Guest-led Discussion with Heide Wrigley on Contextualizing Instruction and Supporting English Learners onto Career Pathways!

Welcome, Heide Spruck Wrigley!

It is my privilege to welcome someone who needs no introduction. Heide Wrigley has been one of the most important leaders at the national and international level in adult literacy and second language acquisition for many years. We are fortunate that Heide continues to provide leadership to the field during this time of significant change. Heide will be guiding our conversaion this week on ways to contextualize instruction around learners' career-related goals. She will engage us in discussion around various program models that make it possible for learners to gain meaningful employment that can sustain their families.

I'm certain there will be many questions on this topic.Members, please share your questions as well as your experiences related to contextualized instruction and career pathways for English learners. We are so lucky to have Heide with us, and I'm looking forward to a great discussion this week!

Heide Spruck Wrigley's Bio:

Heide Spruck Wrigley is a researcher and teacher educator with Literacywork International, an independent social science research firm focused on education and training for immigrant youth and adults.

She has studied and written about various aspects of adult English as a Second Language (ESL), including workforce literacy, family literacy, and vocational English for adults with limited English proficiency.

Dr. Wrigley has been the subject matter specialist in a number of national research efforts, including the federally funded What Works for Adult ESL Students study and the National Adult ESL Literacy Demonstration Project. She has worked with both industry and community-based organizations on blended learning models, integrating work-infused communication and digital literacy skills.

Her recent work includes workshops for teachers and coordinators engaged in concurrent instruction and for those building on ramps for career pathways. She is also creating asynchronous webinars on various topics, including accelerating instruction for highly skilled immigrants, serving students with ESL backgrounds in technical classes, and using multi-media to engage students and build pre-training skills.

Dr. Wrigley holds a PhD in education and a master's degree in applied linguistics. She lives in New Mexico

Comments

Welcome everyone to our discussion on Contextualizing Instruction and Supporting English Learners Onto Career Pathways. I look forward to a lively conversation/debate on the different ideas that interest you about this topic. At the same time, I am ready to offer background information, resources (including materials that you can use in the classroom) along with the occasional insights I've gained from years of work in the whole alphabet soup of work oriented language and literacy. We can sort out the various acronyms and what they mean as we move along (ESP, EFL, ESL/ESOL/ELA, VESL, I-BEST) along with other terms you may have heard (contextualized instruction; concurrent instruction; accelerated instruction; content-based instruction; career pathways; brain waste,  low skilled immigrants and refugees; foreign-educated professionals) 

My plan is to have a different topic each day, starting with introductions and expectations and an overview of the Pro-ESL materials available on LINCS and how they might help you in your work (and/or build your knowledge of the field). We can then look at different models for contextualizing instruction and discuss what model makes sense where, given your program focus and your resources. I expect that we will spend significant amount of time on instructional issues, with a focus on preparing students for work and training, but would also like for us to touch on knowing what students know though the use of Can-Do lists and Quick Checks like emojis and exit cards. 

How does that sound?   (well, it sounds like we will be here for a month or more; but don't worry - we'll try to keep things contained so one topic or concern does not crowd out all others.

To start with, I would love to hear how you are involved in this work, what your aspirations are for the students you teach or hope to teach and what you hope to take away from participating in this discussion.

Best 

Heide 

 

Howdy Heide!

It's good to "see" you and I look forward to hear about the projects you've been working on.  I'm involved with CPs for ELLs in a couple of ways.  First and foremost, at TRAIN PD @ TCALL,  I'm working on online PD content based on LINCS ACP content.  I've recently helped set up a ESL for Professionals class at Community Action that was almost completely online.  Because they have the rural "donut" around Austin, we were trying to make the class more accessible.  I've just heard from the teacher and looked at the results, and for a pilot it isn't bad.  I'm hoping we can tighten some things up for round two.

I've also got "Math for ELLs / ESL for Math" on my side burner. (It's not all the way to the back, but it's close.)  I'm hoping to get a standardized training together over the summer.

And, of course, I just always like to glean what I can from you.  

Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience with us!

Glenda

Good morning, Glenda 

I wonder if you have information on the status of the TISESL curriculum, Is it available to programs outside of Texas?

TISESL stands for Texas Industry Specific ESL. Thanks so much - Heide 

Hi, Heide -

It's great to virtually meet you.  I'm looking forward to this week's discussion, and learning ways to help my teaching peers to contextualize instruction around our Career and Technical Education (CTE) program offerings.  I work with the public schools in Arlington, VA, where I support our ESOL and special education students (ages 15-22) in CTE program offerings, ranging from Animal Science to  Auto Tech. 

My goal is to help students acquire conversational English, and the English of their chosen CTE program.  Students in many of our programs are eligible for dual enrollment credits at the community college, as well as industry certification and/or licensure.  As you probably already know, the exams for these certifications and licensure rely heavily on students' understanding of contextualized vocabulary.  Our ESOL students' pass rate is lower than their native English speaking peers, although their classroom performance equals, and in cases surpasses their peers. 

My hope is to learn new approaches to helping our ESOL and CTE content area teachers understand how to support our ESOL students in achieving passing scores on these industry assessments.  I'm looking forward to the conversation.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

Thank you, Mike for highlighting some of the challenges faced by "late entry" students, those who come to the U.S. after primary school or in their teens and struggle to attain  the academic skills needed to graduate (perhaps more could be done to help them through "deeper learning" approaches and models that focus on content-based instruction). It seems to me that all things being equal (which they never are) that Career and Technical Education in both high schools and colleges offers an entry way into career pathways with a possibilities of stackable certificates. I see a tremendous need for advocacy to offer more of these programs for youth and adults who have not yet graduated from high school.

As you point out, alignment between CTE at the high school or adult level is often missing since the expectations at the different levels differ and support for students who transition is often inadequate. Collaboration with CCs to have credentials gained outside of the system recognized are starting to gain traction but are not yet the commonplace  (I will be happy to hear I am wrong). But a number of programs are moving in that direction and I would love to hear more

The Far West Consortium in the EL Paso area offers technical certificates to their students with ESL backgrounds through the CTE programs in the high schools. The three participating adult schools, all part of Independent School District,  collaborate with CTE in the high schools to offer their students an Integrated Education and Training (IET) model that combines ESL contextualized to a specific training course with technical training taught by an industry certified teacher. They are now actively working with El Paso Community College to have the CTE credentials recognized by the college in the form of Continuing Education credits (soon to be in place) and possibly academic credits (working on it)

How does the CTE option sound to others?  Does it sound like a viable option where you are?  - Have a wonderful evening and I will see you all in the morning - Heide

 

Adding my voice to thank Heide for facilitating this piece of the conversation.  One thing I think about a lot, after many years working with ESOL learners and practitioners,is how or if changes (in policy, technology and practice) impact  work-related language teaching/learning - how/if these changes actually make any difference in terms of the quality of instruction and learners' abilities to learn, given both their strengths and resilience and increasingly difficult challenges in an immigrant-unfriendly world.  

During the recent webinar, Heide raised the question about how/if Career Pathways differ from Vocational ESL (VESL), and began to lay out some important distinctions.  As ever, I am interested in learning more about these distinctions, and also in working to ensure that WIOAs focus on employment does not 'cream' out basic level learners who will need more time and support in gaining the language/literacy abilities needed to transition to work for further training.  

Janet Isserlis

 

 

 

Thank you Glenda, Mike and Janet for getting the ball rolling and telling us something about yourselves. Glenda, it's great to hear about all the work you are doing in the Ell work and career space and I very much hope to draw on your experience. Math for ELLs has been a long time in coming and I can't wait to hear more about the approach

Mike, thanks for raising the issue of the challenges that students face in taking certificate tests. I'm hoping we can discuss both the barriers (lack of experience with taking different types of test (multiple choice; constructed response); limited experience with technical and sub technical vocabulary, time pressure) and strategies for supporting students. Mike, I would also like to hear more about the structure of your classes that prepare students for certificate training. Is it part of concurrent enrollment? Transition to training? Integrated, a la IBEST? 

