The International Institute of Boston is celebrating its 75th birthday. Through the years it has offered a variety of educational programs to refugees and immigrants along with the opportunity for many talented teachers to develop well-planned, well-written curricula. However, as changes occur in student population, teaching philosophies and methodologies, learners' needs, and our language and culture, so is it necessary for our curricula to continue to evolve, as well.
Currently, IIB offers an intensive day program for refugees and dislocated workers, a hotel industry training program for Boston residents, a citizenship program, structured job search and learn-to-earn programs for welfare recipients, and evening ABE and ESOL programs. DOE funds these two evening programs, which include three ESOL and four ABE classes for immigrants and refugees. Classes are offered two evenings a week with an optional third evening for learning computer skills and for computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Last year, through DOE funding for Curriculum Frameworks, the ABE teachers developed a literacy curriculum for the ABE program. This year, IIB requested DOE funding to develop a curriculum for the ESOL program. The proposal we submitted to DOE outlined three objectives: (1) to develop an evening ESOL curriculum, (2) to develop sample needs assessment tools, and (3) to incorporate technology into the ESOL curriculum--a very ambitious proposal.
The majority of the work I did as coordinator of this project was on the first two objectives. The third objective was accomplished by our Technology Coordinator, Joseph Cheng, who trained teachers one-on-one and helped them to develop appropriate CALL activities for their classes.
The curriculum which was being used in the evening ESOL program prior to this project was based primarily on life skills and job skills because it was developed for our intensive day program for newly-arrived refugees and dislocated workers. Because our evening ESOL program serves a greater diversity of learners--refugees, immigrants, employed, unemployed, from many different countries--it was necessary to develop a curriculum which addresses the needs of this diverse population. I wanted to take a bottom-up approach to developing this curriculum by assessing both learners' and teachers' needs and utilizing the knowledge and expertise that our teachers bring to the program to develop a helpful and informative guide. I also worked with the DOE ESOL Curriculum Frameworks consultants during this project.
Because I stepped out of my role as teacher to be the coordinator of this project, I decided to work with the ESOL members of our student council, which consists of two representatives from each of our ABE and ESOL classes. We met for 30-45 minutes prior to class time on three occasions. The meetings were conducted in English. I posed several questions, starting with the obvious "Why are you here? Why do you need to learn English?" The obvious response was "to become self-sufficient," or, in the words of one council member, "I don't like to ask my friends, my family, please help me." Often I used pictures to start a conversation as we discussed three areas: the use of English at home, at work, and in the community. Questions I posed included:
At Home: Why do you need English at home? When the phone rings how do you feel? Who do you need to talk to on the phone in English? What mail do you need to read in English? What do you do when you can't read the mail you receive? Do your children often talk on the phone and translate mail for you? How do you feel about that?
At Work: Was it easy to get your job? Why/why not? How did you get your job? Do you like your job? Why/why not? What did you do in your country? Do you need English for your job? Why/why not? Who do you talk to? What do you need to read at work? Write at work? What are your plans for the future?
In the Community: Where do you go alone? Where do you go with someone else? Why do you need someone else to go with you to this place? Are there places you don't go? Why? Do you have problems that you need to solve but you don't know where to go for the right information?
I gathered a lot of input on what systems learners need to navigate when the Coordinator of Adult Education, Marcia Chaffee, and I met with all of the student council members to brainstorm on what kinds of guest speakers we would like to invite to our school. The council gave ideas and shared personal stories, and then we surveyed all of the learners in the ABE and ESOL programs. Rather than asking students directly "what problems do you have?," this more indirect way of simply asking students why they are interested in a guest speaker encourages them to share personal stories without feeling anxious about having to tell their problems. The feedback we got from this particular activity was very informative of our learners' needs.
To get teacher input, I met several times with teachers in staff meetings and one-on-one. I wanted to know how often they referred to the current curriculum guide, what they thought should be included in a curriculum and what was not clear to them about our ESOL program. To tap into their knowledge and skills in teaching, I asked them how they decide what to teach, how they assess their learners, and how they involve students in curriculum planning.
Because there had been some confusion as to when to move students to a higher or lower level, it seemed obvious that our levels needed to be more clearly defined for teachers. To address this need, I asked teachers to list their students' strengths and weaknesses on large pieces of paper in the categories of the five strands of the ESOL Curriculum Frameworks. We discussed how to best set student outcomes and what should be the focus of learning at the three levels.
As a result of many productive meetings and helpful input from active learners and experienced teachers, we have developed a curriculum which includes our program's mission, a description of learners, and how we initially assess and place learners in levels. In order to more clearly define our three levels, we've incorporated a description of each level which includes: the SPLs of learners entering that level, general profiles of learners at that level, expected outcomes, a guide to content areas and language structure and mechanics. To help teachers in planning assessment activities, I've included ways to assess learners' needs and guidelines for cycle-end assessment and for determining students' SPLs and level advancement. We also have a resource binder entitled Assessing Needs and Goal Setting, which includes activities used for gathering input from learners on their needs and goals.
This curriculum is still a work-in-progress. It is necessary now to critically evaluate it. Are the levels more clearly defined now? Are the expected outcomes for each level realistic? Do teachers feel that this is a helpful guide? What else would we like to include? It is also a work-in-progress because, as our program continues to change (as IIB moves toward its 100th birthday) and as expertise grows in the ESOL field, there will be more opportunities for teachers to further develop our curricula.
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Sherry Spaulding is an ESOL teacher at the International Institute of Boston.