Round table discussion report from CATESOL Northern Regional Conference.

The 2013 Northern Regional CATESOL Conference on Saturday May 4th gave us a wonderful opportunity to bring together a panel of ESL educators from community colleges and adult schools to talk about A Collaborative Vision for Serving Adult Learners. It was a chance to share ways of thinking about the two systems, how they differ, what they share and how they both strive to serve adult learners through the different historic filters that have shaped them.

The session was moderated by KQED Education and the panel brought considerable experience and expertise from both sectors to the table. Dr Bob Harper, Director of Campbell Adult School and Kristen Pursley, Lead Teacher from West Contra Costa Adult Education presented their vision for adult education and Greg Keech, elected Chair of ESL at CCSF and Sonja Franeta, former Chair of ESL at Laney College, spoke to issues confronting noncredit ESL provision in community colleges. Both sectors addressed ways to work together towards a fair and equitable system that meets the needs of non native speakers in Northern Californian communities.

Greg Keech laid out the context for this discussion in his post on KQED ESL Insights blog - What is Noncredit? “What is known as "adult education" in the K-12 system is generally known as noncredit in Community Colleges. In the ESL realm, there have been two separate entities delivering instruction: some districts have adult ESL classes under their local K-12 district, while credit instruction is provided by the community college; in other areas, the community college district provides both credit and noncredit ESL, though not always under the same roof.” Our panelists offered examples of the differing systems - City College of San Francisco provides both credit and noncredit ESL classes, whereas Laney College offers only credit ESL courses.

The discussion was further set against the backdrop of Governor Brown's recent proposal to move adult education into the community college sphere, which was unanimously rejected on March 19th by the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. However the subcommittee voted to approve it "without prejudice," which means they did not disagree with the principle. As such the idea is likely to come back in the May budget revise.

To summarize the points discussed:

• Both systems are based on principles of social justice.
• The community college system is more driven by standards and outcomes that frame their work.
• Colleges privilege credit courses in terms of funding, with more funding allocated to courses where students matriculate. Many ESL students do not seek to go to college but look for other outcomes that may be vocational. Their right to language provision should be protected as should the rights of seniors to attend lifelong learning classes, and classes for adults with disabilities. CCSF also offers non-credit Parent Education classes – all of this provision could be under threat if the Governor’s plan goes though.
• Both sectors stressed the importance of open access, fluidity in terms of access and achievement, with clearly delineated pathways for students to navigate systems whether in terms of progression or reentry.
• Participants in the session talked about the importance of solidarity between sectors in terms of defending provision. Adult schools are clearly in a more vulnerable position and face considerable uncertainties if absorbed into community college system in terms of jobs and program survival.

To understand the impact on adult education under K-12 in California, please visit http://a4cas.blogspot.com/2013/03/weekly-update-33113.html.

It was agreed that setting up a working group between adult education and noncredit ESL sectors would be a positive way forward to collaborate on issues discussed. Participants from the group signed up to stay involved.

Resources

For KQED ESL Educator resources, visit www.kqed.org/esl

Edsource 5/14/2013 - Governor tries to fix adult ed plan, but controversy remains

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When you hear crickets chirping or birds tweeting, do you wonder what it all means? From orcas and shrimps to beetles and chimpanzees, every species communicates verbally or non-verbally to transmit information to others. The cues could signal courtship and mating, the approach of predators, territorial boundaries, a food source, or pure joy. To the untrained human ear animal communication may be indistinguishable. The following digital media resources shed light on the research experts have been uncovering on the way some animals hear and communicate.

ANIMAL HEARING
This video segment explores the night time worlds of the desert fox and the barn owl, whose heightened sense of hearing allows them to travel and find food while most other animals lie low and wait for daylight. Footage from NOVA: "Mystery of the Senses: Hearing."

GUESS HOW WHALES HEAR!
What does the ocean sound like to a whale? How do whales hear? Dr. Darlene Ketten of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution really wanted to know. This video segment reveals how one marine biologist learns how cetaceans hear and what they hear. Understanding this information may help save these important creatures against noise pollution caused by human activity.

