I am going to be starting a language program for new refugees and am going about collecting information to do so. I haven't begun any classes yet, but I anticipate pre-literate and non-literate adults.
I came across the book series Out and About-it's supposed to be for beginner English. Any opinions?
I also think that TPR will be a good methodology. any suggestions for textbooks/teacher resource books?
Finally, any ideas on getting funding? I plan on writing grants to some literacy funders...but any other leads?
I really appreciate any feedback.
Advice for new ESL program-refugee
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
-
Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
You don't post where you are from. That makes a huge difference in getting funding and the materials available.
Are you sure that you won't get people who are looking for work too? We had many more people in our program who were qualified in their own countries but couldn't get qualifications in the new one. The English teaching is really different when they have a background in education and work tjat required some sort of training and qualification.
I really liked TPR and there are good textbooks for adults. But I found that you can't do it for very long each day or they think it is babyish.
There are some good posts in the refugee forum.
Are you sure that you won't get people who are looking for work too? We had many more people in our program who were qualified in their own countries but couldn't get qualifications in the new one. The English teaching is really different when they have a background in education and work tjat required some sort of training and qualification.
I really liked TPR and there are good textbooks for adults. But I found that you can't do it for very long each day or they think it is babyish.
There are some good posts in the refugee forum.
new refugee program
Thanks for your reply. In response to your question am in Cincinnati, Ohio.
It sounds like you have experience teaching refugees. Specifically, what textbooks or other teaching resources have worked for you? What assessment do you use? (for example, CASAS or BEST?)
Thanks, I appreciate your feedback.
It sounds like you have experience teaching refugees. Specifically, what textbooks or other teaching resources have worked for you? What assessment do you use? (for example, CASAS or BEST?)
Thanks, I appreciate your feedback.
-
Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I'm afraid that all our students were tested before they came to us and I have never heard of CASAS or BEST. Hope someone else will respond to that.
If you are in the States you will have loads of materil available in your local Teacher's Store or the library. Most libraries have a section for learning English and carry the most recent textbooks and workbooks. If yours doesn't it is something that you could work with librarian on. They usually have funds for those types of projects. I always introduced my students to the library and tried to visit once a week and show them how it worked so they could help their children. There are so many other resources there as well including volunteers to work one on one with your students.
We had a community program and were sponsered by the school board who provided testing and the teacher's salaries so you might want to contact the Continuing Education department. The community Parks Board provided the facilities. We begged and borrowed equipment from the schools as they have loads of old tables, chairs, computers, blackboards, TV's, VCR's and so on. They just let us in their warehouse and we chose what was needed and I often visited the computer department for old computers and programs. They were super helpful.
Local businesses will often help out for special needs like parties or snacks and we asked the local policeman to stop by for coffee at least once a week and visited the local fire department, churches, schools and so on to establish partnerships in various ways. For example, the firemen used to come for coffee breaks and help to tutor individual students. The nuns of the local Catholic church were faithful volunteers giving hours of their time. We put up notices in the local community centers, apartments and stores for volunteers and were in touch with the Volunteer Bureau of our city and had a regular stream of people who wanted to do various tasks from finding funding to finding equipment and resourses to tutoring.
I imagine there will be a network of people who are involved with refugees and you should find out who is doing what and how you can fill the gaps. It will be different in the States than in Canada I'm afraid so I can't help you there.
I wrote more about our program at: ""Teaching pre-litere refugees" if you go to the Refugees forum
If you are in the States you will have loads of materil available in your local Teacher's Store or the library. Most libraries have a section for learning English and carry the most recent textbooks and workbooks. If yours doesn't it is something that you could work with librarian on. They usually have funds for those types of projects. I always introduced my students to the library and tried to visit once a week and show them how it worked so they could help their children. There are so many other resources there as well including volunteers to work one on one with your students.
We had a community program and were sponsered by the school board who provided testing and the teacher's salaries so you might want to contact the Continuing Education department. The community Parks Board provided the facilities. We begged and borrowed equipment from the schools as they have loads of old tables, chairs, computers, blackboards, TV's, VCR's and so on. They just let us in their warehouse and we chose what was needed and I often visited the computer department for old computers and programs. They were super helpful.
