Blogs

Purpose:  This activity can be used as a warm-up, to get students thinking about a topic, as a comprehension check, or as a problem-solving activity. It also asks students to use English to think, speak, read, listen and write.

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Materials Needed:  Create handout with a notes chart for learners to complete, if desired (description in the procedure below); choose question that students will work with, based on your topic.

Procedure:

If you have ever learned a new language or traveled in a foreign country, you have an idea of how stressful and nerve-wracking it can be for English language learners in the classroom. When people experience stress around learning, it creates what is called the “affective filter”. The affective filter is an emotional response that can impede the process of learning.

Jane Dorn is an English as a Second Language classroom volunteer in Saint Michael. She’s been volunteering for nearly six years and has worked in beginning through advanced levels. She loves seeing her students’ passion for learning, and, as a retired special education teacher, she loves that she is still able to affect so many lives through teaching. “While I was still working, I read for years about the need for volunteers in the Buffalo Hanover Montrose Community Education Bulletins.

My name is Kehinde Winful, and I am a Community Outreach Intern with the Minnesota Literacy Council this summer.

Last week I went to an outreach event at a local elementary school to share information about free classes for adults. After the event I began thinking of ways in which we can better reach and share information about classes with adults who do not speak English. This blog is a reflection of that thought process. It ends by sharing how volunteers can help us reach prospective, non-English speaking students.