Creating a Quality English program

At L&R Pallet, there has been a man of middle-age attending class since last June. He runs a saw and cuts wood. He is a respected and reliable employee. He is Karen and had been a rice farmer who spent about 10 years in the camps in Thailand, but he had had no education and could not read. In the summer, I had introduced him to an English phonics system, but because he was not understanding yet that letters were sounds, it was not making sense to him.

Despite not understanding, he kept coming to class. He was learning to make letters but was depending on others to tell him what letters to make in our class activities. And he kept on coming, not missing a class. He was learning how pages worked (where to go when we turn pages and to look in the upper left hand corner when we turned the page), learning where to write on fill-in-the-blanks and matching. So I recently took out the first pages I had given him in June with the phonics. All of a sudden he understood – a letter makes a sound. And he started reading – “This is a bird” and This is a hand”, “The girl has a bird in her hand”. He started giggling. I couldn’t give him enough pages to read.

The next time I saw him, he came to class with a big grin on his face. We read some more with new words. For the first time, with the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face, he said, “Goodbye Teacher!” One of the greatest pleasures of teaching is seeing a student undergo profound understanding- when one realizes that what has happened has changed a life. No matter how many times this happens when I teach, each time is a profound experience for me. I will never forget this student and the moment of his transition into literacy. He will never be the same and I am transformed by his experience and energized to teach more.

-Liz Holdemen, ESL Director

One of our first projects was to teach English to newly arrived refugees. Over the years, we have seen how valuable that basic assistance is. Our English program has grown and expanded in 2015. We have been so fortunate to have Liz Holdeman on our team. She is now the director of our English program as she works with our two new teachers, Erika and Maggie. Between the three of them, we are able to offer English classes five days a week in the morning, afternoon, and evening in three different locations.

#english, #esl, #learning, #programs, #refugees

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