Actually, the issue of the Change Agent about immigration has a piece designed to address exactly this issue.  It provides a set of critical questions that readers can ask themselves to name not just biases in a text, but also in themselves (hopefully).
 
Elsa Auerbach

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Sharon McKay 
	Sent: Thu 9/14/2006 1:44 PM 
	To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 635] ESL Resources
	
	

	To head back towards ESL instructional materials, it's obvious that people have very strong views about the immigration topic.  Perhaps our job as teachers is to help students separate fact from bias in their daily lives.  The first time someone assured me there was no 'unbiased' news because someone decides WHAT and WHAT NOT to print or broadcast, I was shocked.  Civics instruction about freedom of speech doesn't usually address this.  Most of our students take everything at face value while they are absorbing the language and culture for the first time.

	Our students need tools to find value laden terminology, faulty arguments, and an eye for what is NOT said. 
	I've discovered you can begin to model these analytical processes early on for high-beginning students with samples of a variety of mass media. 

	I'd be curious to know if anyone has found some classroom resources that help further this kind of awareness. 


	Sharon McKay 
	Washington, DC 
	  

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov <mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov> ] On Behalf Of Mary Ann Florez 
	Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:09 PM 
	To: Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu; englishlanguage at nifl.gov 
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 630] Re: Immigration class materials 

	I guess one man's caviar is another man's fish eggs. 

	While I'm not teaching regularly right now, I have taught in the past and I have tapped the Change Agent for ideas and information.  And like anything that I'm considering as a source of instructional ideas and materials (as well as personal enrichment and provoking of thought), I looked through the Change Agent with an eye to how it might enhance or expand the issues and language that my students and I were working with in class.  Often it did and sometimes it didn't. But what I always appreciated (and still do) is its engagement of problem-solving, critical thinking, and analysis skills--from me and from my students. 

	MaryAnn Florez 
	Arlington, VA 

	>>> Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu 09/13/06 11:20 AM >>> 
	Kearney 

	Are there specific instances of unabashedly leftist writing or articles that you've read in the Change Agent that have led you to this analysis?

	As well, regardless of one's political leanings, many working to help adults learn English might find the term illegal alien inhelpful.  If by 'illegal'

	you mean without documentation, and if by "alien" you mean born in a country other than the one in which one lives, a more useful term might be undocumented immigrant.

	While I have no interest in splitting hairs, I do believe that language conveys important messages and would be interested to know more about your - and others' - views of the material in the Change Agent.


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