Texas ordered to come up with new plan for ESL education
Federal District Judge William Wayne Justice ordered on Friday that the state must develop a new English as a Second Language Program for Texas students by the start of next school year.
A preliminary plan of action must be provided to the court by January 31.
Justice rejected requests from the state to postpone his order, but declined, saying students had waited long enough for the state to fix a broken system.
“The time has come to put a halt to the failed secondary English as a Second Language program and monitoring system” in Texas, the judge said in a ruling released Friday.
While an appeal and request for stay from Justice’s order is possible, the Dallas Morning News reported that the chairs of the House and Senate education committees have indicated that the Legislature is already “zeroing in” on problems with ESL students.
HCC to offer basics and English as a Second Language (ESL) Advising to adults
Harford Community College will offer Pre-GED Advising Sessions for adults who want to improve their basic reading, writing or math skills.
Free Adult Basic Education review classes or one-on-one literacy tutoring programs for beginning readers are available at various times, dates and locations Jan. 5-8.
The college also will offer English as a Second Language (ESL) Advising at various dates, times and locations Jan. 5-9. ESL is for foreign-born adults 16 years of age or older who would like to improve English communication skills, including listening, speaking, reading and writing. Free beginning and intermediate classes begin every six weeks.
Attendance at an advising session is required for entry into the classes.
HCC to offer basics to adults — baltimoresun.com.
County restructures posts to meet public nursing demand
Several positions within the Anoka County Community Health and Environmental Services Department are being restructured to meet a demand for more public health nurses.
The restructuring approved by the Anoka County Board on a recommendation from its Management Committee will create three .8 full time equivalent public health nurse positions.
Currently, the department has four .5 full time equivalent public health positions vacant as well as a vacant full-time child and teen checkup financial assistance specialist outreach worker position.
According to information provided to the county board by the county health department staff, the Minnesota Department of Human Services notified the county a year ago that the state would no longer cover with child and teen checkup dollars county staff time to assist families to enroll in Medical Assistance.
The state health department gave the county until January 2009 to restructure its program, hence the decision to eliminate the outreach worker job in favor of the public health nursing needs.
By restructuring from .5 to .8 full-time equivalent positions, the jobs would have benefits, offer flexibility and promote retention of experienced staff, the health department report states.
The new public health nurses are needed to meet added demands within the health department, the county board was told.
• A 50 percent increase in referrals for public health nurse home visits related to referrals from Hmong, Russian and Spanish interpreters and from English as a Second Language (ESL) participants.
Read full article…
ABC Newspapers - County restructures posts to meet public nursing demand.
Immigration comes to life at Ithaca School: Student interviews bring history to life
Mike Hall knew his great-grandmother was a poor Polish immigrant, but he said he didn’t know how hard of a worker she was until he studied her for his class project.
The eighth-grade class at DeWitt Middle School presented their research projects on immigrants at an open house Wednesday night after a month of studying the history of immigration in the United States.
Hall took away a greater sense of empathy for those who leave their home countries.
“You hear a lot about illegal immigration, but I think people who complain don’t realize how hard it is for (immigrants) in their own countries,” said Hall, 13. “They’re not here to steal jobs. They’re here to work hard.”
Some students interviewed the children of relatives who came from outside the United States in a previous generation. Others interviewed relatives or friends who were immigrants themselves, or were matched up with volunteers from the community or through English as a Second Language classes at Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES, said Andrea Volckmar, DeWitt social studies teacher.
Judge rejects state request on language program
A federal judge has rejected the state’s request to postpone his order to develop a new language program for the 140,000 students with limited English proficiency in Texas middle schools and high schools.
In a ruling released Friday, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice said the program must be fixed by fall. The state had requested the delay while it appealed the order.
“The time has come to put a halt to the failed secondary English as a Second Language program and monitoring system” in Texas, Justice wrote.
In his original order in July, he said the improvements had to be in place by the start of the 2009-10 school year. A preliminary plan is due Jan. 31.
State officials could still request a stay of Justice’s order from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read full article…
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest.
