o
o
o
For some of you who wonder what happens in an adult literacy class, here is a peek.

I am teaching Reading and Writing to ESOL adult learners at a community college. All of my students are Latinos who want to improve their reading and writing skills in an academic setting. According to NRS, the National Reporting System for adult learners, their levels range from intermediate to advanced, the highest levels in ESOL education for adults. This tells me that I have a lot of room to be creative with my students.  I have been thinking about ways to incorporate real-life stories into their reading exercises.   They have also told me that while they can read basic text, they find newspapers, such as The New York Times, to be inaccessible.

I have been following the Marcelo Lucero story in the news for past couple of years. He was an Ecuadorian immigrant who had fallen victim to racism and prejudice and was murdered in November 2008 in Patchogue, Long Island. The perpetrators were white teenagers who went out looking to “beat a Mexican” and found and killed Marcelo Lucero instead (ever heard of the phrase, “we all look alike?”)

I wanted to incorporate this tragic story into our study of the big hate-related topics in America: racism, bigotry, bias, prejudice, xenophobia, etc. It would also give the students an opportunity to explore their own experiences and feelings about these topics, without drowning in abstract concepts. As immigrant people of color, they most likely have a bank of experiences to write about. Now, it’s a matter of opening those closed quarters of ideas and letting them flow into the paper.

Authenticity

As an adult educator, I have a choice among many topics to teach my students. I can have them read about Mars, or Astronauts, or Botany, or Archaeology. As a reader myself, I love that stuff! But are they authentic?

Authenticity is such a buzz word in education, especially in the area of diversity. But what does it really mean? Why does it really matter?   When I think of authenticity, I think of truth and self-awareness:  projects that are true to the self, meaningful lessons that promote enquiry long after the activity and extend far beyond the intended reach.  If I were teaching a group of unemployed adults, I would probably choose teaching materials around Job Search and the Work environment. This way, not only will they learn the English skills they need to survive, they are also learning within a life-enriching context.   There is immediacy to authenticity, a sense of priority over other less important matters (i.e. reading about astronauts).

The Marcelo Lucero Project will explore personal experiences, the immigrant experience in the U.S., and the history of hate, bigotry, and recovery in the country.  Hopefully, we find ways to build community over the ashes of hate.  

Leveraging Technology

{ We Speak America } is all about internet-based technology. This project is no different. Adult learners have different experiences with computers. Some are frequent users and may even be on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Others watch their children while away the hours in front of computer screens. There may even be a few who don’t have a computer at all. Either way, our goal is to get online with our writings. To that end, I have a created a class blog:

http://themarceloluceroproject.blogspot.com/

Introducing students to 21st century skills bring us to the new frontier of adult education: online learning. In order for this to work, each student is required to have a gmail account. I am confident that the concept of “email” is not as foreign to adult learners as it used to be. When I taught in a public assistance program, I asked my class the first thing that came to mind upon hearing the word, “Internet.” More often than not, “Email” was one of the first five answers, or even the first two. Whether those who have heard of it have email addresses is another story.

Standards

What is effective teaching without standards? Just like K-12, Adult literacy education has them too. For this class, I am using Equipped for the Future. I will be focusing on two of the sixteen content standards, and will be incorporating the rest into them: Read with Understanding and Convey Ideas in Writing. You can find the EFF Standards Wheel on this link. Here are the two in detail:

Read with Understanding
Convey Ideas in Writing

From my experience, I often find higher level adult learners spend more time reading than they do writing. Hence, their writing skills don’t reflect their reading abilities. Some may be able to read a newspaper, but can’t construct a simple sentence.

Is Grammar Important?

I confess that I enjoy teaching grammar.    But in the past years, I have put more emphasis on the expression of ideas in writing than mechanics.   For more advanced Adult ESOL learners, I believe it’s important to create a solid grammar base in sentence structure, use of punctuation, creating a bank of idioms, and the use of correct verb tense    Run-on sentences seem to reign in any given night in my class.  Periods are as foreign as Sushi.   How does one teach where to place the period when they don’t know what a simple sentence structure is?   For example, “I go to home then I wash dishes then I make dinner then . . . ”

Obviously, practice makes perfect. 

Creativity in the Classroom

I have summoned the goddesses of creativity for my task.   In many ways, teachers are performers.   In adult literacy education, it’s important to engage.   Adult learners are coming from work to spend three hours with us in the evening when they can be home watching TV and spending time with their families.    Humor, creativity, rapport, and the ability to create community among learners are important ingredients of a good learning environment.   Sometimes, it begins with knowing everybody by name.   Having students get up from their chairs and walk to the whiteboard to write something help in getting them energized through active participation.   Finding ways to correct mistakes with humor and sensitivity offer a sense of accomplishment rather than criticism.    I always remember that we are all adults and we are all in here to learn from each other. 

