning Centers, where we’re able to provide continuing education opportunities to so many students, parents, and family members who simply do not have other options to learn English and get help in pursuing their dreams and goals.
Harlem
By Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
(All copyrights are Langston Hughes, for whom we have immeasurable respect.)