Promoting the Success of Immigrant Students and Families

1. Promoting the Success of Immigrant Students and Families

3. Critical Question What do we need to know to promote the success of immigrant students?

4. Goals • Strengthen cultural awareness and competence • Deepen understanding of the challenges immigrant families face • Provide classroom and school-wide strategies for working with immigrant students and parents.

5. Who we are Use the polling buttons to indicate yes (check) or no (X) Were you born outside of Alberta?

6. Were you born outside of Canada?

7. Were one or more of your parents born outside of Canada?

8. Do you speak more than one language?

9. Have you traveled outside of Canada?

10. Have you lived outside of Canada?

11. Permanent Residents Admitted in 2011

12. Permanent Resident Immigrants 2012

13. Permanent Immigrant by Class

14. Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta

15. Permanent Resident Immigrants

16. What was Positive, Minus or Interesting?

17. New Immigrant Challenges

18. New Immigrant Challenges • Language and Culture • Climate • Lack of social support • Employment barriers • Debt burden • Discrimination • Benefit waiting period • Housing • Psychological trauma experienced as a result of fleeing a conflict zone

19. New Immigrant Challenges • Language and Culture • Different foods, housing, clothing • Different way of life • Different rules and expectations • Culture shock

20. What do you see ?

21. New Immigrant Challenges • Employment barriers • No recognition of credentials • No Canadian experience, poor job network • Many live in poverty, in spite of holding two jobs

22. New Immigrant Challenges • Debt burden • Refugees have to repay government loans for medical exams and travel expenses

23. New Immigrant Challenges Discrimination • There are stories of exclusionary and discriminatory practices in the workplace and community such as: • Denied jobs for lacking Canadian work experience • Devaluation of foreign credentials • Denied rental accommodations, etc.

24. New Immigrant Challenges • Benefit waiting period • 90 day wait for health care • Temporary Foreign Workers do not qualify

25. New Immigrant Challenges Housing • Primary concern for new immigrants • May be unaware of their rights as renters • Landlords may require letters confirming employment which may not be possible

26. Psychological Trauma experienced as a result of fleeing a conflict zone • Will have a major impact on both the student and his/her family and may impede a smooth transition into their new life • Will impact all aspects of student’s well being including: academics, socialization, emotional health, etc For support, CONTACT: • School guidance counsellor • District psychologist • Local Immigrant Services Agency

27. What Did you find Surprising or Interesting from the Information that was just shared?

28. New Moves: An Orientation Video For Newcomer Students http://www.settlement.org/sys/library_detail.asp?k=ELEMSEC_SUCCEED&doc_id=1004928

29. New Moves: An Orientation Video for Newcomer Students http://www.settlement.org

30. What are we already doing well to support immigrant students?

31. Define culture • The total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group. • The attitudes, feelings, values, and behaviours that characterize and inform society as a whole or any social group within it.

32. Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg (Gary Weaver) • Surface Culture • LANGUAGE • ARTS, LITERATURE • RELIGIONS, MUSIC, DRESS • DANCE, GAMES, SPORTS, COOKING • Folk Culture //////// awareness level boundary/////\\\ • NOTIONS OF MODESTY CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY • EDUCATION CHILD RAISING RULES OF DESCENT • COSMOLOGY RELATIONSHIP TO THINGS, ANIMALS & PLANTS • COURTSHIP PRACTICES CONCEPT OF JUSTICE MOTIVATION TO WORK • CRITERIA FOR LEADERSHIP DECISION MAKING PROCESSES DEITIES DEATH • IDEAS OF CLEANLINESS LOCUS OF CONTROL THEORY OF DISEASE PHYSICAL SPACE • DEFINITION OF SANITY, FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, MURDER, LIFE, GENDER, FACIAL EXPRESSIONS • ROLES IN RELATION TO STATUS BY AGE, GENDER, CLASS, KINSHIP, OCCUPATION, RELIGION, • CONVERSATIONAL PATTERNS IN VARIOUS SOCIAL CONTEXTS, CONCEPTION OF TIME & SPACE • PREFERENCES FOR COMPETITION, COOPERATION, INDIVIDUALISM OR GROUP NORMS, SIN, GRACE • NOTION OF ADULTHOOD, NOTION OF LOGIC AND VALIDITY, PHYSICAL SPACE ARRANGEMENTS, LIFE

33. Scaffolding for Instructional Success

34. Constructivist Scaffolding Strategies • Tap into prior knowledge • Model what students are to do • Give students time to process new ideas • Pre-teach vocabulary • Use visual aids • Attend to your language • Build and nurture learning community

35. Scaffolding • Tap into prior knowledge • Relate topic to their own lives and experiences • Make connection to student background • Ask students to share their experiences (give hints and suggestions, if needed)

36. Scaffolding • Model what students are to do • Give an example of how final product should look • Provide criteria for evaluation • Demonstrate the process through think-aloud • Make goals explicit

37. Scaffolding • Give students time to process new ideas • Provide structured talking time • Students verbally make sense of the ideas and articulate that sense with their buddies

38. Scaffolding • Pre-teach vocabulary • Introduce words in context • Have students develop illustrations • Use dictionary definitions last

39. Tech tricks! • Inside Story Flash Cardsprintable vocabulary flashcards with striking images and unforgettable definitions http://insidestoryflashcards.com/

41. Simple English Wikipedia • an online encyclopedia for "people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties and people who are trying to learn English" • articles are usually shorter and present only basic information

43. Scaffolding • Use visual aids • Demonstrations, graphic organizers, photos, charts, films, manipulatives, timelines • Skim the chapter looking at photos and discussing, take a “picture walk” through the materials before reading the text

44. Scaffolding • Attend to your language • Not too fast, not too slow • Use body language • Be careful using humour, idioms, figures of speech • Use translation when necessary • Check if you are understood, paraphrase

45. Scaffolding • Build and nurture learning community • Work in groups whenever appropriate.

46. What other scaffolding strategies have you used?

47. How do we promote parental involvement in our schools? “Before teachers and administrators put expectations on parents regarding their involvement in the child’s education, they need to understand parents’ cultural backgrounds as it relates to education. For example, it is unlikely that South Sudanese parents will expect to be involved as partners in the education of their child since in South Sudan, the responsibility for children’s education rests solely with the teacher.” Working with South Sudanese Immigrant Students – Teachers Resources. Canadian Multicultural Education Foundation

48. Increase Awareness of Immigrant Challenges Parents sometimes work two or three jobs to make ends meet when they immigrate to Canada. When immigrants first arrive in Canada, like their children, they too are enrolled in school taking English lessons provided by the Canadian government.

49. Where To Begin? Connecting your School with the Immigrant Family • Find out about the family and be sensitive to their cultural practices. • Reach out to families and invite parents to become involved. Initially, whenever possible, this should be done with the support of intercultural consultants and other community leaders. (page 9 Teaching Somali Immigrant Children: Resources for Student Success. Canadian Multicultural Education Foundation and the Alberta Teachers Association)

50. Reaching the Community through Programs, Meetings and Events • Meetings for high school completion requirements • Student award nights, art exhibits, math & science fairs • Vision screening and dental checks • Car seat safety checks • Clothing exchanges • Heritage language clubs taught by volunteers • Haircuts and Styling • Help with reading bills, mail, junk mail, etc. Teaching Somali Immigrant Children: Resources for Student Success. Canadian Multicultural Education Foundation and the Alberta Teachers Association