Dear friends,
I am writing to introduce you to Grand Café, a VESL program about an aspiring immigrant woman entrepreneur from Mexico named Sylvia. Sylvia and her friends are on an adventure to start up their own businesses in the U.S. while improving their English.
I created the idea for Grand Café and worked on it over 9 years under a non-profit that I founded and ran for over a decade (which closed years ago). My team and I developed the curriculum based on our classroom training which initially started with a collaboration with Oakland Adult Education's ESL program.
Last summer, I decided I wanted to revive Grand Café. I felt the curriculum and program deserved to be out in the world. My vision is to create a "micro-enterprise" revolution through Grand Café whereby the most vulnerable populations of immigrants can learn the skills and English needed to start their own businesses. So I am excited to share a piece of it with you!
The curriculum consists of 6 episodes each featuring a soap opera (telenovela) video, an instructional video, workbook and a teacher’s guide. It is meant for low and high-intermediate level English learners with some self-study combined with teacher instruction.
Link to Episode 1 telenovela story: https://youtu.be/IllzenxbbSM
Link to Episode 1 instructional portion: https://youtu.be/nAQrFavDtTg
At the end of episode 1, students will:
- Understand the qualities of being an entrepreneur.
- Understand the common barriers to starting a business and how to overcome them.
- Understand networking and how they can network to start developing their business.
Episodes 2-6 are largely focused on financial literacy for small business start-up. There are 18 episodes in all but we only got funding to do a pilot and then 6 complete episodes. (It was a labor of love and took years to develop with a great team!)
I'd love to know if this is something you could see using in your teaching. I'd welcome your ideas too for how this could be distributed to reach its intended audiences.
I look forward to sharing it with you!
Thank you!
Farhana
Comments
Farhana,
This is truly amazing. I have already sent it to my coworkers as another resource. I will definitely be using this as a resource in the future. Honestly, I think just having a website would be the best way to distribute this. The website can also be used for development and marketing if you are wanting to finish the series! I know so many women in similar situations to Sylvia and her friends. They will be able to connect to it on a deeper level.
I
Hi Lisa - Thanks so much for your suggestion. I spent the past 2 months working on a website and it will launch as a resource next week!
Would it be OK if I included what you wrote about it from last summer as a quote on the site?
Farhana,
Thank you for sharing this resource. I am sharing it with Adult ESOL teachers who teach in adult education agencies administered by the Florida DOE. Short stories told in a video format are easy to engage with and remember. In my first year of teaching Adult ESOL in Florida I attended a workshop on teaching methods, and the trainer started her presentation with this statement, "In every class, try to take your students to MMU - Meaningful, Memorable and Useful!" These videos reminded me of that bit of advice.
Phil
Phil - It's terrific to hear your feedback on Grand Café! I appreciate you sharing it with Adult ESOL teachers in your jurisdiction. Yes - a catchy soap opera can indeed fit the MMU criteria!
Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to see the accompanying workbook and teacher's guide. I am taking note of the feedback as I figure out the best way forward to distribute it to more people.
Warmly,
Farhana
Thanks so much for sharing these resources, Farhana. I've worked with so many individuals who are interested in starting their own business, and I know other teachers have, too.
Cheers, Susan