Marlene Vargas

18969484

My Fieldwork Experience at Extended Day

My fieldwork experience at UCI Extended Day has been a unique and wonderful

experience to me. I loved applying the skills and knowledge I gained from every reading and

assignments to my fieldwork site and seeing how it applied in different contexts. Through both

my fieldwork and course experience, I have not only learned the importance of implementing

high quality afterschool and summer programs to provide a safe and supervised environment for

children, but I have also learned the needs of different groups related to their participation in

afterschool programs, such as the need for afterschool programs among low socioeconomic

status in Mexican and African American students, which are the two groups I will be focusing on

in this paper.

The need for afterschool programs is and has been a huge problem among Mexican

American and African American students. Research shows that participation in afterschool

program activities are much lower among children from low income households (i.e., Mexican

and African American students) than student from a higher income household (i.e., Caucasians).

For example, in the article Socioeconomic status, ethnicity, culture, and immigration, Simpkin

states that students who come from a low socioeconomic status are less likely to participate in

extracurricular activities due to family monetary issues and discretionary funds because

parents cant afford to pay the required fees and cost of the program (Simpkin, P.712). As we

can see, family monetary issues are related to a students participation in afterschool programs- if

a program is too expensive, parents from low income neighborhoods cannot afford to pay for the
program expenses, as they also have other bills and payments to make. This causes the child to

miss out on participating in high quality and enriching afterschool programs that increase

student engagement and positive social and academic outcomes (Grogan).

Extended Day effectively responds to the socioeconomic and educational needs of the

children in the center by taking into account the different challenges and financial hardships that

each individual brings into the center. For example, the staff at Extended Day recognizes that

each and every child comes from different ethnic and socioeconomic background and not every

child learns, listens, understands, or adapts to the programs rules the same way as others. During

my time at Extended Day, there were two twin African American brothers who had just started

attending Extended Day because this was going to be their new afterschool program from now

on. When they first began, I remember they would tell the teachers that they didnt feel

comfortable here as they felt that they didnt fit in and were still used to their old afterschool

program back at home. But, the staff, students, and I slowly made them feel welcome into

Extended Day by introducing them to each student and showing them the different activities that

are setup throughout the center for them to participate in.

Out of the 45 children, ages 5-12 that attend Extended Day, I would say that

approximately 1/3rd of those students come from a Mexican and African American background.

Extended Day provides a variety of activities, such as arts and crafts, sports, music, and drama,

books, computers, cooking, science, and games- all in an environment that fosters cooperative

learning, decision-making, and problem-solving skills(Extended Day Care Centers Philosophy).

Extended Day is well-equipped with a variety of different hands-on and engaging activities that

provide a focused, demanding and result-oriented (Noam, P. 128) environment for children to

learn in both a fun and engaging way.

 Since Extended Day does not have a structured curriculum plan, the students are allowed

to participate in any activity and move from one activity to another whenever they want. For

example, I would always see students moving from the science area to the cooking area, and then

to the computer area without any clear purpose or goal. Although students found this moving

around thing fun, I wish there was more group activities, discussions, and mini lesson plan

activities or projects that students worked on throughout the day, instead of moving from one

area to another, without having a clear purpose or goal. But, according to Eccles, a students

interest value is based on anticipated enjoyment of engaging in the activity or behavior of itself

(Eccles, P. 82). This means that students are more likely to engage in activities and do things that

spark their interest and inspire them to learn. For example, at Extended Day I noticed that

students from a low socioeconomic status (i.e. Mexican and African American students) spent

most of their time in the computer area reading online stories or playing educational games that

focused on Math or English subjects because they said they couldnt work on this at home since

they didnt have access to a computer. The children told me that they have always wanted to use

a computer to play these educational games online because they want to boost their reading and

math academic achievement skills in school and make their teacher proud. They said, If I had a

computer at home, I will do this all day, but since I dont, I can just do this here at Extended

Day. I found this observation very interesting, as most students their age (i.e. preteens) hate

studying and doing homework and all they want to do is go outside and play. However, as Eccles

states, it is clear that a students expectations for success vary across tasks and that they are

much more likely to select those tasks for which they have high expectations for success and a

high sense of personal efficacy (Eccles, P.81). Eccles value theory applies to this, as here we
see that the students have a high expectation for success in their reading and mathematics

academic achievement in school.

Its great to see that the students enjoy the resources provided to them by Extended Day

that they do not otherwise have access to at home. The observations I have had at Extended Day

have been great remarks to further demonstrate how engaging and important high quality

afterschool programs are for students, especially the benefit that afterschool programs have on

African and Mexican American students. One main improvement I would love to see at

Extended Day is for staff to provide more opportunities to voluntarily engage students in

structured learning activities. Larson argues that high quality after school activities help

students experience higher degrees of intrinsic motivation, place more effort into their activities,

and feel less bored (Larson, P. 170). While the students were all mostly engaged in the activity

they were participating in, I still feel that incorporating Larsons idea on structured voluntary

activities will make things run smoother and effectively all while still keeping students engaged

throughout the learning process.

Works Cited Page

Eccles, J. (2009). Who am I and what am I going to do with my life? Personal and collective
identities as motivators of action. Educational Psychologist, 44(2), 78-89. Retrieved from:
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/garp/articles/eccles09a.pdf

Grogan, K., Henrich, C. & Malikina, M.M. (2014). Student engagement in after-school programs,
academic skills, and social competence among elementary school students. Child Development
Research, vol. 2014, Article ID 498506, 9 pages, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/498506
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2014/498506/

Larson, R. W. (2000). Towards a psychology of positive youth development. American

Psychologist, 55,170-183. Retrieved from:
http://www.yclc.ca/PDF%20files/toward%20a%20positive.pdf

Noam, G. G. (2003), Learning with excitement: Bridging school and after-school worlds and
project-based learning. New Directions for Youth Development, 2003: 121138.
https://eee.uci.edu/15w/12320/syllabusandreadings/Noam_G+bridge.pdf

Simpkins, S. D., Delgado, M. Y., Price, C. D., Quach, A., & Starbuck, E. (2013). Socioeconomic
status, ethnicity, culture, and immigration: Examining the potential mechanisms underlying
Mexican-origin adolescents' organized activity participation. Developmental psychology, 49(4),
706.