I think that bringing in African American speakers (business speakers, chruch leaders, those who have attained their GED)  is great.  Also, I bring in juvenile readers that are by and about African Americans; take students to AA museums if possible.  The possiblilities are endless.  Let's not just have units relevelant to A Americans during the month of February.  We are here for the other 11 months also.  I know that there is and will be many sites dedicated to our new president elect, his background,  his road to the White House etc. History has been made in our own eyes.
 
I am African American and  I work with various learners... refugees, Hispanics and African Americans.  I find that these learners are motivated when learning many things that are relevant to their lives and about "people" they can relate to; people who look like them and have had similar experiences as theirs and have overcome barriers, etc.'
 
Thanks

--- On Thu, 11/20/08, Adam W Nathanson/FS/VCU <nathansonaw at vcu.edu> wrote:

From: Adam W Nathanson/FS/VCU <nathansonaw at vcu.edu>
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3146] Re: Adult ESL students and African Americans
To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List" <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 2:34 PM



Thanks Rebecca, 
 
I think that one point you touched on that is important is that personal experiences of our students are legitimate.  We just need to remind them that those incidents on the bus or in the rental office can't be extrapolated to indict whole groups of people.
 
Divide and conquer is real too, and I had a boss tell me years ago at a government job that "the blacks had their chance and they blew it, so now we're going with the Hispanics."  
 
Are there specific websites for the images you mentioned?
 
Thanks,
Adam
-----englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov wrote: -----


To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List" <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
From: "Rebeca Fernandez" <Rebeca.Fernandez at cpcc.edu>
Sent by: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
Date: 11/20/2008 03:05PM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3144] Re: Adult ESL students and African Americans



In response to Adam’s post, I’ve encountered the same with my students. I’m a Hispanic female, and by virtue of the cultural proximity, I probably get earfuls of biases on a regular basis.  It’s really difficult to hear but at the same time, I don’t feel it’s appropriate to dismiss students’ personal experiences. The fact is that this is an issue we as educators cannot gloss over and ignore. Hispanic and black youth kill each other in gang warfare in different parts of the country. Recent media reports have cited that some blacks feel that immigrants do threaten their opportunities and that efforts to help the plight of Hispanics might take away from efforts to help build the black community. There is tension between these communities, no doubt,  when there should be alliances. 
  
For that very reason,  I have often used racially biased comments as an opportunity to teach about American history, the civil rights movement, and ultimately, to credit African-Americans with so many of the rights immigrants have today. For lower level students, there are plenty of really powerful images on the internet from which you could convey rich messages.  I also make connections between the historical treatment of Blacks in this country and the way indigenous peoples of Latin America continue to be treated in many places today. That can be very disarming, and I have found that at least in class (I don’t know what they do outside), their attitudes change. I also teach about language dialects among cultural groups in the US and caution against judgments of ‘correct English’, again drawing parallels between the variety of equally correct Spanishes of Latin American and Castilian Spanish. 
  
I like that you bring in African-American speakers. That is something I haven’t  tried. 


Rebeca Fernandez 
  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Adam W Nathanson/FS/VCU 
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:57 PM 
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov 
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3143] Adult ESL students and African Americans 
  
Hello All, 
  
I teach EL Civics for Richmond, Virginia Public Schools Adult & Continuing Education.  Perhaps because I am a white male, I have found that like many native-born United States people, some of my ESL students feel free to express their biases towards American blacks with me.  Examples include comments that blacks are lazy and impatient in communicating with them. 
  
I always debunk their generalizations and stereotypes when they come up.  I also bring in speakers from the community who happen to be African American, as well as stressing how black progress has pushed our country forward throughout its existence.  But I want to hear about other instructors' experiences with this problem, and how you've dealt with it. 
  
Thanks, 
Adam Nathanson ----------------------------------------------------
National Institute for Literacy
Adult English Language Learners mailing list
EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage
Email delivered to nathansonaw at vcu.edu
----------------------------------------------------
National Institute for Literacy
Adult English Language Learners mailing list
EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage
Email delivered to katstyle at sbcglobal.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20081121/73afbedc/attachment.html