I'm sure that there are as many ways to get your students involved in community events as there are people organizing these. Before I left a teaching position I entertained the idea of connecting refugees or immigrants to seniors living in retirement homes. The seniors could act as language tutors (they would feel that they are doing something useful) and the refugees could visit these seniors who spend many lonely days. Has anyone tried this?
Nancy R. Faux
ESOL Specialist
Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
1-800-237-0178
-----nifl-esl@nifl.gov wrote: -----
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
From: "Jennifer Morrow" <jmorrow@jcplin.org>
Sent by: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
Date: 01/29/2004 10:37AM
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9815] Community Involvement
Hi everybody!
Like most of us in the field, I work two part-time jobs. During the day, I work for a library-based volunteer literacy program. At night, I work for a state-funded adult education/vocational training center. I teach the beginning level ESL class. My night job relies on student goal achievement to get funds. One of the pre-selected goals that my students are required to meet is to increase involvement in their communities. In the past, this has been done by bringing in clothing or food that is donated to a shelter. I wanted to spice things up a little bit. All of the students I work with between the two jobs seem to want to interact with Americans but most feel their English is not good enough. It seems that we could kill two birds with one stone by using this funding goal to really get students using their English in the community. My question... how? I already have the ideas of donating items and collecting soup can labels but I need more. What activities can be!
done with students to get them more involved in the community? Any help would be appreciated!
Jennifer Morrow
Johnson County Public Library
Adult Learning Center
(317) 738-4677
jmorrow@jcplin.org