ESL conversation questions for Christmas
December 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under ESL conversation questions
The following ESL conversation questions can be used in a to help you promote discussions in the classroom at Christmas time. They are especially useful for conversation classes, when you may find yourself being the only person taking part in the conversation.
1. What is Christmas?
2. How do you celebrate Christmas in your country?
3. What day do we celbrate Christmas?
4. What is your favorite Christmas food?
5. Do your relatives visit during Christmas? What are there names?
6. What do you do on Christmas Eve?
7. What is the best Christmas present you have ever received?
8. What is you favorite Christmas song?
9. Do you have a Christmas tree?
10. Do you have a special meal on Christmas day?
Website resources for ESL conversation questions
December 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under ESL conversation questions
This is another great resource for conversational questions for ESL students. There are currently 643 discussion topics to choose from on this site:
http://www.esldiscussions.com/
Sample links from the site:
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Abortion
- Academy Awards
- Accidents
- Actors
- Adolescence
- Adoption
- Adultery
- Adventure
- Advertising
- Afghanistan
- Africa
- Age
- AIDS
- Alcohol
- Aliens
- Allergies
- Alphabet
- Alternative Medicine
- Amazon
- Ambition
- Amnesty International
- Anger
- Animals
- Antarctica
- Arabs
- Argentina
- Armageddon
- Army
- Aromatherapy
- Art
- Astrology
- Astronauts
- Aung San Sue Kyi
- Australia
- Avian Bird Flu
- Azerbaijan
ESL conversation questions
December 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under ESL conversation questions
This is a great website for ESL conversation question ideas.
http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/phrases.html
Sample links from the site:
Phrases for Conversation -
School with E.S.L. students ranked with nation’s elite
A small, largely unknown high school on Grand St. is attracting national attention.
The Dual Language and Asian Studies High School just ranked No. 31 on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of the country’s top high schools. The Dual Language School, whose graduates speak both Mandarin and English, not only bested thousands of schools around the country, but also beat elite city schools like Bronx Science.
“We knew it from Day One — that’s what we’re shooting for,” said Li Yan, the school’s principal.
While Yan was not shocked to see his five-year-old school make the list — based on last year’s rankings, he calculated that he had a good chance — some may be surprised to see the Dual Language School in the company of the city and country’s best.
“A lot of people don’t know about it,” Yan agreed as he gave Downtown Express a school tour last week. “The name turns a lot of people off — they think it’s just an E.S.L. school, and they’re not sending their kids there.”
The school does have a large English as a Second Language program for Chinese students, but it is the first dual language high school in the city, meaning it also does the opposite, teaches English-speaking students to speak Chinese. Within four years, the students who initially did not have enough common language to carry on a conversation are sitting side by side in classrooms where the instruction is in a mixture of English and Mandarin. All graduating students must pass both the English and Chinese Regents exams.
Yan sees the U.S. News ranking as particularly impressive because unlike many of the schools on the list, Dual Language has no entrance exam. Sixty-five percent of the students are recent arrivals from China. Many of the native English speakers scored below average on state tests in middle school. Eighty percent of the students receive a free lunch.
Read full article…
School with E.S.L. students ranked with nation’s elite.
Judge insists Texas fix ESL program by the fall
A federal judge has turned up the heat on the Legislature to develop a new language program for the estimated 140,000 limited-English middle and high school students in Texas.
U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice rejected the state’s request to postpone his order for limited-English students, saying they have waited long enough. The state requested the delay while it appealed the order.
“The time has come to put a halt to the failed secondary English as a Second Language program and monitoring system” in Texas, the judge said in a ruling released Friday.
His original order, in July, said the improvements had to be in place by the start of the 2009-10 school year. A preliminary plan is due Jan. 31.
Although state officials could still request a stay of Judge Justice’s order from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the chairs of both the House and Senate education committees have said lawmakers were already zeroing in on the problems of limited-English students – including low test scores and high dropout rates – before the judge ruled that the state has failed to properly educate those students.