Final Service Learning Reflection #2

As I entered the room, at Nashville Adult Literacy Council, I surveyed the room and I noticed that I would be tutoring in a room filled with other tutors and students. I would not be in a room with only the student and myself. I thought this to be odd at first, but after I began to tutor there I noticed that the environment actually enhanced the learning of the students. I think that the environment of desks step up all around the room, near each other, helped students to actually focus more on what the tutor was saying. I think that students overhearing another student having an engaging conversation with their tutor, helps to stimulate the students' willingness to learn. Also, the desks are step up to where both the student and the tutor sit right next to one another, as opposed to the tutor sitting across from the student. I think that this helps to make the student feel more comfortable, and therefore will help him or her ask more questions when he or she is conflicted about something in the lesson. Lastly, I think that having all the students in the same room helps the, mostly immigrants, feel more comfortable in knowing that they are not alone. I think that having other students in the same room as them, struggling with them in understanding the material, helps the students to not get as disheartened. I think that it is true that strength in numbers really does make a difference. In conclusion, reflecting on the time I spent there helped me to see how a setting in the classroom makes more of a difference than you think. The setting can help or hinder a person's ability to excel to their full potential relating to their educational needs.