Good questions as always, Janet. As in VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language) and haven't we been there before? And how to guard against creaming and advocating for decent services for students who are not ready to transition and need more time.

I hope we can get to all of those (I will certainly try) but would also like to hear from others and their concerns. In my next post (today!), I'll tackle the various acronyms. I will also post a couple of additional questions for us to think about 

Talk soon 

Heide

 

Heide -

The students that I'm working with are taking CTE classes as part of their high school diploma requirements.  Many, however, will not meet the requirements for graduation prior to aging out of the K-12 system.  This is most often due to their age when they came to the U.S., and started studying English more intensively.  While they can, and do, continue on in our adult high school, their CTE options are sometimes limited, based on class capacity.  When they matriculate at the community college for similar CTE training, they often are faced with language proficiency issues as a barrier to entering these types of career training programs concurrently.  While there are some VESL programs, the variety of career options is much more limited. 

Mike

Hey, Janet 

Guess what? Someone (not me) had posted a short video I had done at home when I couldn't attend TESOL because of a broken shoulder. I tried to sort out some of the new terms. In my mind, the work that many of us did in refugee resettlement (including you) lives on, but draped in jazzier language. The bid difference I see? 

1. We no longer pretend that any job is a "good job" (though it might be if the alternative is no job and no food). So helping students become successful in obtaining a certificate and moving up from there if resources permit seems to me like a worthwhile direction that the new models support. Although barriers persist of course. It would be good to have a blog/article that highlights "two or three things we learned when VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language) was hot" 

2. The next big difference is the demand for technology skills that adults are expected to have at work and in training (in many places you need to navigate an online system to learn about your schedule and request a time for you vacation days before someone else does). 

3. Also (and that's a good thing), we are broadening our concept of "employability" or work readiness skills. We now acknowledge that basic skills  plus communication, team work, critical thinking etc  are still important, but are starting to discuss the need for ethical decision making (this from employers) and self-management (WIOA) which I take to include learning how to learn and may-be how not to get angry and walk of the job the first time someone criticizes your work (or makes fun of your shoes) 

How about the rest of you?  Have any of you had experience with vocational English as a second language? What have you learned that you think is applicable to the work we are doing now in the "career pathway" space? 

Would love to hear from you - Heide

https://literacywork.present.me/view/46477-ell-career-pathways

 

Hi Heide, I was glad to see that you highlighted that workers increasingly need basic digital literacy even for what are considered entry level service jobs as operations and HR/payroll/scheduling systems shift all online. This presents a huge opportunity. As we teach students basic digital literacy, we can also teach them how to find and access online and mobile English as a Second Language and career education programs. Blended learning not only extends learning but can help students access instruction more customized to their English and education levels and career education interests/needs.  

And to think about in each of our regions, as employers make the shift to online operations, they may be interested in paying forAdult Ed programs to teach the basic digital literacy their workers now need.

Thanks, Janet for the questions about "creaming" - i.e., giving priority to students that are easy to serve  (explicitly or through various means so that it just happens to work out that way) over those most in need. The temptation to "cream" has been an issue since the early JTPA programs when performance outcomes were first introduced and programs were "incentived" to show results related to job placement and job retention. 

While WIOA looks at a broader set of performance outcomes (including transition to training and post secondary education), it is more difficult to show positive performance outcomes (primary outcomes), if a program serves primarily students with lower levels of English (who might not be able to persist in ESL until they are ready to transition to post secondary programs) and those who don't have employment goals but do want and need more English) - that program will not show as positive WIOA performance outcomes as some others.

So if your program serves lots of community  students who start at lower levels and want English for citizenship, to support their children's education or just to hold their own and communicate with others, your primary performance outcomes established under WIOA may not look great. However, if a program across town, decides to recruit higher skilled students with more English, more money and more stable lives and transitions them to job skills training or post secondary academic programs that program will look pretty good as far as performance data is  concerned. 

So what are we to do:  Here are some suggestions based on discussions with Margie McHugh from the Migration Policy Institute who knows these things.

1. Advocate, advocate, advocate and get others on your side. Identify local and state leaders who have made a commitment to immigrant integration and talk about your shared goals.

2. Use local Census data to show numbers of "LEP" who need English in your community and speak English less than very well. Go to WIB meetings (with others!) and talk about the fact that WIOA suggests that priority services be provided to certain populations (including LEP). Point out that this is exactly who you are trying to serve in your program (discuss levels and goals). 

3. Identify state leaders and ask how the State Plan will address the needs of the most vulnerable groups of immigrants and refugees. See if the state has adjusted or will adust their targets to take the needs of those who need Engish the most (to help their children, become citizens, defend themselves) into account. Will they provide incentives for serving high need groups (who are supposed to be a priority under WIOA.

4. Ask if the state is planning to use state monies (by reducing the match for Tier 2 services, for example) to fund services for "dual generation" programs (aka family literacy). Ask why not? Work together with your colleagues in Early Childhood Education to make the case that English skills expand opportunities for parents of young children with benefits for both adults and children. 

5. Keep talking and work with others. Speak up and work with others to discuss ways of serving lower level students with your program. Build relationship with teachers from other programs so you can speak with a common voice. Ask for meaningful reassurance that vulnerable students not in the workforce and their teachers will receive equal attention and support

As much as I have advocated for an integrated approach (combining English language services with job skills training), I have never advocated for a system that encourages programs to seek out and serve mostly those who are most likely to succeed in the short term and make the program look good. 

What are your thoughts?  Back for a wrap up in the morning- let me know if you have last minute ideas, comments, questions - Heide 

See also: Ensuring Immigrants’ Access to WIOA Services: Data and Advocacy Tools for Adult Educators

Margie McHugh, MPI NCIIP

COABE Webinar

February 21, 2017

Hello Heide and all, Thanks again for being with us. ESL teachers are experts at contextualizing instruction, and they bring this valuable skill set to working with learners on career-related content. I think ESL teachers have much to offer to those who are experts in teaching content. At the same time, we ESL teachers have much to learn from our colleagues, too, about the content of career and technical education. I know you plan to share a range of models with us about ways to effectively collaborate to support learners toward their important goals.

With regard to the lowest level learners, I agree with Janet's concern that programming addresses the needs of learners at all levels.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Absolutely, Susan

ESL/ELA teachers and technical instructors can learn a great deal from each other. Unfortunately, in many places the balance is a bit uneven. If any of you are working directly with a technical instructor as part of your work, how do you collaborate and how do you find out what the knowledge, skills, and strategies are that your students need to persist and succeed in a technical class? If you are a technical instructor (welcome!) - what concerns do you have about teaching students who are not yet fully fluent in English? What specific strategies would help you to support these students? 

And yes, I will be discussing models (still trying to paste slides into this space)

Thank you, Susan for weighing in. It's great to have you and Mike part of this discussion 

Heide

Good afternoon, Heide.  You need no introduction to me, as you helped develop my institution's (South Texas College's) career pathway program and have been instrumental in our work in mentoring other institutions in developing their own IET pathways.  My aspirations are for my students to achieve true buy-in to the program.  Too often, students do not believe in the value of a true liberal arts education.  They don't understand that the American model of education has philosophical roots that stretch back through history through the Renaissance's humanism, Medieval cathedral schools' scholasticism, all the way back to the Ancient Greece with Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.  They don't know the value of a well-rounded education.  However, contextualized instruction gives the students the buy-in they need, wraps the bitter vitamins of academia in the peanut buttery promise of a job that students can swallow, and reinforces their engagement in a way that few other things do.  