SOUND WAVES LISTENING TO ORCAS
Orcas are an icon of the Pacific Northwest, stirring a mix of fascination, awe and affection. Thousands of people come to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound just to catch a glimpse of the Southern Resident orcas that call these waters home. By using underwater microphones, or hydrophones, scientists record the acoustic environment of the killer whales to track their communication and gain a deeper understanding of how human-made noise affects them.

PRAIRIE DOG CALLS
In this video from DragonflyTV, Julian and Sabrina think one of the funniest exhibits at the zoo is the prairie dogs. They're always busy yipping and yapping, but that got them wondering if they just make noise or if they are communicating. Do prairie dogs make different kinds of barks? Julian and Sabrina create sound spectrum snapshots of prairie dog barks to explore animal communication.

BIRD CALL QUIZ
Birds have different calls to communicate to each other. Test your ability to distinguish between the calls. In this interactive activity figure out which are songs, which are companion calls, and which are alarms.

For more great science videos, visit pbslearningmedia.org .

]]> http://education.kqed.org/edspace/2013/05/23/top-5-videos-to-teach-sounds-in-nature/feed/ 0 Thinkstock.com http://education.kqed.org/edspace/2013/05/22/how-pbs-learningmedia-can-strengthen-students-media-literacy-for-common-core/ http://education.kqed.org/edspace/2013/05/22/how-pbs-learningmedia-can-strengthen-students-media-literacy-for-common-core/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 17:01:31 +0000 Almetria Vaba http://education.kqed.org/edspace/?p=6337 Continue reading »]]>

PBS LearningMedia, a free destination for instant access to tens of thousands of classroom-ready, digital public media resources including videos, games, audio clips, photos, and lesson plans, provides core subject area resources. Included in this resource library are resources that address media literacy skills underlying the basic tenants of Common Core State Standards.

The introduction of the Common Core State Standards explains, "To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society, students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new."

This video educast provides a brief sampling of resources in PBS LearningMedia that can support the enhancement of students’ media lit skills in three ways-

Analyzing Media
Evaluating Websites
Exploring Different Types of Media

1. Analyzing Media
Media Arts: One Minute Media Arts Lesson
This short animation provides a quick lesson on the history of communications and media arts.

Media Arts: How to Be a Critical Viewer
Students will learn how to be critical viewers by applying the key concepts of media literacy to this ad for Camel cigarettes.

2. Evaluating Websites
Student Perspectives: Research Outcomes
Students examine suggestions from high school students about how to most effectively use information found on the Internet.

3. Exploring Different Types of Media
Understanding Media: The Inside Story
In this resource students examine how different news media present the news and explore how newspapers, TV, and the Internet can present different views on the same story.

Maps from The World Digital Library
With these primary source resources students explore the role of maps in aiding in our understanding of geography, diverse cultures, and world history by examining a wide variety of maps – from ancient pictorial documents to 20th century maps.

And that is a brief sampling of resources in PBS LearningMedia that can support the enhancement of students’ media literacy skills.

Sign up for PBS LearningMedia, it’s free, and begin to explore the 30,000 resources from across core subject areas and grade levels to support teaching and learning in your classroom.

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #DoNowDance

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

Do Now

What's your best dance move? If you don’t have a signature dance move that you consider your own, then make one up! Capture your move in a short video and share the link with us via Vine, Twitter, YouTube, or in the comments section below. Dancers with the most creativity will be featured here on KQED’s Web site, and one grand prize winner will receive a handy messenger bag loaded with KQED goodies. If you can't send a video, tell us what your move would be called or what would it look like?

Introduction

You’ve undoubtedly noticed viral videos flying around the Internet featuring dance sensations, trends, and memes like the Harlem shake phenomenon and riffs off of Gangnam Style. Dance crazes have a long history of sweeping the nation, and platforms like YouTube and Facebook foster a worldwide dancing dialogue. Dance crazes are a significant part of American culture and span history, including wildly varying moves, ranging from the 1920’s Charleston to contemporary twerking.

You’ve probably tried some of these dances, but have you made up your own personal dance move? It’s time to show off! Celebrate the arrival of summer by showing off your best move, or making up a new one! Capture your move in a short video and share the link with us via Vine, Twitter, YouTube, or in the comments section below.l Don’t forget to give your dance a name and tag #DoNowDance. Everybody dance now!

