LEARN Minutes: Harper College, March 18, 2014
Agenda
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Introductions
Margaret McGowan from the Adult Education Department
will give an overview of Harper College’s ESL Resources
Discuss Updating the LEARN Website
Discuss Updating our Recommended Resources
Investigate Grant Opportunities
Follow up on Citizenship Corners
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Attendance
1. Esther Chase (Outreach Librarian at Berwyn Library and Board President at Literacy
Volunteers of Western Cook County)
2. Janet Cole (Downers Grove Library) comes to meetings for good ideas on what other
libraries are doing and for ideas for purchases.
3. Beth Cusack (Glen Ellyn Library). Their conversation group is doing better than it was
with seven in attendance at most. They are working with People’s Resource Center at a
church where a former College of DuPage teacher is giving instruction.
4. Jean Demas (Lisle Library) has been the adult literacy librarian for 22 years. They have
an ESL collection, 2 computers, and free classes on Tuesdays and Saturday nights. She
started LEARN about 10 years ago with a few libraries and the goal of creating
networking opportunities for librarians who handle ESL.
5. Kathy Dowd (Harper College). The Reading Room offers support to GED classes and
non-native speakers and families.
6. Barbara Drai (Helen Plum Library) manages the ELL (English Language Learners)
collection. Not everyone knows what ELL means, so ESL is used on the website. They
have a decent budget and some money from the Rotary Club. The library also has a
couple rooms for tutoring. They used to help with Literacy Du Page tutor training, but
due to remodeling, they are no longer doing this. The library also has and ESL computer
which includes the programs Pronunciation Power, Tense Buster, Oxford Picture
Dictionary, etc.
7. Sheila Herpolsheimer is an outreach coordinator who has created a local resource list of
ESL classes/conversation groups in the Wheaton, Warrenville, and West Chicago area.
The list currently appears on the LEARN website just below the calendar, though we are
looking for a better spot to put it. Sheilas’ goal is to make sure the various ESL programs
complement one other while avoiding overlaps. She is a volunteer.
8. Tania Hess (Plainfield Public Library)
9. Omar Kushad (Carol Stream Library) is taking over the conversation group at their
library.
10. Carol Larsen (New Readers Press) came with her husband Richard to talk about how the
changes to the U.S. N 400 citizenship form will affect new citizenship materials being
published and what old materials are still usable.
11. Margie McGowan (Harper College) is an ESL NNL (Non-native Language) Bilingual
Specialist who works in Adult Educational Development.
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12. Joel Meisenheimer (Woodridge Library) manages the ESL collection and is looking for
ideas on what materials to purchase.
13. Maryanna Milton (People’s Resource Center) is the director of Adult Literacy at
People’s Resource Center.
14. Kathy Moran (Literacy Volunteers of Western Cook County) is the program coordinator
at LVWCC which has volunteer tutors who provide one-on-one instruction for people
below a ninth grade level.
15. Joe Popowitch (Indian Prairie Library) handles the Life Skills collection at Indian Prairie
Library. He coordinates communication among LEARN members and maintains the
LEARN website.
16. Phil Spirito (Indian Trails Library). Their library offers three different levels of classes
twice a week, and they hope to increase the number of classes in June. They are trying
not to overlap with other ESL programs and want to see how best to serve.
17. Soon Har Tan (Itasca Community Library)
18. Sylvia Thompson (Warrenville Library) plans to expand outreach and programs.
Warrenville currently has limited ESL resources, and Sylvia is looking for
recommendations for purchases.
19. Merril Tlusty (Bloomingdale Library) does a small part of the ESL ordering for her
library. They recently received a state grant for ESL materials, and because DVDS are
the weakest part of the collection, Merril would like to know the best DVDs libraries
have purchased in the past 5 years.
20. Tina Viglucci (Gail Borden Library). One of Garil Borden’s partners is The Literacy
Connection which has offices in the library and offers one-on-one tutoring and Go
Bilingual classes which are drop-in and allow people to learn either Spanish or English.