Thank you, Chris for helping students see that through a broad-based education that goes beyond emphasizing more that occupational skill and knowledge, we all become part of what Frank Smith has called the "Literacy Club" - whose member read and discuss "big ideas" and share their ideas in discussions and in text.

Chris, I know you teach a terrific contextualized GED class.

1. Can you say a little bit more about the way you the history and focus on American Education with topics and skills on the GED 

2. Can you briefly explain how you connect your concerns with humanistic education with both the GED on the one had and the demands of the technical classes your students are preparing for on the other? 

Heide

 

a. link "big ideas" to the skills and knowledge demanded by the GED or HSE  

1. I'm sorry, Heide, there's a verb missing here, can you help me out with this?

2. The idea of standardized tests is that they prove that the students are competent in core educational areas (in this case, rhetorical reasoning and argumentation on the RLA, the foundations of the U. S. model of government for the Social Studies exam, energy systems and biological functions for the Science, and algebraic functions for the Math; I am simplifying here, but this is the gist).  These concepts form a skeleton around which a humanistic education could be formed.  There are some deficiencies, of course: the fine arts are not represented, nor are languages, and philosophy is lost amidst the social sciences, but it does provide a foundational framework for students to know that they are competent in the base areas of academia, and thus, the breadth of human learning.  

The obtainment of a high school equivalency provides my adult learners with the proof that they are valid, that they have access to the breadth of human experience; too often, they come in feeling that there is something they "just can't do", that they are shut off from the dreams and hopes of other individuals.  College is something real people get, not them.  Skilled professions are something for someone other than them.  They are sub-human.  They never actually say these words, but it is evident from their attitudes.  For whatever reason, they deny themselves admittance into the progress of society.  I find this to be the case especially among my native-born ESL students; those who were mainstreamed out of ESOL classes in their secondary education attempts.  So, I frame HSE obtainment as a way to validate their experience, that their life-learning is part of the human existence; and by drawing connections to between the "Platonic Ideals" of the ivory halls of academia, of rhetoric and quadratic functions, to their own personal experience, I try to show them that learning is universal, and the skills can be applied across all spectrums of society.  This is where career contextualization comes in.  The higher order thinking skills found in even the simple ESL videos you provide, like "The Missing Utility Knife", prove that these skills are truly useful and relevant to their daily lives.  By connecting their daily lives to these higher concepts, I lower the barrier to entry to the idea that they cannot do these things.  I show that they are already scientists and political theorists and rhetoricians and statisticians.  And by tying the big words to their experiences, I make that bridge between them and the universality of human existence. 

 

a: https://www.gedtestingservice.com/uploads/files/652b969a13a0126c909facc5aa166363.pdf

Thanks Chris for highlighting the expectations in the Language Arts section of the new GED . We can see overlap between the expectations laid out in some of the High school Equivalency Exams and the new ELP standards https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/elp-standards-adult-ed.pdf. It would be good to discuss where some of the other 21 Century Skills exist (creativity, curiosity, learning how to learn might fit). If skills are not tested, do they matter? 

Thanks also for you impassioned description of why diplomas and certificates matter to students who have neither.  I remember Lisa Delpit arguing (in Educating Other People's Children) that helping students to know what others (in the middle class) know is an important part of education (which was by no means an endorsement of a skill and drill basic skills approach that focuses on memorization of factual knowledge). She clarifies her point in a fascinating interview 

https://www.thenation.com/article/interview-lisa-delpit-educating-other-peoples-children/

Not to worry about a missing verb (we are pretty good at tolerating ambiguity around here) 

What do you (all) think? 

Heide

                                           

 

 

 

                                         

Literacywork International

 

 

 

Good morning, all

Before we jump deeper into discussions, I will be posting a couple of  video resources related to Contextualization and Supporting Students on their Way to Career Pathway. I am hoping your responses, ideas and qustions can be part of our discussion with a focus on Teaching and Learning.

Here is the backstory: Some years ago, we shot a number of classroom vidoes  as part of our Professional Development work with the Socorro, TX Independent School District. The videos  show the Socorro teachers and students in action. Here is the first one: 

From Home Repair to Construction Project

 Mike Saenz introduces a “school improvement project” that students have chosen. The group decided to drive across the border to Mexico and fix up a small village school in El Faro, Mexico that had fallen into disrepair. Students organized tools and materials, made plans for construction repair and upgrades and developed a plan for a BBQ (all executed on site). All students were displaced workers who had lost their jobs in El Paso when the Levy Strauss plant closed. As you see them, they are in classes to improve their English skills to increase their opportunity to enter training and get new jobs. It is not likely that most got jobs that paid wages similar to the wagers they were making as Unionized garment workers.

To “activate background knowledge” and build on what students know, Mike starts with a short scenario “my patio needs work” and invites students to tell him in English (or Spanish) what the problem might be and how he might fix it.  He knows that most students do their own repairs at home or invite family members and friends to help them.

To help students think about what needs to be done and to organize the information and guide the conversation Mike has created a grid, similar to the one below.

Problem to Be Fixed

Materials Need

Tools Needed

Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Betsy also pointed out in her CoP on “Rigor”, these kinds of grids support critical thinking and analysis.

You’ll notice that Mike uses a strategy called Chalk Talk (related to story boarding) to draw the problem on the board, talking, explaining, and asking questions while he sketches the problem. 

If you are looking for a resource on using Chalk Talk, there is a terrific book by Norma Shapiro

https://www.amazon.com/Chalk-Talks-Norma-Shapiro/dp/0929724151 - that I’ve used in PD a lot. I think it’s a great way to explain processes to students while having them engaged while the watch, listen and respond all while the story unfolds

Here is the video of Mike and his class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xV5OLdnVGM

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions or comments or examples of what you have done to help beginning level learners understand by using sketches and drawings and various forms of multi-media 

Enjoy!.  Looking forward to your ideas and further examples. - Heide

Hi, all,

Susan and I are trying to sort out why I got shut out of posting messages this evening (may just be maintenance), but I wanted to post my Acronym piece. It’s not official so fee free to add, modify, argue, ask questions.

Simple Glossary of Acronyms to Get Us All on the Same Page

ESL: English as a Second Language (though it may be your students third or fourth language). English for students who want to learn the language of the country they live in.  Now often referred to as ELA.

Variations:  ESOL: English to Speakers of Other Languages (since it may be your students’ third or fourth language). More commonly used in the east than in the west (CA still uses ESL)

EAP: English for Academic Purposes. English to prepare students for the rigors of higher education. Often used in non-ABE university programs. If you teach a Transition Course, you are probably focusing on EAP

EFL: English as a Foreign Language. Used to describe English teaching/learning in a country where English is generally not the medium of communication. If your students learned some of their English in the home country, their teachers probably thought of themselves as EFL teachers.

ELA: English Language Acquisition. Used in WIOA to refer to the field (ABE/ELA). ESL is still acceptable as an alternative especially since ELA also stands for English Language Arts (K-12 standards)

ELL:  English Language Learner. A student who is not able to communicate fluently in English and might need support. Used both in Adult Education and in K-12; also known as an ESL student

ESP: English for Specific Purposes. Used in reference to the English needed for occupational or professional fields (English for Health Care; Welding; Engineering)

LEP: Limited English Proficient. Limited English Proficient. Term preferred by the Department of Labor to refer to individuals who are not fluent in English and may be considered for special assistance.

SLA: Second Language Acquisition. Scientific field (linguistics) focused on how languages are learned. Nobody seems to be bothered by the reference to “second.”

VESL: Vocational English As a Second Language. Used in many of the refugee resettlement programs and other programs preparing students for a specific occupation. Not necessarily tied to a Career Pathway or part of a “stackable” credential

Stay tuned for questions on what you see as the key difference between ABE learners and ELLs. Also, on what you see as significant differences among different groups of English learners as you try to prepare them for work or training.

