Poetry Café at R.L. Stevens

On Friday, April 13^th the Jaguars, the second grade after school class lead by Diana Sharkawy and Eddie Castañeda, hosted a poetry café at R.L. Stevens School. The recital came after a class study of Jamaican Dub Poetry, and a poetry writing workshop experience.

The event began with an invocation from Sharkawy, followed by the majority of students reading their own works aloud to a rapt audience of family, friends, and the fourth grade cool school class. A few shyer students opted to have Sharkawy read their poems to the audience on their behalf. Once the Jaguars finished sharing their poems, families were invited to stay for refreshments and an opportunity to read with their children from a collection of poetry books the mentors had assembled from the school and public libraries.

It was exciting for all involved to watch the second graders take pride in their work. In the coming weeks the Jaguars will star in a play that the students, with mentor guidance, will have written, staged, and directed themselves. If the success of their poetry presentation is any indicator, this capstone production will be another runaway success for the Jaguars. Here at R.L., we can hardly wait to see our beloved Jags perform once more!

~Rachel Socia

Literacy Tutoring Team Leader

R.L. Stevens School 

A Student's Story

Christopher Farris, Program Assistant with CalSERVES and former AmeriCorps Team Leader

This is a story that a former tutee wrote for me. Rebecca came from Rio DeJaneiro, Brazil my first year in AmeriCorps. She was the only Portuguese-speaking student in the district and I just so happened to be the only Portuguese-speaking person in the district. So it just worked
out fine.

I got the watery eyes when reading this next to her because of how proud I was of her, how good I felt inside. This shows why I am so hopeful and encouraged in the work that we are doing at CalSERVES.

The following story was written by Rebecca, a 4th Grade student in our programs, as she remembered her first experiences with her tutor, Mr. Chris Farris. It was a project she did all on her own. The spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all hers - only minor edits were made for clarity. The illustrations are also done by Rebecca.




Weird Day
Hi. My name is Rebecca and I wil tell you about my srtory. OK, here we go.

When I came from Brazil my dad said I was going to start school the next day. So I did. I went to First Grade, but it was sooooooo easy for me, we were learning the + sign so they jumped me to Second Grade. I went to Second Grade and met a very special peason Ms. Kantor my teacher. She was soooooo nice, incredibal, and funny. She told me I had to go to a reading group to learn more.

When I got there, there was a teacher and she was preety nice, on the second time it was the same. Third time to, but on the forth “nonono Becca no liky”. I saw this man siting on a chair looking at me. Later on he was talking to me in a language I don’t know because I did not hear. On the next day he was saing my name, I got scared.

On the next day he went to pick me up on the class, Now I got so scared. He took me to a messy room first and trust me it was Messy. We sat at a desk and he started talking in my language, I was starting to understand. Then he took me to class.

The next day was OK. He went to pick me up OK. I was already talking a little bit to him. The one thing that it was special, is that he had the bravery to talk to me all the time. Then he took me back to class. Then I asked Mrs. Kantor why do that man need to pick me up everyday, she said he comes here to help me speak in English.

He came back again and we went to the same room, the messy one. We were talking and talking about stuff he got a paper out on no where about um um… “Mart Mart Luth ahh” you get it. It about a guy that changed the world with something about with the color of their skin. He took me back to class like always.

Finally I Understand
I was thinking that he is really helping me and of course my friends too. The stuff he tells me is important to me. On the next day I was a little messy with him.

He told me that when I act like that it is good for me. On recess I was already playing and talking like I new English for a long time. Tat made me feel good actually and I think that’s how you act when you know you are doing something right.

On the next day it was totally weird I was starting to care about him. People thought he was my dad. It made us laugh though we were alike in a strange way but yes he acts like he is my dad, that made me special because I feel like there is a bunch of people that cares about me and I don’t see it but they do.

As I told you he is helping me. He is special man for us and my family. He met my dad and may mom, they liked him, not only he specks in our language or that he helps me, it’s because he is nice, funny, and helpful.

Now he is part of our family. We thank him for everything especially me. Thanks for everything Chris. You’re the best.