Expanded Adult ESOL Program Helps Students Connect

Expanded Adult ESOL Program Helps Students Connect

Immigrant parents who are not fluent in English face a double challenge when it comes to helping their children in school. They not only have to learn to navigate a new language, but also a new institution – the way public schools work in this country is often quite different than what they might be used to.

That’s one reason why The Welcome Project decided to offer a new class this fall, “Helping Your Children in School.” The class is part of an expanding number of classes overall, with special topics focused on helping immigrant families become more engaged in the community.

Russell Carlock, who is teaching the new class, says the goal of the class is to “integrate learning English with helping parents get involved with school.”

His class, which meets two mornings a week with childcare for pre-school children, uses project-based learning to help local parents learn English at an intermediate level within the context of learning about American schools.

Russell’s English class is one of seven ESOL classes The Welcome Project is offering this fall, in three locations – The Mystic Activity Center, The Elizabeth Peabody House, and the Arthur D. Healey School. Partnerships with the Elizabeth Peabody House and the Healey have enabled our ESOL program to grow – 140 students registered for classes this fall, up from 80 only 2 years ago.

The “Helping Your Children in School” course is one example of new thematic English Courses the Welcome Project now offers. Another 16-week module focuses on "Health, Access and the Somerville Community" in partnership with Shape Up Somerville and the Somerville Community Corporation.

"Our mission is to facilitate the involvement of immigrants in the civic life of the city," said Warren Goldstein-Gelb, the Welcome Project's director. "These topic based classes help students get connected to important issues and topics ranging from schools to health."

“Helping Your Children in School” covers many topics—from lessons on the American grading scale to instructions on how to decipher report cards. Students in the class speak a range of languages and hail from countries around the world—Egypt, Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, Japan—but they all have a common objective: to learn English and “get involved in their kids’ lives at school.”

At the start of the school year, Russell, a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Education, asked each of the students to develop an Independent Learning Project in which they would come up with “one thing they want to do in their life in English,” like writing a letter to a teacher or going to school for a meeting with a guidance counselor. Throughout the semester they will learn new vocabulary and build the confidence in the English language they need to accomplish their Independent Learning Project goals.

Students practice speaking in skits and in class scenarios that reflect the real life situations they might encounter and then use their skills in practical exercises. This month, for example, the students learned how to obtain free tutoring services for their kids. Students in the class have children ranging from 2 months to 17 years old. This broad spectrum of age groups creates a range of needs. As of right now, the classes are focused on helping parents with students at the high school level. But the Welcome Project hopes to expand these classes in the coming months to include lessons specifically aimed at parents with younger children.

Russell Carlock explains that he hopes to cover themes like “raising a bilingual child and access to health services for young children.”

He also hopes to team up with another organization in Somerville that teaches parents how to read books with their young children.

The Welcome Project’s new ESOL classes this fall provide local immigrant families with the real life skills, vocabulary and confidence they need to become involved in their community. The Welcome Project is rethinking traditional English language lessons to meet the everyday needs of immigrant parents and help them successfully navigate complex new systems in a foreign language.