SLAS Times Spring 2021 | Page 15

After-School Programs

By Lynn Kang

After-school programs give students a chance to have extra productive time and improve their grades . In SLAS , there are 13 various after-school programs for languages , music , tutoring , and other art . The most popular after-school program is music because it is compulsory for all band and orchestra students . High school students in music have a choice to join or not .

In music , students review their notes with their teachers , Ms . Tijana Kos from Orchestra and Mr . Oleksandr Voloshchuck from the band . However , if it is the beginning of the first semester , students go over new songs ’ new notes .
Students in SLAS are mostly bilingual , so many join language clubs to improve their skills . Chinese is a popular choice for working on grammar , vocabulary , and related cultural topics . It has two different levels ; beginning and intermediate class . There is also a Japanese Home Language class for native speakers who want to develop their mother tongue .
According to an 8th grader Myles Jin , violin class is an hour long . He started the violin class because his teacher , Ms . Kos , let him take it . He explained that he reviews
the songs that he is going to play for the concert . “ This after-school program helped me get better at playing the violin ,” he said .
There are also classes for students to learn their core subjects ; ELD Secondary and tutoring . All students who have ELD 1 level must take ELD Secondary . Students who fail their core subjects should join after-school tutoring . Most students have tutoring or ELD class to understand clearly the lesson they learned during school time . These classes give them a chance to ask questions to their teachers to gain a better
understanding .
8th grader Hyeontae was in ELD 1 class , so he had to take an obligatory after-school language development class . The class lasts about 45 minutes , and students debate , work on vocabulary , and practice grammar . “ It helped me a lot to improve my English and social skills ,” he said .
Other than these clubs , there are Japanese Math Proficiency Test Prep , cooking club , business club , digital media , strategic role-playing , animation club , and portfolio art .
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