Good morning, everyone, for some reason LINCS has shut me out of the system so I will be asking Susan to post for me. I'm hoping we can discuss the different models your program and others use support ELLs as they try to find jobs, get better jobs, find out out what jobs are out there that might fit their needs, learn about opportunities for training, get the English they need for training and make it through a training class. 

That's a lot. So I wanted to start with today's question:

1. What do you see as significant differences between your ABE students who grew up speaking English and students who are learning English? How do you or your program try to address the needs of ELLs in the "work/training career pathway space"? 

2. Do you see significant differences among the groups of English learners in your program (think educational backgrounds, work experience, goals, legal status, English proficiency) Does your program vary its program offerings to account for those differences in setting up new programs?  Do you think we should? What support or service should we be providing that is not currently in place? What are unmet needs?

Looking forward to a lively discussion today 

Heide 

 

 

 

Hello Heide and all, You asked whether we see significant differences among the learners we serve. In my experience, there are significant differences. Some learners come to us with no or limited formal schooling, while others come with professional degrees. We see adults all along the continuum in terms of educational background. We sometimes even see someone with a professional degree sitting next to someone who has limited formal schooling in beginning level English classes.

Some programs are doing a decent job of addressing these needs, but I think many programs really struggle with this for many reasons. I'm eager to hear from those who have figured out some things!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition

Hello again

Today we have a couple of issues worth discussing, I think. In terms of acknowledging the wide range of educational backgrounds that learners exhibit  (one of the key differences between ABE and Adult ESL), there is now a great deal of discussion about the need to "accelerate learning" for those who have degrees. I have talked to many who  feel that there knowledge and experience are not sufficiently recognized and that they could move faster toward their educational and professional goals. 

What is your situation? Do you know who the higher skilled adults are in your program?  How do you use this information (or may-be you don't know yet) 

Have you been able to establish program structures or services (such as Welcome Back Centers) or advising sessions on recredentialling?  What about classes or curriculum, have you been successful in differentiating in ways that support lower skilled students while at the same time challenging those who already have a certificate or a degree from the home country? 

And:  Are you interested in reports and ideas that speak to the challenges and possibilities of working with higher skilled adults.

P>S. We will get back to what we can do to support lower skilled immigrants and refugees as the pendulum tends to swing the other way

Models are next - Best Heide

Hello all, here is a note from Glenn Davis in Seattle and his description of models that he has studied: 

Glenn’s Response

Earlier this year the Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in response to a request from the Seattle City Council conducted a study to explore the feasibility of establishing services in our City for internationally-educated immigrants and refugees who are seeking professional occupations in the U.S.  At the heart of this study is an exploration of the creation of workforce and educational programs and policies that would even the playing field by lowering institutional barriers that prevent immigrant and refugee jobseekers from fully participating and succeeding in the labor market.  We would be happy to share the report,

Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges: Career Pathways to Economic Stability & Quality Jobs for Seattle’s Immigrant and Refugee Workers & Professionals

 

There are a couple of program in WA State that I’d like to highlight that are doing great work :

 

Jewish Family Service (JFS) offers a career orientation for newly arrived refugees with a bachelor’s degree or vocational skills. The orientation covers the current job market in the greater Seattle area, job search tools, the importance of first jobs and strategies for long-term success and goal-setting activities.  JFS also runs a mentorship program designed to show and step on a pathway that leads from survival jobs to meaningful careers. Participants in the program are matched with a mentor from the same profession and receive individualized case management and job search trainings.

Highline College operates the Puget Sound Welcome Back Center (WBC) that helps internationally educated professionals navigate complex systems to return to their chosen occupation. The WBC provides educational case management, advising and planning with these professionals, which might involve international transcript evaluation, licensing test preparation, testing and referral to funding and networking resources as well as employment resources. The Puget Sound WBC is part of a national Welcome

 

 

Glenn Scott Davis

Program and Policy Specialist

City of Seattle

Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs

office 206.615.0207

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Thanks, Glenn for highlighting two of the Seattle area programs that focus their work on internationally trained professionals. I was intrigued by Jewish Family Services focusing on helping those with certificates in the trades (e.g., automotive, welding, electrical, plumbing etc etc) get re certified or qualify for a related occupation. (As many of you know, the Welcome Back Centers tend to focus on professionals (mostly foreign-educated doctors or nurses). 

I think we need to acknowledge that recertification and recredentialing is expensive. Even just having one's credential evaluated costs money. As a result many students choose to take a Highschool Equivalency Class to get access to college qualify for financial aide. 

Even when immigrants and refugees find work related to their profession or trade, they often end up significantly underemployed

We now have good approaches for assisting higher skilled immigrants with advice and help in navigating systems. But what we are still lacking are descriptions of proven  instructional approaches that accelerate the acquisition of professional or trade related language for those whose knowledge and experience in the field exceeds their capacity to express big ideas in English.

So if you have a good model, please share.

Glenn. I have read your excellent report laying out issues and possibilities for serving internationally trained immigrants and thank your for offering to share. How should others contact you to get a copy?

 In the meantime fellow travellers, here is a link to a report discussing Brainwaste 

https://www.weareoneamerica.org/sites/weareoneamerica.org/files/OA.BrainWaste.final_.pdf

Best 

Heide

 

Hi Heide,

I'm so glad this point [addressing the needs of high skilled immigrants] is part of the discussion. I thing the counseling that is part of WIOA can serve these learners by building their awareness of alternative career pathways that allow them to transfer the skills from their prior careers  and training. Susan, didn't you have your learners do projects and presentations where they explored high-demand careers that were related to their prior careers? (I'm thinking of a session you had at Virginia's Adult Conference.)  Projects like that would be an opportunity for learners to customize their instruction and work towards meeting many ELP and CCR Standards including CCR Writing Anchor Standard 7 (conducting research); and ELP Anchor Standard 6 (conducting research). Within the classroom, we would want to remind learners of the strategies they applied to succeed in their work and training prior to coming to the US and provide direct instruction in the expectations and culture of US academic and workplace settings. I look forward to reading how programs are supporting these higher-skilled learners.

I echo Glenda's thanks, Heide...it's such a pleasure to learn from you.

Jayme

Hello, Jayme 

Thanks so much for jumping into this discussion with both feet (well, fingers). To start I want to make everyone aware of a terrific resource on Preparing English Learners for Work and Careers. It's a digital magazine written by Jayne Adelson-Goldstein. It's a companion to the ESL Pro materials contextualization and career pathways on LINCS. The digital magazine is chock full of great Ideas, examples of lessons, and teaching strategies and more - all related to this week's discussion. The official name is Companion Learning Resource (CLR). It is a  multimedia publication that includes links to career videos on YouTube as well as audio clips of educators making a point or two. 

Here is the link: https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/LINCS_CLR-1_508_0.pdf

Jayme's publication is part of the ESL Pro suite of materials, this one focused on Preparing English Learners for Work and Careers Pathways.  

Here is the link to the full suite: https://lincs.ed.gov/programs/eslpro/preparing-english-learners-for-work-and-career-pathways

 

Here is what you can expect:

If you and your colleagues have a chunk of time to invest in an online PD module, want to make connections to your own program, and are eager to discuss issues and challenges and what to do about them, this module (developed by me) might be worth your time. I tried to include sufficient information, food for thought and practical ideas to help you relax and feel informed and prepared to take on new challenges. I am also hoping you will feel many of your teaching strategies validated and are excited about new forms of community collaboration. 