21. Anna Yackle (Indian Trails Library) is the Head of Branch and Outreach Services. They
serve a large immigrant population. Many of their members come to Harper College for
ESL needs.
22. Katalin Zsupan (Arlington Heights Library) is the ESL supervisor, buys materials, and
oversees her own ESL program. She hosted a LEARN meeting on Oct. 11, 2011.
Margie McGowan’s Overview of Harper College’s ESL Instruction
Harper College’s AED (Adult Educational Development) and Literacy staff teach qualifying
non-native literacy and GED through grant funded programming. This program is separate from
the academic ESL classes which are on campus and require tuition. To qualify for the ESL
classes on the main campus, students must have a minimum of 12 years education. At the Harper
College Northeast location, they offer five levels of non-native literacy instruction to adult
students. To qualify students must test at a below an 8th grade reading level.
Free child care is provided to children of the adult non-native students. This care includes
mentors to help the children with their homework.
The students are mostly Hispanic, but they are seeing an increasing number of people from
Baghdad who speak Arabic. This means that many adult learners need to learn a different
alphabet.
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Harper is developing a curriculum for computer classes starting with the basics, like how to use a
mouse. This is important because the GED test is online, so students will need some computer
skills to take the test. The core text they use is Ventures from Cambridge University Press, but
they also use supplementary learning materials. Ventures Basic is the Level 1 course, Ventures 1
is the Level 2 course, etc. There are five levels.
Question: How are the students placed into a level?
Answer: When people ask about the NNL program, they fill out a form and complete an
assessment to determine their level of education. This would determine if they would be in the
paid academic class which is a 16-week semester (three credit hours) or if they would be in the
free NNL class. The pretest is called CASAS or Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment
Systems to determine the level of class. There is also a posttest, and students do not
automatically advance.
The department has loaned some dinosaur kits on loan from the Field Museum which are used
for both the kids and adult students. The kits are used to generate conversation. Last time the kit
was from Latin America, so the students were able to relate to it.
Harper College partners with Prospect Heights Library and Indian Trails Library. Prospect
brings a read and listen program which builds conversation. (Kathy Dowd).
Question: What is the biggest nonacademic support students need?
Answer: In Mexico, the church and school are the main connection for people to social services,
so it is natural for them to ask at Harper College. People need lawyers to help with traffic tickets.
They need to know how to pay hospital bills. The staff tries to make referrals to the appropriate
social services.
Harper also teaches citizenship classes on Saturday mornings at the Palatine Opportunity Center
(POC) at Rand and Dundee roads. POC is very busy with many classes (dance classes, Zumba,
etc.). At that location, there are more people from China and India. At the Harper College
Northeast location, there are more Polish and Mexican people. Both locations have a fair amount
of Ukrainians. The citizenship classes prepare students for the exam.
Phil Spirito: Indian Trails Library has been providing some citizenship assistance. HIAS, which
offers citizenship assistance, is coming to do a presentation and then offer one-on-one sessions.
Many students at Harper apply for deferred action so they can stay in the country for two years
and can get a license and work. HIAS is meeting with Harper College, too.
Katalin (Arlington Heights Library) spoke on behalf of Pat Barch who could not attend the
meeting. Schaumburg has classes at its main library and at the Hanover Park Library. Twice a
year they have sessions where immigrants are sworn in as new citizens.
At Harper College students need to complete level two English before they can take the
citizenship class and complete the citizenship test.
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Kathy Dowd at Harper College Northeast received grant funding from the Harper Foundation for
alternative ways to read a book. The money was used to purchase Nooks to encourage reading.
Students will pick up the Nooks and get engaged in reading more than they would with a regular
book. Students are given a brief training on how to use the tablets (on the spot).