The Web of Change

With all the opportunities to teach in K-12 in this very K-12 world of education, I find myself gravitating toward adult education more and more.    I have come to realize that what I learn from my adult learners is what I am most excited about.    The urgency of learning gives me a sense of critical purpose.  I recognize the importance of learning how to write well in order for them to move up a career ladder.   Their progression is critical in the advancement of members of their families as well.   Being able to read may mean reading with their kids.  When I taught in Brooklyn Chinatown, many of the sweatshop workers depend on their children to read the government forms and translate them back.   Such is a huge responsibility for a child.   The web of influence spreads to members of communities directly affected by the learning gains of every adult student.    Don’t happy parents a happy family make?  Take that as the unexplored solution to the K-12 crisis. 

Related Readings on Marcelo Lucero: 

2008 The Murder

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14immigrant.html

2009 The Reaction

After Marcelo Lucero’s Killing on Long Island, Helping Ecuadoreans …

Mourning Victim but Liking Accused in L.I. Killing

Latinos Recall Pattern of Attacks Before Killing

To Heal in Patchogue: Having a Say and Seeing It Come to Life

A Year After an Immigrant’s Death, Signs of Hope

Personal Stories Highlight Latino International Film Festival

2010 The Trial

Prosecutors Describe ‘Hunt’ for Hispanic Victim

Blood on Defendant’s Knife Was Victim’s, Scientist Says

Defense in Hate Crime Trial Says Killing Was Unintended

Jurors Hint at Prosecutors’ Hurdle in L.I. Hate Crime Case

Guilty Verdict in Killing of Long Island Man

Verdict on Long Island
o
o
o

o
o
o
In two high profile articles in The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek, the country is reminded once again that not only does K-12 education have collosal challenges, some teachers now have to go.  

He knew how to advise schools to adopt a better curriculum or raise standards or develop better communication channels between teachers and principals. But he realized that he had no clue how to advise schools about their main event: how to teach. (From the New York Times)

K-12 education, with all its highly publicized issues, has become a labyrinth for change agents and policy makers.   So many people have their hands on so many parts, that it has become truly confusing–at least from an observer’s eyes–what the real problems are.   One thing we all know for sure, America’s children are bearing the brunt of all these public confrontations.   Soon enough, when they grow up, we might just know the impact of a population that reads and writes below the level of most of the literate world.   A frightening prospect for a country that prides itself for being “the first world.”  America’s future?  Think again.

I told my mother earlier, that as an educator, I have thought about entering the K-12 profession.  But for a few reasons, I may be too much of an “alien” in their world.   First, I don’t have kids and am not planning to have any.   I personally think that teachers with children get much of their training at home.   Parental patience is a gift that can’t be taught.   Second, I was privately educated–in another country!   The public school system is foreign to me (as I am to them).   In the Philippines, we have both  Elementary and High School in ten years!  Ten!  Four year colleges were still a time for growing up.  I often wonder why American kids have to stay in school that long.   Given the state of many public schools, they must be so discontented they can’t wait to get out.   Since they grow up so fast in this country, their pubertal minds are probably somewhere else.  So much for teaching them Shakespeare when they want to practice his life lessons at sixteen.

Last, and worthy of another paragraph, I have spent most of my working life in Adult Education.   Yes, with Adults.

Adult Learners are Their Parents

The four years I taught in the welfare system of New York made me look at the K-12 issues directly by staring at the eyes of the parents responsible for these kids.   Many of my students were too caught in the systemic traps of poverty to pay attention to the educational values that America has cherished for decades.   Many of them were single mothers who were on the constantly revolving doors of unemployment and welfare programs.   Their literacy issues might be familiar to a K-12 teacher who deal with them every day, except they’re not children.  And if we connect one dot to another, we might ask ourselves, what happens when the children go home to these parents?   What does education mean to those who don’t understand it, or worse, don’t value it in life?

The biggest irony of all is this:  for the past years, my students have been younger.   Adult literacy programs have become the repository for those who drop out of high school.    And because of the lack of supportive environment, many of them are having children, too.

So goes the cycle.  

Considering the many employment opportunities in K-12, I have decided to stay in Adult Literacy Education.   It may be tough to find a job in my underfunded field right now, but I am a believer in families, in strong families.   The problems we see around us did not emerge from the streets.  Children just don’t suddenly learn to pick up guns and start shooting each other.   They don’t just start using the N word because they think it’s cool.  They just don’t get disconnected from the lessons in American history.  In so many ways,  it all began at home. 

Be a Fan on Facebook! Click Here.

o
o
o