In  terms of individual units, 

a. If you appreciate getting an overview of the field and its terminology so you can feel confident and be part of a conversion, start with Unit 1 (actually we suggest that everyone does).

b. If you want to learn more about different models and how they work, are interested in strategies for planning and implementation, try Unit 2.

c. If you are looking for teaching ideas and want a set of contextualization strategies that are logically connected and support each other, jump into Unit 3. Unit 3 also features  videos of students and teachers, a number of problem solving scenarios and Bright Ideas from the field (e.g, examples of  Project-Based Learning). It has been very popular with both teachers and coordinators looking for a coherent and consistent approach to teaching contextualization skills. 

d. If you wonder how to help your students see that they are making progress and have them see that they can now do things  they could not do before, the Unit 4 will give you some ideas. The Unit offers questions you might ask in an initial assessment, shows examples of Can Do Lists and Exit Cards and offers a framework for program evaluations that follows a continuous improvement model.  

Enjoy 

Heide

 

 

 

Hello again, Heide!
Thanks for the plug for the digital magazine (aka Companion Learning Resource). I thought readers might be interested in knowing how Florida used the Preparing English Learners for Work and Career Pathways module and ESL Pro materials to help shift the ESOL culture at several sites to include more intentional contextualization for work and career pathways. Phil Anderson, FL DOE (a frequent LINCS post-er) and June Rall (IPDAE) suggested a cohort of 10 ESOL experts from Florida's five regions--many of whom served on the state's ESOL Curriculum committee. This cohort (I've nicknamed them the Contessas of Contextualization) read and discussed your beautifully crafted issue brief in an electronic Community of Practice (eCoP) and then completed the online module, focusing on units 1 and 3.  Once they felt confident about the key concepts of contextualization for learners' 21st century needs, members of the cohort--working alone or with a partner--conducted Professional Learning Communities at their sites--with teachers first reading the Issue Brief then working through Unit 3 of the online module. The PLCs primarily focused on effective contextualization strategies, responding to teachers' concerns and questions, and "workshopping" contextualized lessons and tasks. There were F2F PLC meetings, online meetings for teachers at different sites, as well as online discussions in eCoP "rooms" set up through the state's PD portal (IPDAE). Teachers in the PLCs (as well as their leaders) identified this type of instructional support as essential to their ability to successfully contextualize English language instruction-- in the 21st century sense of the word. I saw, first hand, how the community support encouraged teachers to test out ideas in their classes. The importance of scaffolding was also evident--having teachers take one idea into the classroom, discuss the results with the community and then build on that idea for another class was a sustainable process. One of the ideas that many teachers jumped on was focusing on (or providing equal focus) on the worker's role in a typical ESOL thematic lesson-- versus the consumer or client role. This allowed them to start from their textbook materials but switch up the perspective.

I'm hoping a few members of the Florida cohort will join the discussion --but if you'd like to see the presentation they made at COABE, it's available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5KkquDSnoCQbkdIejJKbzZhSTA

Onward!

Jayme

 

Thanks Jayme for highlighting how teachers in Florida (under your expert guidance I am adding) engaged the ESL Pro materials and made them work in their program in ways that support existing practices. It was great to see teachers "take over" the COABE presentations (isn't that what PD is all about). I loved the materials (thanks for the links) and from all I've heard, the session was an overwhelming success. I've also been impressed with the support from the state leadership (Phil Anderson and June Rall). 

I quickly wanted to highlight a couple of strategies you and the group worked to make the shift toward career-infused contextual learning a success: 

1. Setting up a cohort structure so teachers can more easily collaborate and depend on each other 

2. Getting everyone on the same page by inviting teachers to all read and discuss the same background information (Career Pathway Brief and Unit 1 of the Contextualization for Pathway Module 

3. Teachers offering "site-based PD" - listening, explaining, exploring, arguing (I assume) and customizing ideas for themselves and their colleagues 

4. Community support from colleagues and program leaders (both face to face and virtually)

5. Teachers immediately trying out strategies and lessons in their own classrooms and then reporting back what worked, what didn't, what needed to be adapted and sharing ideas with other teachers

6, Connecting familiar ideas and materials (students encountering professionals and trades people in their daily lives as consumers or patients) to new concepts and ideas (job awareness, career options, bad jobs, good jobs, skills and abilities , opportunities). and integrating the two.

Other states that used the ESL Pro Career Pathway materials used a similar process (Indiana, Georgia, Maryland) but the Florida teachers took it to the next level

Congratulations, Contessas of Contextualization and your fearless leader! 

From your perspective, Florida team, did I get things right?  Did I leave anything out? 

Heide

 

 

LET’S TALK ABOUT MODELS

Given the new emphasis on workforce development and career pathways, we are seeing a number of models that contextualize learning with an eye toward work and training. I will post quick descriptions for a number of those so we can discuss them.  

MODEL 1:  Workforce Preparation (Ready to Work Skills)

What it is:  Often a beginning level ESL class that offers “work and career infused” ELA, rather than language specifically tied to a career cluster or a specific occupational area. It may include career awareness.

  • If your students are working and want a better job or are interested in work but don’t yet have clear career goals, this model might make serve you well.
  • Generally, this model combines the teaching of employment focused language and literacy skills with soft skills, such as those related to team work, critical thinking, decision making, communication (including register use)
  • Instruction may focus on the “demands of a changing world”, including an emphasis on document literacy, integration of digital skills and use of tasks that build cross-cultural competence.

 

I think a good way to teach the skills important for work and training (and life in general) is through the use of problem solving scenarios.  I particularly like the discussions that arise from discussing what happens when a person is confronted with multiple demands, not just at work but in every day life.

Here is a link to a few of those – on the Literacywork International website http://www.literacywork.com/Literacywork.com/Resources.html. Scroll down to Resources and then  to Scenarios and select Too Many Demands. Some of these scenarios were originally developed for the Texas TISESL project and are shared with permission from  Anson Green, State Director for Texas Workforce Commission (thanks, Anson).

Question:  How do you handle beginning level classes where some students are in the workforce (working or looking for work), while others are not?  What materials and strategies do you use that are general enough to be interesting to everyone and yet include awareness of the skills that are important in good jobs

We would love to hear from you 

 

 

Good morning!

I had to think a bit about how I handled this when I was in a physical classroom.  I'm specifically thinking of the last organization I worked for where I had both day and night classes. My day class tended to be "not-in-workforce / full-time caregiver" people, although some had jobs in the evenings.  My night class tended to be all working adults.

Honestly, I used similar approaches to including workforce preparation activities, primarily inquiry-based learning.  Because it was multilevel class also, I used whole-group, small-group, individual, back to whole-group planning strategies.  The whole group would come up with the topic and KWHL chart at the beginning of the month.  In small groups, they would select a piece of the What we want to know and explore it.  This was usually tied to workforce preparation.  For example, if the theme was something as far out as "space" (pun not originally intended), they might decide to explore a particular planet or constellation, or a particular career within that theme. Either way, they regularly had to employ a lot of 21st Century Skills

 My students had to prepare both group projects for the monthly theme and individual projects for their textbook units.  Some of the skills they worked on were leadership, collaboration and teamwork, critical thinking  / problem solving, project planning, research, curiosity, creativity, presentation skills, math (lots of math), digital literacy (including information literacy), and social responsibility (some of the projects addressed problems in the community). 

In the day class, what might have been slightly different was the time intentionally spent working on a better sense of their value as "housewives" and the transferable skills they possessed.  I adapted many lessons from the Integrating Career Awareness for my ESL students and included community-engaging activities like a "flea market", "BBQ plate fund raiser," and "community resource list" - most of which were student-organized and used by me as an opportunity to teach entrepreneurial skills like figuring out your P&L and margin of markup.

All this to say (if you are still reading) that the "spin" I put on the workforce preparation activities may have been different in the class with mostly "not-in-workforce" individuals, but the strategies I employed were very similar.