Kathy mentioned the book Listening to Learn: Audiobooks Supporting Literacy. People want to
hear what a language sounds like, so Harper has kits with print books accompanied by the book
on CD by Oxford University Press. Harper College Northeast has a fairly extensive collection of
materials for kids for a facility of its size. The kits are non-circulating.
Harper offers most materials in Spanish because they want students to learn English. If students
have five or fewer years of education in Spanish, they really do not have the academic
background that would make it worthwhile to take a test like the GED in Spanish. Students
might as well keep learning English and do the GED in English.
Harper also offers “Bridge to Career” programs, like health careers. These classes are also free.
Question: How do you market your program?
Answer: It is mostly word of mouth. There is also a spring open house, distribution of print
fliers, and brochures/fliers are also emailed.
Homework help is offered in the evenings from college age students who attend Harper. It is
good for the young kids to see examples of young men and women.
Paty Loyola is the assessment and resource specialist who administers the CASAS test which is
required for the program to get funding from the state. She works closely with publishers to
choose the core books for students.
Phil Spirito: Indian Trails Library is planning to do basic testing, but so far the library has just
been asking basic questions: Where are you from? Where do you live? The classes are very
open. They are getting 30 people for their intermediate classes and 20 for the advanced, but there
are not many beginners.
Most of Harper’s students are low beginning to intermediate. They have a hard time filling the
very basic levels. In the past, Harper had students who had very recently moved here. Today, the
students have been here for several years, like from 2005-2008, with the newest ones having
been here for three years.
Phil Spirito: Indian Trails Library is seeing older students (50+), and only recently has gotten
students in their 30s and 40s. Maybe the younger people are working or in more academic
programs. Harper is getting more students from the Middle East and not just Hispanic learners.
The students at Harper aged 40+ are not comfortable sharing a class with the 19-20 year olds.
Because of smart phones, these older students can use technology. However, they are not as good
with regular computers. Students are more willing to continue if there is a sense of community in
class. So, recently Harper divided the class into two classes. In the seniors class, the majority
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came from Ukraine/Russia and are 65+. There is really good attendance. It includes Soviet Jews
from Palestine who basically stay in the class until they die. Harper also had a class which was
half Hispanic and half Russian speakers. The students have more fun in classes with mixed
background, but older people have hearing and health problems, so that is why they separated the
seniors from the college age kids.
Phil Spirito: Indian Trails Library started offering classes because they have a librarian with a
background in teaching ESL. He teaches three different 90-minute classes on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. Indian Trails might not have done this for another year, but they were able to shift
desk time and make it happen. The librarian conducting the classes does not have a background
in Education or any certification. What is a successful ESL teacher? Are we offering the best
possible class? How do we gage?
Kathy Moran (Literacy Volunteers of Western Cook County): Testing is a good way to gage the
success of the program. LVWCC offers tutors to libraries for classes. Indian Trails has Read to
Learn classes.
Tania Hess (Plainfield Library): To be successful, you need to culturally connect with people.
Tania is constantly talking to people in the community to get people into the ESL classes, like
recently when she was at a preschool that had an event for parents. One trick she uses is to ask
people if they want to be a volunteer or a student. More people want to volunteer, and it is a way
of getting them to come.
At Plainfield, Tania only teaches one class because she has retired teachers to teach. In addition,
she uses volunteers and assistant volunteers to help lower learners when it is a mixed level class.
The printed materials she uses are mostly copies from textbooks because people are not always
there every week, so it doesn’t help to have a book. Stories Plus (CD in book) is one source she
uses. They also offer tutors, social support, and networking. They celebrate birthday club once a
month. Word of mouth is a good way to advertise.
ALRC (Adult Learning Resource Center) in Arlington Heights offers certification for ESL
teachers.
Illinois TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference in Lisle has
valuable information. It includes how to utilize technology, like how to make a QR code and
other clever techniques.
The 23rd Annual On the Road to Literacy Conference sponsored by Literacy Volunteers of
Illinois is Saturday, April 12, 2014 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education,
Performing Arts and Social Work Building, 1040 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607.