Resource

KQED Education video Show Us Your Dance Moves! - May 16, 2013
Dance has been used throughout history as a language, a way to communicate something about yourself or your community. Many signature dance moves have made history, stayed relevant for years, and been adapted and appropriated. The Harlem Shake was born in 1981 and was originally named after its creator, Al B. Video interpretations of the Harlem Shake have recently gone viral on YouTube, and the dance also inspired another move: The Chicken Noodle Soup.

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #DoNowDance

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

We encourage students to reply to other people's tweets to foster more of a conversation. Also, if students tweet their personal opinions, ask them to support their ideas with links to interesting/credible articles online (adding a nice research component) or retweet other people's ideas that they agree/disagree/find amusing. We also value student-produced media linked to their tweets like memes or more extensive blog posts to represent their ideas. Of course, do as you can… and any contribution is most welcomed.

More Resources

KQED Spark video San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival - April 2006
The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival is one of the largest cultural dance festivals in the United States. Presented by San Francisco's World Arts West, this festival attracts more than 9,000 visitors annually and provides ethnic dance companies the opportunity to share their cultural forms of expression as well as their artistic skills.

PBS Off Book video The Worlds of Viral Video - July 27, 2012
"Viral Video" is the signature phenomenon of internet media. Something akin to pop songs, these videos with irresistible hooks have saturated video culture online and have now evolved into a multitude of sophisticated forms. Whether rooted in comedy, spectacle, schadenfreude, cuteness, politics, performance, or deep meaning, the idea of viral videos, and the huge audiences they generate, have forever changed the values and potential impact of video online.

KQED Spark video Alonzo King - March 2004
Choreographer Alonzo King has created contemporary ballets for more than 50 international dance companies as well as dozens of pieces for film, television, opera and his own company, LINES Contemporary Ballet. Easily one of the most sought-after ballet masters in the world, Alonzo King is often living out of a suitcase, traveling to multiple locations in short order.

KQED Spark video Margaret Jenkins - October 2004
For more than 30 years, choreographer Margaret Jenkins has been expanding the physical and conceptual boundaries of modern dance in the Bay Area. Her dance company has spawned an entire generation of experimental dancers and artists. In the episode, "Dance Masters," Spark follows Jenkins from rehearsing "Danger Orange" in San Francisco to conducting workshops on composition and sharing choreographic ideas with the Beijing Modern Dance Company in China.

This spring, PBS LearningMedia spotlights the U.S. Constitution!

Enhance your next lesson with PBS LearningMedia’s brand new collection of FREE, curriculum-targeted resources from the series, Constitution USA (Grades 9-12). Use these resources to instigate classroom discussion around key concepts like Federalism, equality, and separation of powers – and to help your students to better-understand the impact of the Constitution in their own lives. Click here to access to the new collection.

The framers of the Constitution were cautious about centralizing power and, as a result, adopted the philosophy of ‘divide and conquer’. At the national level, they created three different branches of government to administer three different types of power: The legislative branch made the laws through a Congress of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The executive branch enforced the laws through a president, vice president, and numerous executive departments such as Treasury and State. And the judicial branch interpreted the laws through a Supreme Court and other lower courts. Use this special collection from PBS LearningMedia to expand on these concepts with your high school students and to reinforce key concepts in your next history, government, or social studies class. Featured resources include:

An Enduring Document

Yale professor Akhil Amar talks with Peter Sagal about why our Constitution has endured as long as it has. He believes this is because of its ability to be amended.

The U.S. President

Historian Rick Beeman shares some insight behind the creation of the office of U.S. President and explains why the role's duties are hardly touched upon at all in the Constitution.

Save the Date! Before you tune-in to Episode 4 of Constitution USA – join PBS LearningMedia for an educator-focused webinar with Catherine Allan, the program’s Executive Producer (8PM ET, | May 28). The next day, take part in an online, interactive screening of Constitution USA with special guests (8PM ET | May 29). Check the PBS LearningMedia homepage for details.

The PBS LearningMedia content library provides PreK-12 educators with 30,000 classroom-ready teaching resources to engage 21st century learners while supporting the integration of the Common Core State Standards. For full access to the library, create a free account and log on!

