Jennifer Escareno Villegas

ID#: 69167330

March 23, 2017

The Impact of Girls Inc.

In order for children to participate in afterschool programs, they have to feel comfortable

doing so. According to Sandra D. Simpkins and colleagues, Mexican-American children are

family oriented and do not really participate in afterschool programs because they want to spend

as much time as they can with their families, (Simpkins, Pg. 9). Most of the afterschool programs

available to children only focus on the growth of the individual participant, but Girls Inc. is

different and may be the best fit for Mexican-American children. Girls Inc. knows how valuable

it is for children to interact with their parents and as a result, they have designed a monthly

Family Night where parents get to play games with their children and win prizes. By

participating in Family Night, parents also get to interact with the staff and become familiar with

the program. Another factor that influences Mexican-Americans to participate in afterschool

programs is their interest in the activities provided. A girl Simpkins and colleagues interviewed

stated that her parents had pushed her to join band because they wanted a musician in the family

and that she was only participating in one because of them, (Simpkins, pg. 9). The girls at Girls

Inc. are also struggling with this issue because some of them are really excited to read and

improve their reading skills and others are not. The main focus of Girls Inc. is to help girls who

need to improve their literacy skills, but seeing how some of the girls act like they dont care

about the program makes me question whether it is actually beneficial. In order to address the

needs of these girls, the program should develop a survey that allows the girls to choose which

activities they want to be a part of. That way, everyone would be engaged and excited to learn.
 One of the ways in which Girls Inc. can improve is by providing the girls with structured

voluntary activities. Structured voluntary activities are activities that an adult organizes, but are

optional for children to participate in, (Larson, pg. 5). Girls Inc. does not really provide the girls

with optional activities because they all are expected to participate in every activity. However, I

feel that the girls will benefit if they participate in a gardening project. The girls really enjoy

doing hands on activities and dont really get the opportunity to participate in these types of

activities in Girls Inc. because they are usually reading or listening to the theme story. But, since

they recently learned about flowers it would be ideal to give them the opportunity to plant their

own garden so that they can become aware about what its like to take care of plants and how

doing something so small can have an impact on the environment. Another optional activity that

will be beneficial for the girls is to allow them to create their own paintings. The girls usually

engage in acting out scenarios from the book, but that is getting a little bit repetitive and as a

result, it would be best to switch it up a bit and have them paint picutres about their favorite part

of the book instead.

Another way in which Girls Inc. can be improved is by providing the girls with more

amplifiers of engagement. One of the amplifiers of engagement is dosage, which refers to the

amount of times the girls spend in the program, (Hansen and Larson, pg. 2). The amount of time

that the girls spent in the program is an hour and twenty minutes and that is not enough time. The

girls benefit tremendously from participating in the activities that at times it seems like they are

cut short. If we were given a half an hour more to work with the girls, that would be incredibly

helpful because they would get to read more books and participate in more hands on activities.

One of the amplifiers that Girls Inc. is already implementing is motivation. Motivation refers to

the childs willingness to participate in the activities presented to them, (Hansen and Larson, pg.
2). There are days where the girls are just not having it and they do not want to do anything and

in order to motivate them to read and participate in the activities, Girls Inc. has developed a Star

Sticker Incentive. Every time the girls hear the word star sticker, they pay attention and quietly

wait for instructions. The Star Sticker Incentive gives girls star stickers whenever they are

behaving correctly and are following directions. The girls get one start sticker at the end of

reading and one start sticker at the end of the session. Using these star stickers has allowed the

girls to become a lot more engaged because every three weeks they get to use their star stickers

to choose a prize from the prize box, (Girls Inc. 2017). These incentives have proven to be

beneficial and their use should be continued so that the girls can always be on their best behavior.

