Getting There

Moving on Up...To Their Strong Side: Transitioning Adult ESL Learners to Academic and Post-Secondary Programs

by Mary Sharp-Aparisi

One evening in a multi-level ESL (English as a Second Language) class for adults, I introduced a lesson based on workbooks presenting skills for success in GED (General Educational Development) classes and on GED exams. The workbooks had been supplied by Daphine Johnson, Adult Education Specialist with the department I also serve, The San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) Adult and Community Education Department. The titles were Top 50 Skills for GED Success (Contemporary) and Top 50 Math Skills for GED Success (Contemporary).

Examining the thick workbooks, the adult ESL students asked, “Teacher, do you think we can understand this?” “Yes,” I answered with a smile, “I think you can.” In the weeks that followed, the objectives on our blackboard included gaining skills and concepts such as reading and writing with awareness of the main idea and supporting details and appreciating the application of Math to a better understanding of discount and sales tax.

As confidence in their understanding grew, GED skills became the adult students’ favorite part of our ESL lessons. Attendance at our classes was increasing thanks to the community outreach of SAISD Adult Education Supervisor Genoveva Bonugli and SAISD Adult Education Specialist James Bias. The growing number of adult ESL students in the classes I was teaching created an ever-expanding pool of practical experience that students shared with one another to enrich our lessons.

The professional development workshops I attend provide ideas and materials that meet the adult students’ needs for visual aids and graphic organizers to help them approach new concepts with confidence. Popular graphic organizers are contributed by Sandra Schneider, Supervisor I of Adult Education, Adult Education Department, ESC, Region 20. The concepts of the main idea and supporting details are introduced by a drawing of a many-layered sub sandwich with spaces that invite us to fill in our ideas; the same concepts are presented as we study an ice cream cone packed with a tasty-looking main idea topping and several scoops of supporting details to be filled in, all in a conclusion crunchy cone. Creative ideas are stimulated by these graphic organizers with delicatessen flair, and the light-hearted approach invites adult students to share their ideas with confidence.

Lessons for adult ESL students are made clearer with ideas and images related to the students’ daily lives, especially when someone who is working and hoping for further training and/or GED success shares ideas from the workplace. Perhaps the easiest way for adult ESL students to understand the concept of details that support the main idea came from a gentleman who was working in a garage. His tools were dry erase markers as he drew a car up on a rack and marked both of them “Main Idea.” He went on to draw a hydraulic lift which he marked in uppercase letters “SUPPORT YOUR IDEA!” We all applauded for this image that made the point so well!

Much of the inspiration for our progress as a class comes to us from Guadalupe Ruvalcaba, Director of The SAISD Adult and Community Education Department. As the leader of memorable staff development workshops, Guadalupe reminds us how creative and innovative we become as instructors and students when we think outside the box. This manner of thinking enables students to experience success. For all students in the Adult Education program, thinking outside the box may lead to evaluating practical situations at work and to making effective suggestions to another employee or as part of a team. The same effective approach to any situation results in progress in academic endeavors.

One evening three gentlemen came to class about an hour late, and we welcomed them. The reason for their late arrival was clear; each man wore a bright-colored golf shirt embroidered with his name and the logo of an area plant nursery. They soon learned the extent to which their presence in our class increased our interest in math skills to prepare us for GED class. As we considered the situations that are part of the routine in the operation of a plant nursery, every bag of mulch, every quantity of fertilizer, every order of trees kept us focused on math skills and the way these skills are different in our lives. As we left class with a sense of accomplishment and ability to make effective decisions, we had experienced an empowering moment that Guadalupe describes as “launch” (The Flippen Group). In staff development workshops created by The SAISD Adult Education Department, we as instructors are reminded that the brain internalizes knowledge that is related to the learner’s existence and needs. This is the nature of LAUNCH, as students and instructor reflect upon the ways in which the concepts and skills we have worked with will improve our ability to cope with our daily existence. Having experienced LAUNCH, all adult students in our class begin sharing details of their lives and work as we practice math and language skills to prepare for a GED class and to realize all our personal goals.

I had been teaching adult ESL students for two years when I was assigned to The Bob and Jeanne Billa Community Family Resource and Learning Center (CFRLC). The dynamic learning environment for adult students is collaboration between The City of San Antonio Department of Community Initiatives and The SAISD Adult Education Department. Thanks to the dedicated work of Billa CFRLC Program Coordinator Richard Sowa, the teachers’ resource room offers variety and enrichment in textbooks and workbooks for ESL, ESL Civics, Citizenship, GED Preparation and GED. As adult ESL students see their classmates make the transition to GED classes, they believe in their own potential for success.

Adult students served by The SAISD have been encouraged and motivated by a new program called Student Orientation. Begun in the 2006-2007 school year by Adult Education Specialist Mark Sanchez and Adult Education Supervisor Irene Ramos, Student Orientation gives students four days of achieving self-knowledge, setting their goals, planning their approach to personal success, identifying affirmative patterns in speech, behavior, and thinking, and reflecting upon each day’s exercises in building self-awareness and self-esteem. Students are prepared to reach their goals in the twelve weeks of class that follow orientation, and the commitment-building that is a vital part of orientation results in retention and advancement to academic and postsecondary programs.

The Bob and Jeanne Billa CFRLC invites representatives of San Antonio area colleges to make presentations about opportunities for adult students. Of interest to the students in our ESL class are job-related courses and ESL courses at some of the colleges. Two students, whom I call “Miss D” and “Miss L,” came to see me with the exciting news that they had been accepted for college-level ESL courses. “Teacher, it’s wonderful!” they said. “Our classes have students from so many different countries. We are learning more English every day! We look forward to taking more courses.”

Tell me about your days;
I will tell you about mine.
Study a while with me;
together we will grow strong.
We will forge a bridge
to opportunity.

Reference

The Flippen Group, Capturing Kids’ Hearts.
http://www.flippengroup.com/education/ckh.html

About the Author

Mary Sharp-Aparisi teaches for the San Antonio ISD Adult and Community Education Department and for the Bob and Jeanne Billa Community Family Resource and Learning Center. Mary is a graduate of Northwestern University and did postgraduate work at Indiana University.