Admission is $20, and there are many good workshops.
Pearson put out a revised book for the new GED. The GED test has extended time for the math
portion of the test because students are not finishing.
Question: Can anyone recommend a publisher for the new GED in Spanish?
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Updating the LEARN Website
The LEARN website at www.adultslearnenglish.org was recently redesigned. What do people
think about the new design?
It would be helpful if the tabs that have the date for the blog entries include the year so that
people do not confuse older entries with current ones. Also, older entries that are no longer
relevant should be deleted.
The Calendar of Events link would be more noticeable in the top right corner.
Some organizations like the College of DuPage send lists of upcoming classes. Sheila
Herpolsheimer is an outreach coordinator who compiles a list of classes for the Wheaton,
Warrenville, and West Chicago area and it covers a two month time span. There was a link on
the homepage to this list right under the Calendar of Events, but perhaps it is not the best place
for this. People might think that LEARN only covers that small area. Should there be a separate
page for lists like this, or would the calendar supersede the need for lists? Some people felt that
the lists might still be helpful.
Searchable Site for ESL Classes, Tutors, and Conversation Groups
Maryanna Milton frequently has to refer people to other organizations that teach English when
the students are out of the service area of People’s Resource Center. She feels it would be helpful
to have a search site where people could search for local classes, conversation groups, and tutors.
In researching the feasibility of such a site, she found a few examples in other states. In addition,
Maryanna found that the Illinois Adult Learning Hotline can still be called for such information,
and it has a website http://www.thecenterweb.org/alrc/hotline/index.html. However, it is not a
searchable site, but rather users fill out and submit a request and will receive a list of nearby
classes hours later (in other words, someone on the other end has to physically look up these
classes and send a response). Furthermore, the list only includes state funded programs, so it
might miss some smaller local resources.
Would it be feasible for LEARN to create a searchable site? Would you use such a site if it did
exist? Sheila Herpolsheimer has created a survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/55J6HKC
to ask these questions. I will email the survey to the LEARN members. It also includes the
search sites Maryanna found which are located in other states so that we can get an idea of what
our site might look like. The site would have to have accurate information and thus be updated
constantly. Indian Prairie Library has many volunteers, and it might be possible to have people
work on this every week.
One of the existing search site examples is very detailed and even asks users if they need child
care to be provided. However, if people are too specific on criteria, the search will yield no
results. It might be best if users are offered a basic search first, and then are given a more
advanced search to narrow the results.
Updating Recommended Resources
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In 2010, LEARN hosted an ESL workshop and created a list of recommended resources. The
current list is located on the website at http://www.adultslearnenglish.org/?page_id=94. There
are other recommended lists from the American Library Association, Literacy DuPage, and
Literacy Volunteers of Western Cook County. Jean Demas of Lisle pointed out that our list is an
important tool, and it needs to be updated. Should we form a committee to update the list?
Would everyone be able to make a few suggestions? Currently, the list is broken into categories
including grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.
Question: How would we determine which resources to recommend?
Answers:
 Circulation statistics would work, but it does not take into account resources used inhouse and not checked out (something which tutors sometimes do). Some libraries take
all the books left on tables and carts and have them checked in to create in-house use
statistics.
 One suggestion was to see what resources the local tutoring groups use. As mentioned,
we already have recommended titles from a few of the groups.
 Carol Larsen also offered to print a list of the most purchased New Readers Press
materials.
 Survey individual tutors. What kinds of materials do they use? What kinds of questions
do people ask?
 What don’t people like? (e.g. Not having the answers in the back. Does it make a
difference if there is a CD? Do they like a series with different levels?)
We will try to coordinate the updating of the recommended resources list through email.
Grant Opportunities
Many grants are available through the Illinois Secretary of State at
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/grants/
Identifying grants that many libraries could use together has long been a goal of LEARN
members. One suggestion would be to get a grant for networked software.
