UC Links at UC San Diego
La Clase Mágica & Mi Clase Mágica Head Start

Program Name: La Clase Mágica and Mi Clase Mágica Head Start

Location:  St. Leo's Mission, 936 Genevieve Street, Solana Beach, CA 92075

Program Website: http://lcm.ucsd.edu/LaClaseMagica/Home.html

Video: http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/VAQUEZ%20LCM/LCM.mov

Principal Investigator(s):

  • Professor Olga Vasquez, Department of Communication, UC San Diego
  • Professor Michael Cole, Departments of Communication, Psychology, and Human Development Program, and Director of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC), UC San Diego

Contacts:

  • La Clase Magica: Olga Vasquez, Professor, ovasquez@ucsd.edu
  • Mi Clase Magica Head Start: Eva Palomares, Program Director

Site Description:

  • The La Clase Mágica and Mi Clase Mágica programs are located in Eden Gardens, an low-income sector of the affluent city of Solana Beach in North San Diego County. The programs are situated in a space afforded by the local Head Start Program on the grounds of St. Leo’s Mission, a Catholic Mission ministering to a Spanish-speaking laity. La Clase Mágica (LCLM) developed an intergenerational model for serving the community through 5 age-appropriate activities: Mi Clase Mágica for preschoolers, La Clase Mágica for school age children, the WA (Wizard Assistant’s) Club for second level participants, and La Gran Dimensión for adults. LCM has focused primarily on serving the Spanish-English bilingual children and adults from this community. Mi Clase Mágica (MCM) serves pre-K children from the local Head Start. The programs take place two days a week, twice per day. In both programs, children, undergraduates, and participating adults collaborate both in formal and informal learning activities using educational software or and in project-based literacy building activities that involve digital-media and email.  The children also have access to homework help and a variety of technology-based and hands-on resources and activities. Undergraduates participate by enrolling in the Communication 115 and 116, and/or Human Development 115 and 135, a series of theory and practicum courses in the Department of Communication and the Human Development Program at UC San Diego.

Courses:

Participants (based on 2005-06 data):

La Clase Magica

  • Approximately 100 K–8th grade students per academic year
    • 99% Latino
    • 55% male, 45% female
    • 40% ELLs
  • Approximately 65 undergraduates per academic year

    Mi Clase Magica Head Start

  • Approximately 75 pre-K students per academic year
    • 90% Latino, 5% African American
    • 54% male, 46% female
    • 20% ELLs
  • Approximately 75 undergraduates per academic year

Collaborators:

  • St. Leo’s Mission/St. James Church
  • Solana Beach Coalition for Community Education
  • San Dieguito Boys & Girls Club
  • Center for Academic and Social Advancement (CASA)
  • UC San Diego Department of Communication and Human Development Program
  • UC San Diego Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence (CREATE)

Goals:

  • Increase participants’ basic English and Spanish language literacy and critical thinking
  • Increase technology literacy through computer-based multi-media storytelling
  • Prepare young children and their families for school readiness and integration into educational environment
  • Increase participants’ knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
  • Increase participants' love for learning and ability to communicate in educational and professional settings
  • Improve the quality of graduate and undergraduate education by connecting academic coursework to practicum field experience
  • Encourage undergraduates to explore the possibility of a teaching career in urban, low-income communities

Activities:

  • Collaborative learning activities using a wide array of educational software, hands-on materials, and board games which promote the development of literacy knowledge and skills
  • Daily online (email) communication and letter-writing activities
  • Homework assistance and mentoring from undergraduate participants

Evaluation:

  • University of California Student Academic Preparation and Educational Partnerships (SAPEP) Annual Performance Report
  • UC Links Reading Assessment
  • Survey of undergraduate interest in pursuing graduate or professional school studies
  • Pre-test/post-test computer literacy survey
  • Analysis of participants' activity records, and staff and undergraduate field notes to examine educational progress over time

Research Focus:

  • Sociocultural approach to language issues and English language learning.
  • Mediation of learning by material culture
  • Impact of the social framing of program activities on literacy (specifically vocabulary) development