Category Archives: Hartford Public Library–Park Street Branch

Stories about tutoring English to immigrants and refugees

Tutoring at Park Street HPL–2015

The First week of the lab I arrived at the public library and I was told that I was in the wrong location. Fortunately the next week I was able to arrive to the correct destination which was located on Park street.

As soon as I walked in, I saw a room full of young kids doing drawings while some others were on their laptops. I immediately asked for Leticia Cotto, who would be my new supervisor. She promptly told me that the ESL lessons had not started yet (they would start in a week or so) but she told me to sit down regardless of that and view how the children were going about with their homework; I was very nervous, I still don’t know for what particular reason though. Meanwhile a man who had just arrived in Hartford was taking a basic English test to view and comprehend at which level he was at.

After many minutes went by I took a look at this test and was very surprised that his knowledge of English was close to nothing. At the time I wasn’t even introduced to this man and I was wondering how it would be to work with him in the upcoming weeks. I was sure that it would not be easy for me to teach this man but I was willing to do so. I was willing because I could tell that he really wanted to work and acquire the English language.

I am excited for how the rest of the semester will go and hopefully I will learn a great amount from this experience.  Hugo B.

Getting to Know the Kids at the Park St. HPL Branch Homework Club 2017

I have been to the Park Street Library twice to be a study buddy. My first time I reached the library at 3:10 pm, but there were not many kids as their school ended at 3 and they took some time to arrive. Then, when it was 3:30 lots of kids started showing up, and I went up to the kids to ask if they needed help. All of them refused. Most of the kids were shy, some of them didn’t even look me in the eye while I was talking to them. Finally, a kid named J. with his Math assignment and asked me if I could help him. I told him to sit beside me and I asked his name, he told me and I tried repeating it. But, I pronounced it wrong.  J. said: “Noo, it’s J.”. Then he started complaining about how all the kids in his school pronounce it wrong and there is a q in the end, and he also told me if he should just take out the q and make it J. I smiled at him and told him his name was unique and he shouldn’t change it. He smiled back at me. Then, we started the math homework. He told me how much he loved math and didn’t like any other subject. He was doing it homework on his own I was just supervising. He finished his homework and went swiftly to play games on the library computer.

My second time I felt more comfortable in the library.  Some of the kids recognized me and waved hands. That day was Valentine’s Day. There was a small event in the library for the kids. The kids had to write something nice for themselves on a heart shaped paper. There were many creative ones. One of the kids made the heart look like an angel with wings and was showing it off to everyone. After they were done writing, snacks were served, I helped the librarian to serve snacks to the kids. Then, one of the kids asked me to help her with English homework. It was a vocabulary assignment. She was struggling with the assignment, maybe because she wasn’t paying attention to the work, but anyway she finished her work and went to talk to her friend. Kishwor P.