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PBS Provides More Resources for ESL, EL/Civics Adult Educators
ESL/Civics tip
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) continues to expand their valuable non-commercial services for listeners, including English teachers and ESL instructors.
Take the free online tour of PBS ESL/CivicsLink, an online professional development service for ESL teachers. The online system “helps instructors teach speakers of other languages effectively, strengthens cross-cultural awareness and integrates English literacy instruction and civics education.” This system also addresses core issues in teaching English and civics and encourages active engagement through project-based learning. It works for small-group study with peer mentoring and with both facilitated and nonfacilitated models.
This is just one of many tips, mostly for K-6 teachers, at Delta’s bigdealbook.com site for ESL/ELL teachers.
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Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
What is the electoral college? Why does it matter?
How did George W. Bush actually become President of the United States?
After all, he received fewer popular votes for President than Al Gore, didn’t he? How could Al Gore win the popular vote and still lose the 2000 U.S. Presidential election? The short, unpleasant answer is that the popular vote doesn’t count – and the only vote that matters in electing presidents in the United States is the electoral college.
What is the electoral college? How many votes does your state have in the real United States presidential election? If you teach U.S. history, EL/Civics, or just vote in U.S. elections, you already know these answers – and your students and friends should too!
Check out the easy to use electoral college map hosted by the Los Angeles Times. This educational map game can become addictive – especially for people who are following the presidential race. Among the many interesting features is that the default setting, based on the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, shows Senator McCain with a clear electoral college advantage over Senator Obama. Amidst the daily national polls, it’s easy for U.S. citizens – let alone adult immigrants and citizenship students – to forget this vital fact.
You can also go to the fine Wikipedia article on the peculiar history and strange institution called the United_States_Electoral_College. Bottomline: your vote matters less than it should in the 21st century!
By the way, I’m one of those folks that wants to abolish the electoral college as a sad legacy of both aristocratic ideals and slave-era logic. Direct elections work just fine. Since abolishing the electoral college seems very, very difficult, we should – it seems to me – at least switch from a winner take all system for each state to a fairer system where each congressional district chooses its own electors. Adopting this more transparent, honest “tiered” system would quickly reveal the huge divide between urban and rural America across the country. If Senator Obama wins the popular vote and still loses the electoral college, I expect more Democrats to rediscover their discomfort with the very undemocratic electoral college. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen!
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Conversation tip #14: Ask a question
“Do you want to know how to start a conversation? Ask a question, and listen.”
Robert Bly (1926- ), American poet and activist
That’s not a bad starting point, is it?
ESL Conversation worksheet: Imperatives vs Polite Requests in the Workplace
Workplace Communication Tip 3: Politely Make Suggestions
Style matters – especially when we talk with our co-workers, consumers, patients, and supervisors. English language learners, immigrants, and far too many English speaking workers sometimes forget this basic principle of workplace communication.
Consider the difference in how these requests sound.
Shut off the TV!
Please turn off the TV?
Could you turn off the TV?
Would you please turn off the TV?
Close the door!
Shut the damn door!
Close the door; I need some privacy.
Would you please close the door; we can’t hear ourselves talk.
Could you get the door?
Can you close the door?
Sometimes, especially in an emergency, it is appropriate to warn other people with a short command.
Call the police!
Help!
Shut the door!
Volume, tone, and context help us recognize an emergency. Imperatives, or short command sentences, are powerful communication tools in these situations. The speaker gives an order; we listen.
I. When would it be appropriate to give a warning on your job? Please give 3 examples.
1.
2.
3.
But, usually, we also make our requests that are not emergencies. We can – and should- give suggestions in a kinder, gentler way. Unfortunately, too many people pretend that everything that annoys them is an emergency and speak in a rude, impolite way to co-workers. This sort of harsh speech can even be abusive.
We can, however, use many words to make quick requests and polite suggestions:
May Can Could Would Should Might
II. Please write a request that you might give or hear at work with these words.
- Can ______________________________________________?
- May ______________________________________________?
- Could _____________________________________________?
- Would_____________________________________________?
- Should_____________________________________________?
- Might _____________________________________________?
Adding the word “please” makes your requests and suggestions sound nicer too!
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Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Why Teach About Solzhenitsyn in English Classrooms?
“Own only what you can always carry with you; know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, an exceptional writer of rare courage, died today. English teachers, lovers of literature, and people of conscience will find his long obituary in the International Herald Tribune worth reading. Solzhenitsyn, like so many other intellectual and artistic figures, found refuge in the United States when he was exiled from his homeland for his writings. ESL, especially EL/Civics students, will also find his biography of considerable interest.
While far too many western leftists preferred to close their eyes to the nature and brutality of the Soviet slave labor system, Solzhenitsyn wrote novels that detailed the misery and repression created by the communists. His writings also made it impossible for even the most naïve leftist intellectuals to deny Stalin’s gulags – and how millions looked away. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, but the Soviet authorities naturally prevented him from accepting his award. He spent 20 years in prison camps for his writings.
Do you have English language students from Russia? Do you know immigrants and refugees who spent their youth under the Soviet system? How did living under a communist dictatorship distort human relationships? Solzhenitsyn’s writings, once censored, may help you better understand some of the historical and cultural factors that have influenced your students and their worldviews.
Personally, I found working with Russian refugees and immigrants a very eye-opening experience. The more you learn about the old Soviet system, the more you appreciate the American tradition of individual rights and political freedom. Solzhenitsyn wrote in his 1967 novel, The Cancer Ward, about the consequences of silent conformity with Stalin’s crimes. “Suddenly all the professors and engineers turned out to be saboteurs — and they believed it? … Or all of Lenin’s old guard were vile renegades — and they believed it? Suddenly all their friends and acquaintances were enemies of the people — and they believed it?” Everyone, as in Nazi Germany, knew and didn’t want to know.
Free speech and free press remain under siege – in the United States, often from self-righteous idealists. Solzhenitsyn’s writings serve as a powerful rebuke to coercive utopians, and illuminate the power of personal choices under the most severe stress. ESL teachers, especially EL/Civics teachers in adult education, need to emphasize the beauty, rarity, and wisdom of the first amendment guaranteeing free speech and a free press.
English language learners might also find Solzhenitsyn’s strong nationalism of interest. He didn’t believe that western democracy worked everywhere, considered many parts of American culture to be corrupt, and advocated rebuilding a distinct Russian society. The tensions between universalism in American Bill of Rights and some versions of multiculturalism can and should be openly discussed in our English classrooms.
I chose Solzhenitsyn’s quote for the dedication page of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics to remind myself – and others – to look beyond material possessions. We need to stay awake and remain sane – even if our society begins to sprout social cancers and asking simple questions becomes dangerous. Solzhenitsyn provides a model of courage and resistance to tyranny.
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