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDEdspace and end it with #DoNowFashion

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

Do Now

Would you pay more for clothes if they were manufactured ethically i.e. produced in a factory with fair working conditions and wages? What would ethical shopping look like to you?

Before answering, look at a garment that you recently purchased and find out the brand and where it was made. Take a picture and tweet it with the info (or post it in the comments section below).

Introduction

Two weeks ago, KQED Do Now examined the human cost of making clothing cheaply, stating that U.S. fashion companies design their merchandise in the United States and then outsource the labor in countries like Bangladesh where workers are paid very little to sew the garments. Has the tragedy in Bangladesh changed our thinking? Have we made the connection between the cost of clothes and the conditions of these factories? Are we ready to acknowledge the human costs of this relentless fashion treadmill and shop ethically? If workers are to be paid a living wage, would we be prepared to pay more for clothes?

Take a look at the label on your latest bargain, those trendy, cheap items from stores such as H&M, Esprit, Lee, Wrangler, Nike, J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart. Where were these clothes made?

In her book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, journalist Elizabeth L. Cline describes buying “seven pairs of $7 shoes” at Kmart and admits to being a “reformed fast-fashion junkie. She writes “because of low prices, chasing trends is now a mass activity, accessible to anyone with a few bucks to spare.” Fashion trends dangle the constant lure of display and self branding in front of us and the drive to keep up becomes relentless. Quality is not the issue, but the fear of losing face in the social mirror.

There is now an “ethical fashion” movement and clothing companies like H&M, for example, has a “Conscious Collection.” American Apparel and Fair Trade Fashion offer natural, organic cotton or hand made clothing and sweatshop free production. Is then organic and locally produced clothing a way of shopping ethically? Does it also become a marketing strategy?

Another option is to follow Cline’s advice to “make, alter and mend” by which she means buying recycled clothes and taking care of the clothes we have, rather than discarding clothing on a whim because they are cheap and easily replaceable when the fashion moves on.

This could be a sustainable solution to the damage to the environment of endless stuff, which is disposable and easily replaced by yet more and cheaper versions of the same. But is it a choice we are ready to make?

Resource

Watch Global Garment Industry Scrutiny After Bangladesh Disaster on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

PBS NewsHour video Global Garment Industry Scrutiny After Bangladesh Disaster - Apr. 29, 2013
More than 300 people died last week after an eight-story garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh. Rescue crews have pulled more than 80 survivors from the rubble. A local television station released video of police inspecting the site a day before the deadly collapse. Large cracks were visible, but factories continued operating. According to reports, some of the factories at the site made clothing for several major retailers in North America. Teachers: Show students the first 1:56 minutes of this video. There are great discussion questions provided on the PBS NewsHour Extra website.

To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #DoNowFashion

For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.

We encourage students to reply to other people's tweets to foster more of a conversation. Also, if students tweet their personal opinions, ask them to support their ideas with links to interesting/credible articles online (adding a nice research component) or retweet other people's ideas that they agree/disagree/find amusing. We also value student-produced media linked to their tweets like memes or more extensive blog posts to represent their ideas. Of course, do as you can…and any contribution is most welcomed.

More Resources

KQED's The Lowdown post Who Made Your T-Shirt? The Hidden Cost of Cheap Fashion - May 17, 2013
Everyone likes a good deal. And for that reason, most of us have flocked to clothing stores like H&M and Old Navy for the unbelievably cheap and expansive selection they offer. T-shirts for five bucks; jeans and dresses for under $20. It’s almost like you can’t afford to not buy it. Clothing is cheaper now than it’s ever been: today average Americans spend less than four percent of their total income on their wardrobes, about half what was spent 50 years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

PBS NewsHour Extra post Popular Clothing Brands React to Bangladesh Tragedy - May 8, 2013
Representatives from 40 clothing retailers, including H&M, Nike and Gap, met with the Bangladesh garment association last week to address the labor issues highlighted by the deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza, a large multi-story complex that housed shops and garment factories. More than 650 people died in the April 24 disaster, and the number is still rising.

