LeJeune 1 Abigail LeJeune Ms.

Park English 106 24 March 2014 Just Keep Swimming The discourse community that I chose to be a part of would happen to be my job. I teach swim lessons to children under the age of eight and I absolutely love it. I teach swim lessons every Monday and Wednesday from 5:30 pm to about 7:30 pm. I teach at the Athena Sports and Fitness Center, which is located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The size of my class can vary; I have had 12 to 2 children in my class at a time. They can also age from 3 to 9. There is a wide range of children. The swim lessons are group lessons but I have done private lessons before and I really enjoy private lessons better because I can work one on one with the children. My community has a purpose of teaching unskilled children to swim and to help them improve in their water skills such as holding their breath, kicking, overcoming the fear of jumping and especially overcoming the fear of water. I had interviewed two children and I also observed a class that I taught to see how they were increasing in their skills. Swales has six characteristics that will help build and relate to any focus of discourse community. Swale identifies that the goal of swim lessons is to achieve learning how to swim. He identifies the communication within the community, which are basic swim terms such as freestyle, bobs (going up and down in and out of water), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, kickboards, and so on. The type of communication used in swim lessons is for me to explain what steps and actions to take in the pool. I provide the children with instructions and directions on how to do a specific exercise. Instructors also need to identify the feedback that they are

LeJeune 2 receiving with the community to determine if the children are building skills or not. With swim lessons I receive feedback by observing the children to see if they understand the action I would like them to take while in the water. Another characteristic is the type of genres use among the community. The type of genre used in swimming would be how to swim and what the age of the child is I would be teaching. I would have to accommodate to the childs needs and understandings of how to swim. They type of language spoken with in the group are swimming terms. With swimming we use basic language such as types of strokes, freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. The final characteristic used by Swales is what degree you should have to be a professional or an expert among the community. When it comes to swim lessons you dont need to have a degree, you have to know CPR and first aid. CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which is used in emergencies. It is used to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing for someone who is experiencing cardiac arrest. You need to understand the basics of swimming, in case an emergency occurs. You need to have a lot of patience and you have to be willing to accommodate every child. You have to be prepared to multitask because you can never take your eyes off the children because anything can happen within a split second. While observing the swimmers, I had learned a bundle of information within just one lesson. I was a hand on observer and I would help the children in the water when they needed it. In my first class I taught, I started out asking the child to go ahead and get in the water so she could become comfortable. I asked a four year old girl to put her face in the water. She responded by screaming, crying, and yelling for her mother and grandma. She would not kick her feet in the water and she would stay in one place and just cry. She stared coughing and spitting up snot. She told me that she was not going to be putting her face in the water because she did not want to get her eyes wet and that she didnt like water in her eyes. I also asked her to jump

LeJeune 3 into the water and she just started crying more and more. I asked her to jump in the water to overcome that fear. The instructors are the Athena Center believes that all the children who take our class should be able to jump in the water on their own. We feel this way because we dont want our children to have that fear of water. My reaction to this was that she has a fear of going under water. I felt as if when the little girl was screaming and crying that she was going to end up making herself really sick. It was not normal for her to cry and freak out the way she did. I feel as if maybe she has had a bad experience with the water. For the fact of her crying and coughing, I asked her mother to remove her from the pool because she wasnt going to be learning while crying and being upset, and would only be making herself sick. I also observed another little girl in my class and I asked her to jump in the water and she did this willingly and she gave it all she had. She was laughing and kicking her feet in the water and she just wanted to continue jumping. I figured out by the actions of this little girl, she doesnt have a fear when it comes to being in the water and swimming. I feel as if she enjoys the water and she has had good experiences in the water. Finally, I asked a little boy to float on his back and he was very timid at first. He wanted nothing to do with floating until he accomplished how to do it. He told me that he didnt like to put his face in the water and he really didnt like swimming. By the end of lessons the little boy was floating on his own and swimming freestyle on his own. While observing him, I found that he doesnt like going underwater. I took my time with teaching him and working with him on strokes and floating and once he has these accomplished he wouldnt stop. I found during my Within this picture it is illustrating that children all ages can swim.

LeJeune 4 observation there was a lot going on and there is a lot of action I need to be aware of while taking note. When it came to interviews, I chose a four year old girl and a six year old boy. I asked them the same exact questions. I interviewed a little girl names Lily first. I asked Lily what her favorite parts about swim lessons were and she responded, I really like jumping into the water and I really like to float on my back. What is your favorite experience when it comes to being in the water? I really like going down waterslides and splashing in the water. Have you ever had a scary accident in the water? Onetime, I jumped in the water without my floats on. Is mommy or daddy scared of the water? No, they love playing in the pool with me. While interviewing Lily I found that she has had a good experience while being in the water. She has good role models and she really enjoys doing activities in the water. She may have had a fear of swimming after her accident but she overcame that fear. For my second interview, I asked Jordan a few questions such as: What are your favorite parts about swim lessons were and he responded? I really like to float on my back, because it is really relaxing. What is your favorite experience when it comes to being in the water? I am really good at freestyle and I dont like jumping into the water. Have you ever had a scary accident in the water? Nope, I just dont like going under the water. Is mommy or daddy scared of the water?

LeJeune 5 No, but my dad never gets in the pool with me, its always my mom. While interviewing Jordan I found that he doesnt like going under the water. He said that his dad doesnt like going swimming so Jordan may try and act like his dad and not enjoy swimming. Jordan may want to act like his dad because his father is a role model to him. Starting out with Jordan he didnt like swimming he was terrified of the water but after a few lessons Jordan had really warmed up and was really improving his skills. A discourse community is very important because I found that every community is different. With my community being my job, I have learned that there are many ways to accomplish a lesson. You can go about different lessons by doing different activities. Every community takes skill, time, and practice and eventually there will be goals that have been accomplished within the community. Improvement among new experiences is always an achievement.

LeJeune 6 Works Cited Johnson, Lily. Personal Interview. 10 March 2014. Hess, Jordan. Person Interview. 10 March 2014 Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print. "A Story History of Brooklyn's Floating Pool." City Room. N.p., 5 July 2007. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/a-short-history-of-the-floating poollady/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>. (picture)

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