I’ve recently learned from Susan Wetenkamp-Brandt about a top-notch resource to help English Language Learners prepare for the newly-revised U.S. Citizenship test.
It’s a step-by-step online program to study for the new test. Audio support is provided for all the text, and it include practice questions. It’s available for anyone to use as a “guest” — you just can’t register, log-in and save your work unless you’re a Minnesota resident working with the Minnesota Literacy Council.
Although the content is hosted on the Minnesota Literacy Council’s online learning site, the citizenship course was funded by the St. Paul Community Literacy Consortium (SPCLC) (of which MLC is a member) The primary author is SPCLC’s citizenship teacher, Ron Mazurowski. He wrote the content and Susan put it online and did the media work (audio, video, images).
I’ve added the site to he Best Websites For Learning About Civic Participation & Citizenship.
Dear Larry,
I saw a film about the Hmong community in California (I think). It’s called “Gran Torino”, and it was directed by Clint Eastwood (who also stars in the film). Maybe you’ve seen it already, but I thought of you and your students when I saw it.
Best,
Mona
This is a great resource for ELLs. As a reading teacher, one component that I always check is the “listen” capabilities. Be sure that you check these on each site before you use it intending that students will be able to listen. One question that I have that I don’t know how to answer is what will happen if 20 people try to listen at once. I wonder about that after experience what has happened when an entire class of 20 attempts to access one website. Any ideas?