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Coming to America
"Coming
to America" is provided through an EL-Civics Grant from
the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
Fall
2003
Send
us your great ideas and tips and your partner’s writing
for inclusion in our next newsletter!
Student
Strives to Reach Goals In New Land
When
J.P., an MLP student from Poland, entered the MLP program
in Spring 2002, one of her goals was to improve her English
to be able to once again teach music. This Spring, she was
the master of ceremonies at a concert showcasing her students’
talents. Congratulations!
She
wrote out speeches for the introduction, intermission and
conclusion of the concert in English. We went over them
together. She also wrote a thank you speech to her students
and awarded certificates. J.P. was the principal speaker
at the concert and also coordinated the entire day (including
getting an auditorium for her students, sending out invitations
to parents and other guests and arranging for refreshments
after the concert).
- From
A.M., MLP Tutor
The
following ideas were sent in by MLP Volunteer Tutors.
GRAMMAR
GOODIES
From D.M.
I would like to share a web site that I have found useful
when addressing specific grammar concerns with students,
dg3@dailygrammar.com. This site will provide daily grammar
lessons specific to a topic of interest such as conjunctions,
adverbs, etc. They can be printed off and used to explore
sentence structure, dialogue, and word building.
WORKING
THE "ONLINE" IN
From M.S.
I try
to find an Internet site that relates to what we are studying,
and integrate it with the lesson plan. There are some very
good sites that have quizzes and helpful information. Also,
some of them are fun and add variety to the lesson. What
I most often do is go to www.google.com and put in whatever
my student and I are working on and see what comes up. When
we are working on prepositions, I just enter "prepositions"
and get all the relevant sites. One of my favorite sites
is www.manythings.org. It has various skill levels.
COOKING
FOR LEARNING
From G.H.
I had
[my student] get a recipe from his wife from their native
land and bring it to me at our meeting. First he had to
read what he wrote and be able to convey to me how to prepare
it. It builds good rapport with the student, as he was very
happy to see that I was interested in his culture. As a
bonus I got a good recipe to try out.
"TURNING
ON" LITERACY
From B.I.
After
moving into her new home, [my student] did not know how
to use her appliances (dishwasher, self-cleaning oven specifically).
I went to her home, at her invitation, and helped her with
the instruction books and was able to show her how to use
them at the same time. Note: You could also try the
same lesson at an appliance store (let the salesperson or
store manager know what you are doing). Of course, you won’t
be able to actually start the cycles, but at least your
partner can play with the buttons!
COMMUNITY
CONVERSATIONS
From L.J.
Are
you looking for a "conversation practice group" to take
your literacy partner to? I found a compassionate group
by taking my partner to our church’s women’s group that
meets once a month to learn homemaking skills, to study
literature, to do service projects, etc.
SEVEN
MORE GREAT ESL IDEAS our tutors contributed during our May
"Tutor Sharing"
- Encourage
ESL students to speak only English for at least 10 minutes
each evening at dinner time for practice. Many women are
at home alone all day and have no opportunity to practice
their new language. (Any level)
- Use
a small mirror to help students watch themselves as they
try to pronounce new English sounds. (Beginning and Intermediate
speakers)
- Have
your student write the new words they are learning to
read for reinforcement. (High Beginner to Advanced)
- My
student was having difficulty understanding idioms. I
searched on google.com for "idioms" and printed out the
list with definitions. Then for a few of them, I wrote
up sentences, so she could follow the example. Soon enough,
with the rest of the list of idioms, she looked at the
meaning and started writing her own sentences for them.
(Advanced)
- Encourage
ESL students to listen to the TV or radio news in English.
The words are spoken more distinctly and the newscasters
use fewer idioms and tricky phrases. (Any level)
- If
your partner needs some "writing starters", try providing
a beginning thought: "When the sun shines . . .", "In
the summertime . . .", "My hair . . ." (Intermediate -
Advanced)
- Games
can help in learning. Try these: "Crossword America -
The Presidents" (ISBN 0-7373-0364-6) and "Crosswords America
- The 50 States" (ISBN 0-7373-0173-2) both by Cathryn
Long (Intermediate - Advanced)
WINTER
2004
Send
us your great ideas and tips and your partner’s writing
for inclusion in our next newsletter!
I
wanted to send you this story. We have read stories written
by students in the newsletter. I had planned to ask my student
if she would like to write about her country or culture.
(Writing has been one of her biggest hurdles to overcome.)
Well,
before I had a chance to ask, her face lit up, and she said
"I could write a story. I’ll write about Iraqi freedom."
This is the product of her enthusiasm. I’m quite sure she
would not have had the confidence to do this a year ago.
It represents a milestone for us! - P.V.S., MLP Tutor
IRAQI
FREEDOM
From H.A., MLP Student –
I am
a person like other people who do not like war. Especially
I am from the same country. I do not like children and women
hurt or killed. And at the same time I want the dictator
Saddam to be removed from his power.
