Introduction

Barre is a small city with a rich history of immigration and cultural diversity. Over recent years, an influx of immigrants and refugees from Bosnia, India, Afghanistan, Russia, and other countries have settled in Barre. The Community Service Learning (CSL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) Partnership course is designed to provide local students with an awareness and understanding of the issues that refugees confront. Through a variety of resources, students gain knowledge about refugee students' countries of origin and cultural mores. After acquiring a rudimentary acculturation vocabulary, students are taught ESL strategies that will enable them to work closely with international students both as academic tutors and social peers.

Timeline and Description of Student and Program Participants

The course is offered for one nine-week term during the first quarter marking period. Students enroll through the CSL program. To date, nine students have been involved in the CSL/ESL Partnership course.

Materials and Resources Needed

Articles, films, and books related to local and United States immigration history, refugee resettlement, and cultural mores. Guest speakers who can inform students about local history, refugee issues, and social customs.

Essential Questions

Can our school climate be improved by creating opportunities for students of diverse backgrounds to work together? How can we support our expanding population of ESL students so they can garner fruitful educational and social experiences at our school?

Focusing Questions

What resources do we use that best describe refugee issues and engage our students? What comparisons can be made between American and foreign teenagers? What specific student teaching preparation will meet the academic needs of the ESL students?

Rationale

Improve school climate and meet the educational needs of our community's' international students through relationship building activities in an academic setting.

Culminating Activities

Students create a special project that focuses upon any topic related to refugee and immigration issues. Students may also elect to research their own family history. Students enroll in subsequent CSL terms and work with ESL students in the ESL center.

Addressing Service Learning Best Practices

Curricular Goals

  • Students will develop awareness and tolerance of other countries.
  • Students will examine and understand immigration and refugee issues.
  • Students will learn strategies to tutor ESL students.
  • Students will demonstrate competent interpersonal communication skills.

Assessment

  • Formative assessment through journal responses to readings, films, and guest speakers.
  • Summative assessment of final paper and project using a rubric.
  • Ongoing formative assessment in subsequent CSL placements in the ESL center.

Service Goals

  • Meet academic and social needs of ESL students.
  • Develop a sense of caring in local students.

Learning Standards

  • Students demonstrate understanding of the cultural expressions that are characteristic of particular groups.
  • Students plan and organize an activity.
  • Students demonstrate an understanding of the structures of the English language.
  • Students identify major historical eras and analyze periods of transition in various times in their local community, in Vermont, in the United States, and in various locations worldwide, to interpret the influence of the past on the present.

Challenges

  • Ongoing supervision of CSL students in ESL center is labor intensive.
  • Need for enrollment.
  • Students must often overcome language barriers and cultural differences when working with the ESL students.
  • Strengthening CSL students' initial confidence as they begin their service in the ESL center.

Participation

  • Students discuss coursework in the classroom.
  • Students interview international students and guest speakers.
  • Students work with ESL teacher to learn teaching strategies.
  • Students develop language teaching materials for the ESL room.

Diversity

  • Read about and discuss similarities and differences between foreign and American teenagers.
  • Develop awareness and empathy about refugee/immigrant issues.

Community Connection

  • Build relationships with refugee and immigrant students as new community members.
  • Become aware of community support services available to immigrants and refugees.

Preparation

  • Readings and films that raise and explain refugee/immigrant issues.
  • Discussion of coursework.
  • Planning special projects.
  • Researching on the Internet.
  • Interviewing ESL students.
  • Developing teaching materials.

Reflection

  • Ongoing journal responses.
  • Final paper on self-selected topic.
  • Classroom discussions.
  • Essential reflection while in service in ESL center.

Celebration

  • End of term party.