Materials from CATESOL 2014 State Conference

The 2014 CATESOL State Conference had many great workshops including:

1.  Using an interactive CCR (College and Career Readiness) approach in the classroom. 

CATESOL 2014: Adult Level Workshop Transferable Skills, Interactive Activities & the CCR

CATESOL 2014: Adult Level Workshop Transferable Skills, Interactive Activities & the CCR (handout)

 

Donna Price and Rona Magy put on this workshop.  You can see more of their work here.

FYI to those who don't know:  CCR and Common Core are not just for kids. 

Here is the link to the new College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Ed.

 

2.  "Stepping Down" - a quick fix Hollywood approach to get an American accent.

 

Ellen Lange explained the modifications she uses with David Alan Stern's "Breaking the Accent Barrier" method.   It can a bit awkward for the teacher but very helpful for the learner.

 

You can see David Alan Stern in action here:

 

 

 

3.  Encouraging Adult English Learners to Help Children Become Bilingual.

 

Juliane Rosner and Marsha Chan (the Pronunciation Doctor) explained the value of framing bilingualism as an asset rather than a deficit.  They walked us through a classroom project in which Adult Learner parents help their kids write about their lives in both English and their home language, using sentence frames.

4.  Top Policy Issues for California ESL

Lots of important stuff from four Community College folks, including Leigh Anne Shaw, who is on the Steering Committee for ACCEL, our Regional Consortia.  The four urged everyone to mobilize. 

*  Leigh Anne Shaw.  CAI = Common Assessment Initiative.  CAI and AB86 are not talking to each other. Discuss assessment with your department and develop values and principles of assessment. Go to cccassess.org and give feedback on competencies for ESL. The deadline is November 14. Speak up at your local AB 86 discussions about the need for AB86 to be in the CAI discussion.
*  Lane Igoudin.  Models for Collaboration between ESL and English.
*  Kathy Wada.  She explained the difference between Data Mart (the chocolate chip cookie) and Scorecard (chocolate cake).    The Accountability Scorecard for the California Community Colleges.
* Susan Gaer.  AB86 and you.  Susan carried the message:  GET INVOLVED!
* Nancy Sander.  "Keep the focus on 2nd language acquisition.  Work with Institutional Research to track ESL Students in General Ed classes."
 

 

5.  Dr. Francisco Jimenez spoke as plenary speaker on Friday.  He also gave a workshop on Saturday titled "The Discovery of Self, Purpose, and Place through Creative Writing."

 

Francisco is the Fay Boyle Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Santa Clara University.

 

This description from Castro Valley Adult School says it all:

 

  Perhaps the highlight was a special session with Dr. Francisco Jimenez. As the son of migrant worker parents, he worked in California fields picking grapes, living in camps and missing lots of school. He spoke about the kindness of teachers who spent extra time with him and encouraged his talent in writing by introducing him to literature. He grew up to march for justice with Cesar Chavez, write 4 books about his life and become a respected faculty member at Santa Clara University. He says, "The most important quality to be a good teacher is to love your students." There's a lot of love between our students and teachers here at CVACE, so we think he is pretty spot on. http://www.scu.edu/cas/modernlanguages/facultystaff/jimenezhomepage.cfm

 

 These four books tell his life story and are available in many translations.


After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through.So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University professor Francisco Jim�nez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the border with his family in 1947. "The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jim�nez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants.These independent but intertwined stories follow the family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots--and back agai--over a number of years. As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and back-breaking work, the family endures.





At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice. How they sustain their hope, their good-heartedness, and tenacity is revealed in this moving, Pura Belpré Honor-winning sequel to The Circuit. Without bitterness or sentimentality, Francisco Jiménez finishes telling the story of his youth.

From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education.
     During his college years, the very family solidarity that allowed Francisco to survive as a child is tested. Not only must he leave his family behind when he goes to Santa Clara University, but while Francisco is there, his father abandons the family and returns to Mexico. This is the story of how Francisco coped with poverty, with his guilt over leaving his family financially strapped, with his self-doubt about succeeding academically, and with separation. Once again his telling is honest, true, and inspiring.



 

 

This is his newest book and comes out soon.