After
U.S.A. succeeds in the war after almost three weeks, I was
so happy for that and for all people in Iraq. Finally they
have freedom, and they can live in peace.
I pray
every day for all Marines we lost them in war and all civilian
Iraqi people.
I want
to thank everyone, the President and the government and
Marines in the U.S.A. and I am so happy to be American citizen
and live in peaceful country and I wish to visit Iraq soon.
Before
that I am waiting to calling from my brother. Until now
I do not know where he is. Is he alive? I am still waiting.
THE
RABBIT AND THE LION
From D. C., MLP Student
(In
addition to writing this fable, D.C. is taking computer
training and took visiting relatives on a tour of Detroit
area sights this fall.)
Once
upon a time the lion was king over all animals. He liked
to receive big and precious gifts from every animal who
came in front of him.
All
animals from that country were very upset because they were
poor and didn’t have any more gifts for the king, but the
lion wanted more and more.
One
day the rabbit told his friends, "You know? I think I’ve
gotten the idea how to get our freedom from the king!"
His
friends laughed at him very suspicious.
"You,
a small rabbit can escape?" We can’t believe you!"
"Let
me prove to you!"
A day
after, the rabbit went to the king.
"Where
is my gift?" the lion shouted at him.
"You
know, I had a gift for you but I’ve met another lion and
he took it from me. He said it doesn’t matter if you are
the king, he can be a king, too."
The
king wanted to meet that disobedient lion.
The
rabbit guided the king to a deep fountain. When the king
looked into the fountain he thought he saw the other lion
and he jumped into that deep water to fight the other lion.
Finally
the king got drowned and all animals from the country were
very happy to be saved by the rabbit.
ARE
YOU LOOKING . . .
. .
. for lesson topics? Look for the book A Foreign Visitor’s
Survival Guide to America (Shauna Singh Baldwin and Marilyn
M. Levine; W.W. Norton & Company, 1992; ISBN 1-56261-059-7).
Topics as varied as dining out and dealing with emergencies
are outlined with suggestions for visitors and new Americans.
ARE
YOU LISTENING?
From The New York Times (September 18, 2003)
"Please
call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from
the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs
of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We
also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the
kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and
we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."
This
paragraph contains nearly every sound in English. At the
Speech Accent Archive (http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent) you
can hear it spoken by more than 270 native and non-native
speakers of English and compare their accents, from Milwaukee
to Zulu. The archive demonstrates the systematic nature
of accents, according to Steven Weinberger, founder of the
archive and an associate professor in the English department
at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Your
partners may find it interesting to check out different
regional accents and pronunciations. You may want to see
what sounds in English cause the most problems for new English
speakers.
THE
ART OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
Linda
Holden, an Illinois ESL tutor, contributed this idea to
Hands On English (Vol. 13, No. 3; Sep./Oct. 2003; page 4).
She
suggests "using paintings as a language stimulus in ESL.
For example, paintings by . . . realistic painters provide
a visual basis for discussing and writing about art and
culture." Check ‘Grandma Moses Meets ESL: Art for Speaking
and Writing Activities’ by Claudia J. Rucinski-Hatch in
the Journal of Imagination in Language Learning, available
online at: http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html (Click
on Volume III).
SPRING
2004
Send
us your great ideas and tips and your partner’s writing
for inclusion in our next update!
A
VERY SPECIAL ST. PATRICK’S DAY
From J. S., MLP Student
March
17th was a very important day for my husband and I. It was
the day when we become citizens of the United States. On
this day we had an oath ceremony. This day was very exciting
for us. There were 1218 people being sworn in as U.S. citizens.
This place was the Riverview Ballroom at Cobo Hall [Detroit].
My tutor
came with us. . . and my friend and her husband . She had
her oath ceremony on March 17th too. When we came home after
ceremony I cooked dinner. My husband went to the store and
bought cakes to celebrate. Family and friends came to celebrate
with us.
Looking
for ways to keep your partner practicing while you’re on
vacation this summer?
CHECK
OUT THIS SITE
From S. K. MLP Tutor -
a4esl.org
Activities
for ESL students: Quizzes, activities, puzzles, games, and
links to other great sites. It even has bilingual quizzes.
Some
of the activities are also appropriate for Basic Literacy
learners.
CATCHING
UP ON-LINE
From G. H., MLP Tutor
I wrote
a message in [my student’s] notebook to give his daughter.
I asked her to set up an email account for her father and
have him send me email.
I got
my first email from him yesterday and have responded with
both a congratulations and some questions to get him to
write back.
Although
we’ve just started this exercise, I think this will help
both his reading and writing. His goal at the beginning
was to be able to write a letter to his brother. I’m hoping
that using the computer will help when he sits down to write
a snail-mail letter.
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