The Guardian post How activism forced Nike to change its ethical game - July 6, 2012
Twenty years of campaigning for workers' rights changed the corporate culture of one of the world's biggest brands – and the sportswear industry

Are you interested in having your students debate about current events with other students from around the country? KQED Do Now is a weekly activity for students to engage and respond to current issues using social media tools like Twitter. KQED aims to introduce 21st Century skills and add value to learning through the integration of relevant content and new media tools and technologies. Do Now gives students a chance to practice civic engagement and digital citizenship skills while they explore ways to connect topics in their classes to the present day.

If you are interesting in using Do Now with your students, here is a self-paced tutorial that will get you oriented and ready to implement. Give yourself about 1 hour to go through it. Also, if you are interested in participating in the KQED Do Now working group for Fall, 2013, email Matt Williams at mwilliams@kqed.org. Educators who participate in working groups will receive a small stipend.

Here's a breakdown of how Do Now works:

• Do Now activities are posted every Friday evening at kqed.org/donow.
• There's a brief intro to the topic and a media resource that can be played directly on the website.
• At the top of the activity, there's a question for students to respond to after they go through the intro and media resource to deepen the understanding of the topic.
• Students should then respond to the Do Now either in the comments section on the website or they can tweet their response (each student must create a Twitter account).

For best practices on how to set-up your students with Twitter accounts and some troubleshooting tips, click here.

Do Now can help focus students at the start of a class period. Most activities are six to eight minutes in length. They can completed without teacher assistance and can be used to introduce ideas connected to the rest of the lesson.

The monthly content schedule is as follows:

Every Friday: Civic, Government & Politics
2nd Tuesday: Arts & Popular Culture
4th Tuesday: Science

Follow @KQEDedspace on Twitter to receive the weekly Do Now.

The Do Now discussion can reach beyond the classroom and connect students far and wide. If you have any questions, email Matthew Williams at at mwilliams@kqed.org.

Join KQED, SFMOMA, the Alameda County Office of Education, local artists and educators for the Integrated Learning Summer Institute, August 13-15, 2013 at Chabot Space and Science Center. All educators are welcome to register. Plenary speakers will include Spark-featured artists Favianna Rodriguez and Rhodessa Jones. The Integrated Learning institute is like summer camp for educators, set in a beautiful, natural environment with three days full of working with arts education experts and getting inspired to integrate the arts across all subjects.

KQED and SFMOMA will be presenting a three-part workshop during the institute about storytelling and exploring identity. Educators who sign up for this special session will create their own short film using personal symbolism to create a storyline. This professional development opportunity, related to using and making media in the classroom, is a perfect way to learn best practices for incorporating art and technology into CCSS curricula.

Sign up by the end of May for $50 off the registration fee, and select "Tracing Identity through Digital Media" as one of your mini-courses. We look forward to seeing you in August!

Source: factcheck.org

The battle over gun control can be boiled down to a tug-of-war between maintaining our rights and ensuring our safety. Specifically, the issue is about the balance between Americans' constitutional right to bear arms -- as spelled out in the Second Amendment -- and the desire that almost all of us share to live safely without the threat of being harmed by gun violence. The U.S. has the highest gun ownership rate in the world, and the most gun-related deaths of any industrialized country. It also has some of the loosest gun control laws.

A mass shooting in December 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut resulted in the deaths of 27 people, including 20 children. The tragedy helped revive demand for tighter gun control laws, to which President Obama responded by promising action, and a number of lawmakers got to work crafting a set of measures to address the issue. But groups like the National Rifle Association staunchly opposed any new kind of gun regulations, and the legislative effort to enact background checks and other moderate new measures was narrowly defeated in the Senate this spring. At present, the issue is on hold, but the problem gun violence in America has certainly not gone away, and efforts at reform will likely resurface soon. - (From the introduction to KQED's The Lowdown resources around gun control.)

Use these resources about gun violence in your high school government and English language arts classrooms to support the use of informational text and argumentative writing as defined in the Common Core State Standards, and the study of the Bill of Rights and the division of power between the federal governments and individual states.  Begin with this lesson plan for ideas on using the resources that are part of the first collection of resources below from KQED's news education blog, The Lowdown.

