Living in the United States: Is It Good for Our Health?
By Maxine Einhorn, KQED Education
KQED Education offers a wealth of media-
rich resources for ESL educators at www.kqed.org/esl.
Among these resources, we offer a health education curriculum based on a
documentary called Unnatural Causes.
The modules in the health curriculum (www.kqed.org/healtheducation) are designed for ESL teachers in colleges and adult schools and target intermediate to high-level ESL students, but can be adapted for beginners by using transcripts and replaying the clips.
(Note from Cyn: Please go to the kqed links for active links for everything else!)
Two sample lessons draw on what is
called the Latino Paradox - immigrants arriving in the United States tend
to be healthier than the average American, but as they remain in the country,
their health declines. In the documentary the narrator introduces this clip
from Arriving
Healthy:
“Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled
masses…,” the poem goes. Today, many new immigrants to the U.S. are still poor,
and tired. But they’re certainly not sick. In fact, they may be healthier than
the rest of us.
It seems immigrant Latinos on arrival have the best health in the country.
They have the lowest death rates, incidence of heart disease, psychiatric
illness, and other serious conditions, despite lower income and social
marginalization, their health is actually better than the wealthiest segments
of America. Living in the
US is not good for their health. Why is this?
The two lesson plans use short video clips to explore
these issues drawing upon students’ experiences.
Lesson Plans
- Living
in the United States: Is It Good for Our Health? (PDF)
- This
Place Matters: The Impact of Neighborhood on Health (PDF)
Video clips
- Arriving
Healthy
- Latino Paradox
Click on transcripts tab for English and Spanish transcripts.
Resources
- Download the whole Language 911 — A Health Literacy Curriculum
April 12-23
