Home School of Education Drake English as a Second Language (ESL) Endorsement Students Partner with Community Organizations

Drake English as a Second Language (ESL) Endorsement Students Partner with Community Organizations

Pre- and in-service teachers in the Drake School of Education’s ESL Methods courses this semester developed lesson plans and materials for use by five Des Moines area organizations:

  1. Lutheran Services of Iowa
  2. Catholic Charities
  3. Oakridge Neighborhood
  4. Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC)
  5. Trinity Las Americas Methodist Church

The lesson plans and materials will be used in adult ESL classes and constitute an in-kind contribution to the Refugee English and Acculturation Program (REAP) grant-funded project led by Lutheran Services of Iowa. Dr. Shelley Fairbairn, director of Drake’s ESL endorsement program, met with representatives from Catholic Charities, Oakridge Neighborhood, and EMBARC last fall to determine needed lesson topics. Then students in both the on-campus and off-campus sections of ESL Methods, taught by Fairbairn, Serena Parrish, and Kelsey Bentzinger, developed lesson plans designed to meet the needs of both beginning and intermediate adult English language learners. In addition, students created all materials and visual aids necessary to ensure that lessons are comprehensible and produced culminating assessments for each lesson.