Local businesses will often help out for special needs like parties or snacks and we asked the local policeman to stop by for coffee at least once a week and visited the local fire department, churches, schools and so on to establish partnerships in various ways. For example, the firemen used to come for coffee breaks and help to tutor individual students. The nuns of the local Catholic church were faithful volunteers giving hours of their time. We put up notices in the local community centers, apartments and stores for volunteers and were in touch with the Volunteer Bureau of our city and had a regular stream of people who wanted to do various tasks from finding funding to finding equipment and resourses to tutoring.
I imagine there will be a network of people who are involved with refugees and you should find out who is doing what and how you can fill the gaps. It will be different in the States than in Canada I'm afraid so I can't help you there.
I wrote more about our program at: ""Teaching pre-litere refugees" if you go to the Refugees forum
Last edited by Sally Olsen on Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Refugee program
Thank you very much. I am going to follow through on your advice and look into local community support. You gave me a good idea of the work involved and how the language program adapted to the needs of the students.
Take Advantage of Free Materials
A dozen years ago, I was exactly in your positon and found that I could receive a huge amount of free materials for the adult education center in Los Angeles from local and national organizations. The refugees and immigrants were from the former Soviet Union and Iran.
- Free citizenship and ESL books from INS via the local Congressional office. These 400 books were both practical and popular since many immigrants were studying for their naturualization exams.
- Wonderful free color posters from Teaching Tolerance
- Free newspapers delivered once a week from L.A. TImes. The headlines and classified were the most useful sections. Starbucks Literacy Foundation had an agreement with the local paper at that time.
- Free posters from the Red Cross
- Free samples from Proctor and Gamble with very simple ESL materials on daily activities. The students loved it even if I had my doubts.
- Many excellent lesson plans and materials from the OTAN website designed by the California Department of Education, Adult Division. This site has since morphed into a giant resource for adult educators.
- As a government funded program, we also recieved free tests from CASAS and software to monitor and document student progress. I took the maximum number of all tests offered and found a clear correlation between familiarity with test structure and content and student results.
I also found that the major book publishers were willing to provide sample copies of a wide range of textbooks - and include curriculum guides that matched both CASAS and other standards. This helped build an almost instant library of excellent books for the teaching staff.
Finally, we bought class sets of two textbooks for each level. For beginning students, the Oxford Picture Dictionary worked as the supplemental text. The main text for the two beginning levels was Side by Side due the volume of support material. For a beginning program, this was a huge factor.
The intermediate class used a discontinued series called "Living in the USA" and Side by Side levels 3 and 4 - plus the free citizenship books. The advanced levels was left to instructors.
We worked with around 300 students and had a waiting list of 50-75 students. Our little program, over the next five years, helped over 1,000 immigrants become naturalized citizens.
- Free citizenship and ESL books from INS via the local Congressional office. These 400 books were both practical and popular since many immigrants were studying for their naturualization exams.
- Wonderful free color posters from Teaching Tolerance
- Free newspapers delivered once a week from L.A. TImes. The headlines and classified were the most useful sections. Starbucks Literacy Foundation had an agreement with the local paper at that time.
- Free posters from the Red Cross
- Free samples from Proctor and Gamble with very simple ESL materials on daily activities. The students loved it even if I had my doubts.
- Many excellent lesson plans and materials from the OTAN website designed by the California Department of Education, Adult Division. This site has since morphed into a giant resource for adult educators.
- As a government funded program, we also recieved free tests from CASAS and software to monitor and document student progress. I took the maximum number of all tests offered and found a clear correlation between familiarity with test structure and content and student results.
I also found that the major book publishers were willing to provide sample copies of a wide range of textbooks - and include curriculum guides that matched both CASAS and other standards. This helped build an almost instant library of excellent books for the teaching staff.
Finally, we bought class sets of two textbooks for each level. For beginning students, the Oxford Picture Dictionary worked as the supplemental text. The main text for the two beginning levels was Side by Side due the volume of support material. For a beginning program, this was a huge factor.
The intermediate class used a discontinued series called "Living in the USA" and Side by Side levels 3 and 4 - plus the free citizenship books. The advanced levels was left to instructors.
We worked with around 300 students and had a waiting list of 50-75 students. Our little program, over the next five years, helped over 1,000 immigrants become naturalized citizens.