Another theory that Girls Inc. has implemented is Elements of Engagement. Elements of

Engagement were implemented when staff at an afterschool program site performed a Staff-

Rated Student Engagement Survey and determined whether the three elements of engagement:

affective, cognitive and behavioral-sustained involvement were met during their activities,

(Grogan, 2014). Affective engagement refers to how much the child enjoys the activity. At Girls

Inc. the girls really do enjoy getting to write their thoughts down in their journal and getting to

act out different scenes from the book. This past week, they learned about different types of

flowers and they were all really excited about naming all of the flowers they knew. Cognitive

engagement refers to interest. The girls participate in cognitive engagement because they are

given the opportunity to choose the book that they want to read. The books are categorized based

on difficulty, but if one of the girls wants to read a book that is harder for her, she is given the

freedom to challenge herself and try to read it. However, if the book is too hard, the girls are also

given the freedom to put it back and choose another one. Behavioral-sustained involvement

refers to the end result of participating in this program. At the end of Girls Inc., the girls are
tested one last time to determine if the program was beneficial to them and whether their reading

skills have improved. Some of the girls even graduate from the program because their reading

skills have improved so much that they do not need any extra assistance.

Another theory that Girls Inc. has implemented that has worked well for them is the

Expectancy Value Theory. The Expectancy Value Theory refers to the expectancies a person has

and the value that their goal has, (Eccles, pg. 1). This theory was implemented when the girls

were playing a game where they had to draw an object with the first letter of their name. The

girls could not talk to one another and could not ask for help if they were unsure of what animal

to draw. Once all of the girls had drawn something, they switched papers and everyone had to

guess what the animal was and who had drawn it. This activity allowed the girls to think a lot

more critically to reach their end goal, which was to learn different types of animals as they got

to learn peoples names.

The last theory that Girls Inc. has implemented and has worked well for them are the

SAFE feaures. The S refers to sequenced, using a step-by-step approach to things, (Granger, pg.

9). The Girls Inc. schedule is sequenced because there is always a step by step approach oh how

things will go that day. First, the girls sit in the carpet and two girls who are sitting nice and

quietly are chosen to be the helper of the day. The helper then gets to decide which group of girls

will read first between the blue and red group. Then one group reads and the other participates in

the activity and then we switch. The A refers to active, which is described as having the children

participate in activities that allow them to acquire new skills, (Granger, pg 9). The girls at Girls

Inc. are active because every time they go to session, they learn new skills. They usually read a

new book and base the activities they perform on what the book is about. One of the recent

activities they performed was pretending to be a botanist and teaching all of the other girls about
flowers. The F is for focused, which refers to the time spent on a skill, (Granger, pg. 9). The girls

at Girls Inc. participate in focused activities because they spend twenty minutes each day writing

down about their experiences in their journals. During this time, they are able to reflect about the

day and the things learned. The E stands for explicit, which refers to the targeted skills that the

children should learn, (Granger, pg. 9). The goal of Girls Inc. is to promote a safe environment

where girls can be themselves without fearing that they are going to judged. Girls Inc. goes by

this standard because the girls really feel comfortable in the environment and feel like everyone

is there to support them and guide them towards becoming better versions of themselves.

Overall, doing my fieldwork at Girls Inc. was really inspiring because it allowed me to

meet lots of smart and talented girls. It also allowed me to discover how much I truly enjoy

working with children and how it is something I want to continue doing in the future.
Works Cited

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

Girls Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.girlsinc.org

Granger, R., (2008). After-school programs and academics: Implications for policy and

practices. Social Policy Report, 22, 1-19. Retrieved from:

http://www.nccap.net/media/pages/Granger.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 Retrieved

from: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cdr/2014/498506/

Hansen, D., & Larson, R. (2007). Amplifiers of developmental and negative experiences in

organized activities: Dosage, motivation, lead roles, and adult-youth ratios.Journal of

Applied Developmental Psychology, 28, 360-374. http://youthdev.illinois.edu/wp-

content/uploads/2013/11/hansen-and-larson-2007.pdf

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