One caveat, when I had students who had international degrees, I fast-tracked them.  My general speech was something along the lines of: "Because I respect you and your expertise, you have to go.  Let's make a plan to get you out of this class and where you really want to be."   They had their own learning plan focusing on increasing their language skills, including language specific to their career.  However, they still participated in the large group activities and inquiry-based projects.  Most of them had some English in college even if they scored at the literacy level on assessment tests, and once they had the opportunity to practice, they could move forward much more quickly than the other students.  That's one of the reasons I've been advocating to put them in their own class whenever there are enough foreign-trained ELLs in the program to make that feasible.

Thanks for the thought-provoking question and I apologize for the long response.

Glenda 

Thank you so much, Glenda for taking the time to write such a detailed response to my questions about responding to the needs of a diverse group of learners. Please don't apologize for giving us details. Your post highlights that good teaching goes a long way in engaging students and supporting their efforts to learn what is now often called "Skills for a Changing World" (see also last week's ELA discussion on rigor by Betsy Parrish)

I quickly wanted to highlight a number of proven strategies underlying your examples: 

1. Social Learning:  Peer to peer interaction and small group work (coupled with individual practice) helps to engage students and allows them to learn with an from each other, developing key 21 Century Skills as well as those Workforce Preparation Skills highlighted in WIOA (check!)

2. Learner Directed Learning/Inquiry Learning that lets student groups determine what ideas they are interested in, what topics they want to explore and how they want to go about finding answers to their questions  

For more ideas, she Mindshift and their Tips (all K-12 oriented but good to get us all thinking), https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/09/21/10-tips-for-launching-an-inquiry-based-classroom/

3. A Focus on a Broad Set of Skills, including creativity and curiosity. These skills are often forgotten as we focus on a narrow set of contextualized basic skills linked to occupational training. Thanks also to Jayme (above) who in a different discussion let us know what a "tolerance for ambiguity" is one of the 21rs Century Skills. 

4. Themes Related to Life and Work. Really the cornerstone of contextualized instruction. Career exploration fits here and as both Jayme and I have discussed asking students to explore what the people they meet everyday do (in clinics, at the store, repair shops). Observing, asking simple questions (what is your job  called?), conducting 1 Question Surveys (What was your first job?) can be done by individuals or small groups These questions can then be spring boards for a "deeper dive" into what's a good job and not so good job? Do your children have a dream job? What is it? How about you? If you could do anything, what would you do? 

5. Opportunities for Civic Engagement. Connecting students to ideas related to social responsibility (and I would add social justice) helps students see that they can be part of broader efforts to build a good life not just for themselves, but others and the community. As you all may know, a number of programs are developing curricula focused on Know Your Rights (When ICE comes knocking on the door) and contextualizing it as part of a discussion on Worker Rights, Farm Worker Rights and Civil Rights and the Constitution in general (also helpful if you go for the Citizenship test)

6. Fast Tracking Students with International Degrees. Offering opportunities and resources for self-paced learning, development of professional vocabulary, a focus on social communication (often forgotten) all go a long way in helping students progress at a faster pace and move toward their professional goals. Then there is the social emotional support that students need for whom the loss of status may have been very painful. I found giving students a chance to talk about their past lives and mourn the loss of a good job and the status that goes with it ("I used to be somebody"  is a common feeling)

And then there is often the need to respond to the trauma that students have experienced. Janet Isserlis has written eloquently about this. 

Uff - that's quite a bit in one post 

Others, I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and examples of how you engage your students not only cognitively but socially and emotionally, 

Heide 

 

 

Hi Glenda, I couldn't agree more that we need to offer customized, fast tracking VESL insruction for students with higher skill backgrounds. I'd add that they need customized career transition coaching as well through organizations like UpwardlyGlobal and ones others have mentioned. And as a field we need to figure out affordable, scalable models (like online or phone-based coaches) for providing this. Ideally a teacher with a VESL class could refer a student to a specialized coach (accessible online or by phone) who 1) speaks their language and 2) is an expert in entering certain industries in this country (and how foreign degrees translate). No one program can create this but at a regional or statewide level, it's feasible. And truly this customized coaching (by language, industry of interest, etc.) would greatly benefit all our VESL students not just the higher skilled.

Hi Heide,

As you know, I mostly work with incumbent workers so it's not quite the scenario you pose (some students in the workforce, some not). However, our teachers at Building Skills Partnership do face the same challenge of having a split class- where some students have a strong interest in learning Vocational English while others have much less and just want English for their daily lives.  We handle it by starting a lesson/thematic unit by posing a scenario that could happen at work, but then after that also practicing the same target language functions in different "life skills" situations. So, for example, if we practice a "customer service" scenario *(like responding to an unreasonable request from a client)  first in a real worksite situation, we then move to practicing it where students might use the same language in their regular lives (responding to an unreasonable request from a neighbor). This also helps enforce for our working students (mostly janitors) that they need to practice their English outside as well- or they won't remember what they're learning in classes held only once or twice a week!  Even though employers funding the program generally want and expect to see the curriculum all about English needed on the job, the employers tend to come around and support this "mixed" approach once we explain that the janitors also need to practice the language functions outside in their real lives or they'll forget what they're learning, 

Best,

Alison

Hi Alison,

Just wanted to pop in and say that in reading your post, I was struck by how your use of social and vocational settings is supported by Guiding Principle #4 of the 2016 English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education, 4. Social language has an important role in ELLs’ English language acquisition process. (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education. Adult English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education. Washington, DC, 2016, p. 10). 

Acknowledging social language as a fundamental element in English language proficiency is key to meeting the needs of our learners in varied workplace and training contexts. I am thinking we should probably just swap the term "life skills" for "21st century skills" as what you are describing enables our learners to function as successful workers, community members, parents, and learners--across contexts. Social, academic, sub-technical and technical language work together to help our learners adapt their registers and vocabulary to the settings in which they find themselves. We need to pay closer attention to intentional instruction in the academic and sub-technical vocabulary that supports our learners' success in training and postsecondary education, but social language works in conjunction with that language and it also supports learners' acquisition of that language as they work in teams or pairs to master it. (Something the ELPS document mentions and attributes to Jeff Zwiers.) Then, too, as you point out--seeing the language's role in community and family contexts give learners more opportunities to apply the language outside the classroom.  Warmly, Jayme

Good morning, friends of Contextualized Instruction (as well as those challenging the overemphasis on workforce preparation and Career Pathway). It's a big tent 

It's promises to be a beautiful day here in the Mesilla Valley (I'm home in southern NM). My plan for today is to respond to more of yesterday's posts (thank you all) as we start to dig a bit more deeply into instructional issues. My plan for today is to slay the email beast on my computer and participate conference calls; but most importantly, respond to posts here (and I hope you will too), offer a quick description of the most common models for career pathway preparation, post additional resources and start a discussion on Contextualized Curriculum and Integrated Education and Training. 

In the meantime, please keep your ideas and questions coming 

Heide

Hi all, here as promised are two more models used as part of Integrated Education and Training 

TWO MODELS FOR “INTEGRATED EDUCATION AND TRAINING”

WIOA suggests two instructional models for programs setting up Career Pathways.

1. Concurrent Instruction (aka the Adjunct Model)

Concurrent instruction offers basic skills support for technical occupational courses. The basic skills course meets separately from the technical course but the two curricula are aligned. The overall curriculum is either jointly developed or informed by the materials and syllabus used in the technical field.

2. The I-BEST or Team Taught Model (originated in Washington State).

The I-BEST model uses two instructors who team teach the same students in one class at the same time. (one is the ESL teacher; the other a technical instructor). While the technical instructor teaches the content of the occupational skills course (CNA for example, or Construction), the ESL teacher offers just in time language and literacy support (often math as well). In most I-BEST programs the team teaching component makes up at least 50% of class time and the ESL teacher may spend additional time prepping students for the technical class (key vocabulary; reading charts, navigating the textbook) and may spend some time post class (answering language related questions, never technical questions). 

