Change Agent: Info and Call for Student Writing

The Change Agent is a social justice newspaper published twice a year in March and September. The Change Agent provides cutting edge resources for teaching social issues, powerful student writing that inspires discussion, and many ready-to-use lesson plans – all oriented toward a multi-level audience.

The Change Agent is available online or in print. Subscribers who elect to include the online option will receive full access to all of the back issues as well as issue extras and a growing collection of audio articles.

The new Call for Articles is posted and the topic is food!
Food – it doesn’t just nourish us, it comforts us, reinforces cultural and religious practices, and reminds us of home. It also brings up global and environmental questions, and invites us to think about our health (as consumers) and the health of those who farmed or processed our food. Read the complete Call for Articles for writing prompts and submission details.

Suggested length is 200-1200 words. All articles must be received by May 5th, 2014. A $50 stipend will be paid to each adult education student whose work is accepted for publication. Please submit illustrations, cartoons, and graphics on this theme too!

Issue 38: Immigration Immigration is a hot button topic in the United States, and this issue of The Change Agent explores it in a way that is accessible, engaging, and humanizing. Immigrants share inspiring, courageous, and sometimes heartbreaking stories of their journeys to the U.S. Non-immigrants provide their perspective as people in “receiving” communities, who are richly affected by new waves of immigrants. Political refugees, economic refugees, and immigrants “following their heart” detail what “pushed” and what “pulled” them to come to the U.S. Heartfelt revelations of parents and children who get separated due to migration or deportation will resonate with readers, as will the stories of parents raising bi-cultural children. Articles, cartoons, charts and graphs explore U.S. immigration policy, citizenship statistics, the rise of immigrant entrepreneurs, and current global migration patterns. We also explore micro and macro issues related to immigrants in the workplace. Home health aides, a meat skinner, a contractor, a farmworker, and many others write about the challenges and opportunities of being immigrant workers. Analytical articles and side bars on everything from labor law to free trade policies provide a larger context. As always, The Change Agent keeps it real for the reader by leading with first person stories written by adult learners. And we keep it easy for the adult education teacher by providing background pieces and interesting facts that extend students’ learning. Lesson plans and discussion questions – many of which intentionally align with the College and Career Readiness standards – give teachers classroom-ready material that will engage students and provide an important forum for critical thinking, sharing, and achieving understanding across diverse experiences.

Renew by March 1st to get the lowest price! Make sure that your subscription is up to date so that you receive the Immigration issue when it gets sent out in March. Renewal notices have mailed, but you can always renew online or by calling 617-482-9485. Renew by March 1st before rates increase to take advantage of current low prices.

New Resource from KQED: Living in the US - Is it Good for our Health?

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

ESL/Post Secondary Educator Resources – Health Education

Mother's Day Stories

Stories by ESL, GED, and Transition students who are mothers:  http://mothersday.worlded.org.

Winners are posted on the site.

Enter contest in a future year.

ESL Student Council

Teacher Lisa Dolehide presented a workshop on ESL Student Councils at the State CCAE Conference in Sacramento April 19th and 20th, 2013.  Here is her handout:

ESL Student Councils

Hit the "read more" link to see the handout.

Cultivating Student Voice & Advocacy

CCAE State Conference April 19 and 20, 2013.
Workshop:  ESL Student Councils and Cultivating Student Voice and Advocacy
                      by Lisa Dolehide and Cynthia Eagleton

This is the handout for the Student Voice and Advocacy portion:

(Lisa's information about ESL Student Councils will be in a separate post)


Cultivating Student Voice and  Advocacy

(hit the "read more" link to see the full handout)