1. Gun Violence
Grade: 9-12 |Social Studies & English Language Arts | Interactive Maps, Timelines, Multimedia Visualizations, Videos

Topics include America’s Mass Shooting Dilemma, U.S. Gun Homicides: Visualizing the Numbers, Are States With Tough Gun Laws Actually Safer?, The Loose Laws and Loopholes of Federal Gun Regulations, Gun Control in America: The History, The Issues, and One Controversial Cartoon, The Geography of U.S. Gun Homicides, The United States of Firearms: America’s Love of the Gun, How Come No One’s Talking About Gun Control This Election?

2. The Path to Violence: Gun Violence & The Path to Violence: School Violence
Grade: 9-12 | Subject: Social Studies & Health | Video

The Path to Violence tells the story of a powerfully effective Secret Service program — the Safe School Initiative — that’s helped schools detect problem behavior in advance.

But despite the progress made, recent attacks have revealed a gaping hole in our safety net. Adam Lanza, Jared Loughner and allegedly James Holmes all executed their attacks after they’d left their respective schools. Here parents may be the only line of defense — parents who are terrified of their own children. Can the hard-won gains made by psychologists and law enforcement be extended to the families of some of the nation’s most violent individuals? Is the country ready to have a national conversation about the balance between safety and civil liberties that such interventions would require?

3. After Newtown: Guns in America: Colonial Era
Grade: 9-12 | Subject: Social Studies & Health | Video

From the first European settlements in the New World, guns have been at center of our national narrative for 400 years.

4. After Newtown: Guns in America: Chicago
Grade: 9-12 | Subject: Social Studies & Health |Video

Gun technology has evolved a great deal since the Colonial era. So too has America's gun culture. With an estimated 300 million firearms in circulation, many argue that the nation is inundated with weapons and fear the human toll they've taken is too high. Over 30,000 people die each year from a gun-related injury. At the same time, guns are enjoyed by tens of thousands of Americans for sport, and many more rely on them for self-defense.

5. After Newtown: Guns in America: Philadelphia
Grade: 9-12 | Subject: Social Studies & Health |Video

Examine the evolution of guns in America, their frequent link to violence, and the clash of cultures that reflect competing visions of our national identity.

4. Student Reporting Labs React to Newtown
Grade: 9-12 | Subject: Social Studies & Health | Video

When breaking news is reported, stories often lack a youth voice or perspective. After the tragic shooting of 26 students and faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Student Reporting Labs mobilized its youth journalists and asked them to interview their peers about the tragedy.

SV ALLIES Initiative ESL students

by Usha Narayanan

The video footage below was taken at Campbell Adult and Community Education (CUHSD) in Campbell, California and highlights the experience of adult English as a Second Language learners.  The video was made possible by the ALLIES initiative.  This initiative in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is engaged in forming a multi-sector alliance that brings adult education schools, community colleges, non-profit agencies, businesses, Workforce Investment Boards etc. to support better integration of immigrants and enhance their contribution to the economy through education and training.

Immigrant adults come to ESL classes for a number of reasons- communicate effectively in their new homeland, become literate for the first time in their lives, do better in their jobs or get a better job, move on to higher education and career training, and help their children do better in school. While most of adult learners have multiple reasons to learn English,the motivation behind these reasons is to be better integrated in their new land. Indeed, civic engagement, even leading to the naturalization process and citizenship, is an interest for many adult immigrants.

Adult schools are portals through which many immigrants start their process of integration.  In these schools they acquire proficiency in English and an introduction to American culture, an understanding of career and educational pathways for them and their family members, and navigate systems and bureaucracies to achieve their goals.

Resources

KQED Education ESL Resources on Immigrant Stories:

Immigrant Communities: Exploring Connections (Educator Guide) Lesson plans are designed to build connections between different immigrant communities through knowledge and understanding.

Sample lessons from this Educator Guide

• Leaving Home? (PDF)
  Why do immigrants leave their families to come to the United States?
  References Letters from the Other Side available from Side Street Films
• Exploring The American Dream (PDF)
  This lesson explores the American Dream through the personal stories of immigrants.

Usha Narayanan, PhD (ESL Program Coordinator at Campbell Adult and Community Education (CACE); Adjunct Faculty at De Anza College). Her experience includes teaching and administering ESL and other Adult Education programs, and teaching Anthropology. She has a Masters’ degree in Educational Administration and her doctoral work is in Anthropology.