Question: Are you using one of these models? How do you coordinate and collaborate with your counterpart?  What do you see as challenges in providing support for the technical class? Mike had already mentioned the challenge of preparing students for the tests they have to take in certificate classes, so perhaps we can start with that in the morning. Mike, what kinds of tests do your students typically take? Multiple choice? Short answer? Hands on lab demonstrations? To what extent do you think the language of the test (i.e., students not understanding what they are being asked to do) vs lack of content vocabulary? 

Hope to see you all back in the morning as we tackle teaching/learning challenges - but not before we discuss the issue of "creaming". 

Heide and all,   

Years ago I co-taught CNAs at a women's hospital (a "happy" hospital, as much of its focus / work is with giving birth, as well as treating women for a range of health issues).  The hospital wanted to help its incumbent CNAs progress from within and wanted to strengthen their skills - particularly with writing on patients' charts and with oral/aural communication.  We offered two two-hour classes per week for about 4 weeks (or so.  it was some time ago).  

Because of confidentiality, the only way I could do an assessment of some of the working conditions/expectations of the worksite  was to make an appointment to have an exam myself and then take note of who said and did what (how were CNAs working with doctors/nurses, what/how much language was being used ?- the sorts of things one would do in a workplace ESOL assessment process.  I'd also become a patient so that I could use my own chart to decode some of the charting languages, but then quickly realized that I didn't want my colleagues or students to have my health history.  The long and short of it was that I was given several pages of terms and abbreviations commonly used in hospital charting (pt, for example for patient) and knew that  I could never master- much less teach - all that language.  As a result, I taught for three of the four hours each week, and a nurse practitioner would come for the fourth hour to cover particularly technical terms or deep content information.  My role was to scaffold content (materials/approaches/activties) around her language and that content, developing materials for practice and homework; she was able to answer particular questions about the work itself.  The collaboration worked well and didn't take too much of her time, as she had been able, at the outset, to let me know a rough scope of knowledge and processes the CNAs needed to know in order to possibly advance to better paid work at the hospital.  This was before I-Best (or before I knew of I-Best) but as its own sort of permutation worked well for what we needed to do.  

Janet Isserlis

 

 

 

 

Hello Heide and all, We all know that immigrants to the US often start their own businesses. Entrepreneurship can be a viable pathway for some. In the online module on Career Pathways, there is a section on entrepreneurship. Could you tell us about some ways teachers and programs could support entrepreneurship? What resources are available to learn about entrepreneurship?

Would love to hear from programs that have focused on entrepreneurship as a career pathway. Tell us your stories!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Hi Susan, Just want to add that many of our ESL/VESL students already have small businesses running and they need help to grow them. While serving as a mobile coach through Cell-Ed (helping students learn English be cellphone), I learned many students had businesses so I got to focus on helping them learn the language and skills to grow their businesses. That ranged from practicing basic English for sales or customer service or (for higher level students) making a pitch, business plan, or improving the English on their website. It was highly rewarding and the customized lessons gave the students the language for practicing English in their daily lives as they ran their side businesses!  I relied on various resources found online or from local CBO's teaching entrepreneurship.  Now with the Mobile Up Project in California, we will continue this VESL, entrepreneurship coaching (and resource sharing) for janitors, nursing home, hotel and other service workers in the state. Many janitors and hotel room cleaners have side house cleaning businesses. My favorite side business is run by a janitor who sets up jumpy houses on the weekends. We got to practice lots of language for managing children's behaviors!

Hello colleagues, I wanted to make members aware that TESOL just released a toolkit,  English Learners and WIOA: What Teachers Need to Know. I haven't had a chance to read this yet, but it looks to be a useful. At this link, you will also find some additional relevant resources, such as fact sheets, webinars, presentations, and the Department of Labor's list of one-stop centers.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition

Thank you Susan. It's good to see what this spring we are seeing more reports that addess WIOA and ESL.

Thank you for mentioning: English Learners and WIOA: What Teachers Need to Know

The California Workforce Development Board just published a Brief. Report by the CA Workforce Development Department: Policy Brief on Serving English Language Learner Populations, using Best Practices and Model Partnerships https://cwdb.ca.gov/files/2016/08/LEP-Policy-Brief-Final-Draft-01.26.17.pdf

Then there is the ESL Pro Brief (mentioned before). https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/ELL_Context_Instruction_508.pdf

Please let me know if you know of other states or associations publishing reports that look at ELA issues as part of the discussion

Heide

 

Good afternoon all. 

I'm out of the office today and internet access is dodgy out here in the dessert. I'll check back in this afternoon. In the meantime, I wanted to share my reading list - re supporting higher educated immigrants. As you can see, we now have lots of solid reports on the big picture and the challenges faced by foreign-educated professionals (the terminology is still fluid with no real distinctions that I can see 

RESOURCES: INTEGRATING IMMIGRANT PROFESSIONAL

REPORTS:

1. Steps to Success: Integrating Immigrant Professionals in the U.S. Workforce

              https://www.imprintproject.org/stepstosuccess/

2. Untapped Talent: The Cost of Brain Waste among Highly Skilled Immigrants in the US

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/untapped-talent-costs-brain-waste-among-highly-skilled-immigrants-united-states

3. McHugh, M. & Morawski, M. . (February 2017). Unlocking Skills: Successful Initiatives for Integrating Foreign-trained Immigrant Professionals. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.

              http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/unlocking-skills-successful-initiatives-integrating-foreign-trained-immigrant-professionals

 

IDEAS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

1. Toolkit for Supporting Skilled Immigrants in the ESL Classroom

http://www.globaltalentbridge.org/toolkit/pdf/SupportingSkilledImmigrantsToolkit.pdf

2. Aiming High: Nice accessible overview on teaching academic vocabulary (K-12 but easy enough to make connections to adult ELA

              https://www.scoe.org/docs/ah/AH_kinsella2.pdf

There are of course lots of good ideas, articles and discussions of strategies as to how to teach different language and literacy skills to professionals  (vocabulary, reading, writing). But I have yet to see a good overview that summarizes language challenges by those with experience and credentials who are eager to upgrade their skills within the context of their profession. This could include strategies to support working adults by building on their specific knowledge and experience

Please share your good ideas and we can create a list. Certainly Project-based and inquiry learning are a good start; heavy doses of listening, reading and vocabulary to develop content specific vocabulary; opportunities to solve problems as part of a group - present and argue.  Perhaps offering a heavy dose of reading and listening in a specific field while focusing on communication and discussion in group settings (virtual or face to face)

What are your thoughts?  I would love to hear them - Heide 

Most of us are keenly aware of the importance of supportive services in adult education. These services are absolutely essential for both newcomers and those without experience in vocational technical programs or for credit academic programs. In ABE/ELA programs we try to be highly supportive, even nurturing and we certainly try to be understanding if students have to miss classes, cannot complete out-of-class assignments or need to come late and leave early. 

Once our students transition, expectations for "professional behavior" kick in (be on time, do your work, work with your group, complete assigned tasks). Yet the complexities of daily life continue (kids get sick; elderly parents need care; the car won't start and the rent is due, and you are beyond overwhelmed and can't make it to class). You may fall behind further and further, and the best (or easiest) option might be to just stop going. Students aren't always aware of the consequences: personal (you may think of yourself as a failure), social (you miss the camaraderie of the other students in your cohort) and most importantly perhaps financial (you don't get that certificate that might get you a better job and if you are on Pell Grant you may need to pay the money back) 

I've seen first hand the need and importance of support services (as teachers we can't do it all) and been meaning to write a few words in response to Jayme mentioning the role of navigators). So I was thrilled to get a message from CALPro - Highlighting a new report on (tah-dah) Supportive Services in Job Training 

Et voila (c'mon - give me that accent mark)

https://iwpr.org/publications/supportive-services-in-job-training-and-education-a-research-review/

How about your students and your programs?  What makes it difficult for your students to attend regularly in an intensive course and persist to a certificate? What supports are available to them? What supports are not available but you wish they were? 

