Homework – November 15th
December 17th, 2011 by Sarah TrowbridgeOur visit that week was pretty casual, and Rachel and I were obviously excited for Thanksgiving break coming up, which we mentioned to P. and D. They knew about Thanksgiving, but they couldn’t remember the details of the ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ story behind it, so we told them the history of the holiday and why Americans continue to celebrate it. Rachel and I also spent some time helping them with their homework. D. had a social studies quiz coming up for American history. Looking at her textbook, I saw that she was currently learning about one of my favorite time periods, during the expansion West in the 1800’s with the Oregon Trail and others. She had a study guide of questions on the chapter, so I helped her answer them. D. is a smart girl, which is why I was a little surprised when she said she had not read any of the sections of the chapter she was about to be quizzed on. It made me wonder if she had tried and just had problems comprehending the material (which is understandable, given that it was filled with jargon and vocabulary most refugees wouldn’t immediately know) or if she maybe didn’t understand that part of her homework included actually reading these sections to herself, not just learning about the material at school. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to ask her any of my questions, as our visit was short and I focused instead on helping her go through the study guide since that was the immediate concern. It was the first time, however, that I felt that there may be some kind of disconnect with fully comprehending an assignment.