The ESL program I volunteer teach for starts back up the second week of September, and I still struggle with a basic concept: what am I supposed to be teaching?
If I listen to the state of Michigan, I am to teach CASAS test prep so that the adult students learn ESL quickly and move quickly through the test levels, testing out and then moving on to a GED or a TOEFL program. If I listen to CASAS, I would work harder on teaching the Common Core CCR (College and Career Readiness) Standards. If I listen to my program director, she would add that I need to teach the textbook because students feel more accomplished if they finish the books and also need to use the new software our parent program paid for. If I listen to my students, I would just teach pronunciation games and work on conversation skills so that no one would make fun of their accents.
In going through the mountains of CASAS standards (seriously--there are hundreds), it's clear that we volunteer teachers are facing a more than slightly uphill battle. We are to get our students to completely assimilate into US culture as well as be entirely fluent (speaking, reading, writing, listening) in English to a native speaker's 8th grade level. Having taught 8th grade ELA, this is a bit more in my wheelhouse. That said, these are adults, and they have many different levels of fluency in both English and their primary languages.
This year, I'm thinking of having my students read a book in addition to textbook work and work on the computers. I'm strongly leaning toward Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I know it's a problematic piece (racist against First Nations peoples and black people, for example), but he does a good job of explaining American culture and describing the US geographically. The reading level is perfect, too. Apparently, a former teacher used to teach Maya Angelou, and while I love her work, I wonder if it's a good first text to tackle after doing so much book work for so long. If that goes well, I want to start lit circles after we finish that one and then do a class text in January (no idea what to do then), followed by lit circles.
It is important to read a culture's most important texts, but these days, our canon in the US is undergoing real change. Books written in the vernacular are difficult for adult ESL learners (at least, they would be for most of my students), so that makes many great YA books and solid American books (like one of my favorites, Their Eyes Were Watching God) not the best in this situation. Mark Twain is right out, as is any 18th C. American writer due to vocabulary level and complex syntax. Having never taught American lit, I'm at a bit of a loss.
So, I am asking my readers, what books do you suggest?
The Rain God, Arturo Islas.
ReplyDeleteThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon.
House on Mango Street. Sandra Cisneros.
Not sure the exact reading levels, but provocative texts that, in my experience, evoke motivation to read and heartfelt dialogue.
I've been looking up Lexile scores as a base reference.
ReplyDeleteI'd go with a book by a Latinx, but we have had quiet complaints that many of the students from other cultures feel that Spanish speakers often get privileged. I can see why they say that (it's the most common second language among us teachers), so I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Maybe for the second one, though. Thanks for the ideas!