Inquiring minds want to know 

Heide 

 

Heide, this is a very timely report! It fits well with the draft research findings we just presented at a Data-to-Action Summit in Chicago, from our U.S. Department of Education study of career pathways among adult education providers in Chicago, Houston, and Miami. Support services was one of the topics that we emphasized. http://www.chicagocitywideliteracy.com/uncategorized/data-to-action-summit-may-1-2017/

http://www.chicagocitywideliteracy.com/data-to-action-summit/

The full report of survey findings can be found here: https://sites.psu.edu/adultpathways/files/2015/08/survey-findings-IES-v.-5-12nq28m.pdf

Esther

 

Thank you so much Esther for highlighting the new reports that you, Carol Clymer and Blaire Willson Toso just published - all based on your work on Career Pathways. I was going to highlight the latest reports, but there they are 

Lots of good information in these reports to help state level leaders and others understand, plan and implement Career Pathway programs 

Best - Heide

Hello Heide and all, Program administrators, of course, play a central role when it comes to determining the direction for career pathways programs. Heide, could you talk about the role of administrators and what the ESL Pro resources have for them?

It would be great to hear from administrators, as well. If you already offer career pathways for English learners in your program, what lessons learned can you share?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition

 

Great question Susan. 

1. Information and Support for Administrators

By now most, if not all administrators are steeped in the details of WIOA. But many may not have had a chance to think about what federal or state regulations might mean for the diverse communities they serve and the students and teachers in their programs. 

ESL Pro: Preparing English Learners for Work and Careers might be helpful here

1. The Brief provides an Overview of ELL considerations, including issues and options, models and an outline of skills, especially important for ELLs (sub-technical academic vocabulary; sustained listening; navigating textbooks, digital literacy for work and training. PDF is here https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/ELL_Context_Instruction_508.pdf

2. Online Modules and Specific Units: 

Unit 1 in the Contextualization and Career Pathway Module has worked well as a starting point for discussion among program staff and administrators. Administrators can play a key role in helping teachers and others understand what the new priorities might be all about. They can also reassure them that they understand the challenges that ELLs are facing and that they collaborations they will set up will  include discussions with community partners who work with immigrants and refugees on a daily basis. U1 discusses how to create community outreach that reaches groups who are not yet English speaking and don't read flyers. 

Unit 2  can help administrators who want to involve their staff and partners in making informed decisions about what kind of model to implement. U3 also illustrates what a fully implemented career pathway program that works for ELLs might look like, including options for providing home language support. The Unit also includes a self-assessment (How Ready Are You?) and key steps in implementation, keeping different groups of ELLs in mind. 

Unit 3 Has practitioners as the primary audience with lots of practical idea, including videos of teachers in action, scenarios, Bright Ideas from the field and evidence instructional strategies. Administrators can use some of these ideas (along with those in the Companion Resources (aka digital magazines), to create space for teacher cohorts who work as teams, discuss ideas for supporting ELLs on their way to work or training and try out newly contextualized lessons. Administrator support for teacher leaders (already hired or in the making) can go a long way in alleviating fears and providing reassurance that bureaucratic requirements won't overshadow a commitment to support students and meet their needs no matter where they start or what their educational backgrounds (back to avoiding the temptation "to cream."

In  Unit 4, I offer administrators some ideas on how to set up a 360 degree Continuous Improvement model that relies on both quantitative and qualitative data captured in a systematic fashion - a model that seeks regular input from staff, teachers and students and makes changes based on these finding. It also includes ideas on how teachers might you Quick Checks to get feedback from their students. 

Most importantly, perhaps, I am hoping that the ESL Pro materials will inspire administrators to listen carefully to what immigrants and refugees have to day and support their teachers (individually and in their groups) to do their best work. 

Here is the link to the online Module: Preparing English Learners for Work and Career Pathways 

https://lincs.ed.gov/programs/eslpro/preparing-english-learners-for-work-and-career-pathways

Heide 

 

Hello, Susan thanks for your request for resources for Entrepreneurship for Immigrants and Refugees. 

1. Entrepreneurship Programs: Although this topic receives a great deal of interest (in some states more than others), I have not seen much written about what the content of a course might be for entrepreneurs who want to grow their business (see Alison's comments) of for would be entrepreneurs whose English is still a bit rough. There are quite a few agencies who offer excellent workshops on entrepreneurship for immigrants (Boston - English for New Bostonians; Philadelphia Welcome Back Center; Westchester Community College; Community Action, a CBO in Kyle Texas). Most of the workshops I've seen focus on the technical aspects of entrepreneurship  (licensing; financial planning; marketing, access to credit). I have not seen any curricula that have a strong focus on teaching the language of entrepreneurship, social communication skills with clients and customers, and the information literacy skills needed for advertising or invoicing.  

Here is the link to the Boston area program https://www.miracoalition.org/entrepreneurship-64430

2, Preparing Students for Entrepreneurship.  Here teachers often go into two directions: 

a. Project-based learning: Students work in teams to set up mini-businesses as a simulation or for real. Glenda's students have run flea markets or a BBQ plate fundraiser. As Glenda mentions students develop a great set of 21 century skills through these projects (leadership, team work, problem solving and more).  In English Innovation, we ask students to imagine a Food Truck business and think about locations, customers, menus and ways to beat the competition (most students are high beginners). We also have them think about a social media advertising campaign.  

2. Opportunities for students without work authorization. As most of you know, programs supported by Dept of Labor Funds only accept students who have legal status. Offering a separate entrepreneurship class (using AEFLA funds) focused on building entrepreneurship related background knowledge and numeracy and communication skills can be a viable option for these students.  In these classes (or just in separate Units within  a contextualized curriculum), students get an opportunity to talk about family businesses they have been part of of (here or at home) and the business know-how they have developed. As always, these discussions can be flipped to involve all students, as the class talks about their experience as consumers (to you frequent small businesses? Why or why not? What customer service do you expect to see? Is it helpful if a shop has bilingual staff? 

3. Inquiry/Research  Projects Years ago, the students of El Barrio Popular Education Program (under the leadership of Klaudia Rivera)did community economic research, canvassing small businesses in their neighborhood, interviewing owners and staff. They took pictures and then analyzed and interpreted the results and shared them with the community. 

4. A Great Video Resource  In our English Innovations classes (funded originally by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), students watch and discuss an outstanding and free video resource - originally developed by the Mayor's Office in New York. It's a high quality series that speak to various issues in the lives of immigrants and refugees. The series includes Study Guides (using a Fotonovela format) and subtitles in a bunch of different languages. It's really worthwhile poking around on their website to see what's available. See http://www.nyc.gov/html/weareny/html/home/home.shtml

As for entrepreneurship, my favorite episode is called The Wedding featuring different groups who spring into action when other people hired for a wedding cancel. It's great video for discussions but also for skill building (listening, analyzing, giving opinions, reading) http://www.nyc.gov/html/weareny/html/episodes/the_wedding.shtml

Enjoy - and let me know what materials you are working with - Heide

Hi there,

I utilized the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)  comprehensive curriculum (www.nfte.com) when I taught Entrepreneurship in DC Public Schools.  They offer a great selection of project-based and hands-on learning activities as well as possible sponsorship for classes.  It was a great program for my students (immigrants, ELL, and minorities).

Also, check out this movie and the book http://www.ten9eight.com/ ...great resource material for an Entrepreneurship class.