ERIC Number: ED442301
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1997
Pages: 25
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Letters from Home: An Exhibit-Building Project for the ESL Classroom.
National Postal Museum, Washington, DC. Education Dept.
This curriculum is designed to be a flexible enrichment project for adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) education by harnessing the dynamic power of letters for language learning purposes. The goals of the project are to help teachers assisting students in developing communication skills, encourage social interaction as a means of building language skills, increase cultural awareness among students, identify the role letters play in maintaining ties between family members, and teach students how to create and display an in-class exhibition of personal letters. Each of the activities explores the power and significance of family letters. Students will examine the writings of immigrant families from the past and compare them to their own personal experience and correspondence. The class may share the experience with each other and the community by creating an exhibit that interprets the meaning of family letters. The project encourages adult ESL students to reflect on their shared experiences as immigrants and motivates them to continue building their English language skills. The project is designed to take up to eight sessions, which include the following topics: the value of letters, how letters bind families, translating and sharing letters, and the mechanics of beginning the exhibit-building process, discovering themes, labeling and mounting letters, and publicizing the exhibit and evaluating the experience. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (KFT)
Descriptors: Active Learning, Adult Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Classroom Techniques, Cultural Awareness, English (Second Language), Learner Controlled Instruction, Lesson Plans, Letters (Correspondence), Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning, Student Motivation, Student Writing Models, Teaching Methods, Writing Instruction
National Postal Museum, Education Department, 2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., Washington, DC 20560-0570 (free).
Publication Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Postal Museum, Washington, DC. Education Dept.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Project funded in part by the Education Outreach Fund, Smithsonian Institution.