It might be helpful if we included on the LEARN website a list of links to grants related to ESL
and literacy.
For some grants, libraries might be in competition with some of the tutoring organizations for
funding. Would it be possible to create a grant that would partner tutoring organizations with
libraries? Perhaps the tutoring organizations and libraries could apply for a grant jointly.
Esther Chase at Berwyn Library pointed out that the American Dream Starts @ Your Library
grant (which Berwyn was awarded in the past) would not create competition among libraries
because two adjacent libraries could potentially receive money if they happened to show the
greatest need and vision for the funds.
Kathy Dowd at Harper College has recently received an ILEAD U grant.
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Follow Up on Citizenship Corners
Indian Prairie Library was awarded $1,000 for the “Another Opportunity for Back 2 Books”
grant. The money will be used to purchase materials for a citizenship corner. In addition, the
USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) will send two representatives to do
a presentation which will include a mock interview. World Relief will send attorneys on another
day to give free one-hour legal consultations.
Indian Prairie Library hosted two meetings on citizenship corners in 2013. One was more
informational on what a citizenship corner is, and the other gave a little more on how to create
one. Both presentations were done by ICIRR (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights). The handouts from the meetings are on the website at
http://www.adultslearnenglish.org/?page_id=896. In addition, there is a link to the Los Angeles
Library site about citizenship corners at http://www.lapl.org/citizenship.
Question: Is it better to put the citizenship corner in a high traffic area so it gets noticed, or in a
private area so that people might feel more comfortable?
Question: If you are setting up a citizenship corner at a remote site, how do you get people to
use the resources?
Tina Viglucci pointed out that you have to be careful with what you can do for people. You
cannot help them fill out the forms. It is very similar to questions about taxes.
In conjunction with having a citizenship corner, libraries can bring in other organizations to do
workshops. The USCIS is willing to come anytime to talk to libraries. Amy Stern is the contact
at Amy.G.Stern@uscis.dhs.gov.
Maryanna Milton recommended the following citizenship sites:
USCIS website of study materials, flash cards, resources, links:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.749cabd81f5ffc8fba713d10526e0aa0/?vgnextoi
d=b51777f48e73a210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4982df6bdd42a210Vg
nVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD
Civics/US History and government
http://americanhistory.si.edu/citizenship/
Reading question practice:
http://www.proliteracyednet.org/articles.asp?mcid=1&cid=13&rid=331
Dictation/writing practice:
http://www.proliteracyednet.org/articles.asp?mcid=1&cid=13&rid=329
Tutorials for instructors:
www.thecenterweb.org/alrc/citizenship-tutorial.html
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Carol Garcia is part of a Citizenship Educators Interest Group through the ALRC:
The Citizenship Educators Interest Group is open to all those involved in citizenship education
including teachers, tutors, volunteers, and administrators. The group builds networks among
citizenship educators and the staff at USCIS Chicago Field Office in order to enhance
professional practice and keep educators current in this constantly changing arena. For further
information contact Carol Garcia, cgarcia@cntrmail.org.
Carol Larsen summarized how the changes to the citizenship application form will affect the
citizenship books. It will only affect books that talk about the form. This would include the
Ready for the Interview book and accompanying teacher’s guide.
Someone related a story where a woman taking the oath of citizenship was asked if she
understood it. The oath is fairly long, and she responded honestly that she did not understand it,
and she was not made a citizen. Another person was asked during the interview if he would go to
war for the U.S., and he said that he would not, so he did not pass the interview.
Miscellaneous
Katalin at Arlington Heights Library recommended the database Pronunciator. She said that she
knows the creator and feels it is better than Mango Languages. The contact information is Robert
Savage, MLS at robert.savage@pronunciator.com or (800) 328-1776. Aurora Library also has
Pronunciator.
Next Meeting
Glen Ellyn Library at a date to be determined (sometime in the fall).
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