Teens Working in Agriculture: A curriculum for High School English Language Learners

1. Teens Working in Agriculture:A curriculum for High School English Language Learners

2. Why teach about job health and safety in ELD classes? • To engage students in real world issues. • To inform students about job rights and responsibilities. • To develop students’ language and critical thinking skills.

3. Teen farmworker injuries can be prevented. • 4,700 teen farm workers hurt each year. • In California, 80% of agricultural work is performed by hired farm labor. • Immigrant teen farmworkers are unlikely to get training from other venues (FFA, 4-H, voc ed.) • Surveys showed a significant number of students in ELD classes work in agriculture.

4. The curriculum: • Meets required English language objectives • Is appropriate for intermediate level high school ELD classes • Nine 40-minute sessions

5. What does the curriculum include? • Interactive activities to draw on teens’ own experiences • “Real life” situations • Writing, reading comprehension, speaking and vocabulary activities. • Information about job rights and responsibilities and resources for help.

6. The curriculum makes a difference: Tested in 22 schools with over 1200 students • Students learned about workplace hazards and what to do about them. • Students learned about laws, responsibilities and resources. • Students acted on what they learned to be safer at work.

7. Student Comments • “My father thought that if you said anything you would get fired. Because of the classes I spoke to my dad. My dad spoke to the foreman and they improved the bathrooms.” • “Now when we see a tractor spraying pesticides we know we have to get far away.” • “When I get home, the first thing I do is take off my clothes. Before, I used to go straight to bed and lay down, but now I take off my clothes and take a shower.”

8. Teachers perceptions of the curriculum • Very positive response • Most reported high levels of interest among students--information was relevant and useful. • Effectively met ELD objectives. • Should be included in curriculum of schools in agricultural communities.

9. Teachers’ perceptions • “They were excited by the curriculum. It was important for them to learn that there are agencies that are there to help them. They didn’t know that before. They knew some about the hazards, but had a very small amount of information.”

10. English Language Development Standards--Intermediate • Listening and speaking • Listen and respond to stories and info • Identify main ideas of oral presentations • Prepare and deliver short presentations • Prepare and ask basic interview questions • Reading: Vocabulary Development • Writing: brief biographies and stories

11. Content Objectives Students will be able to: • Name the most serious agricultural health and safety problems. • Explain teen workers’ rights and responsibilities. • Describe factors that can lead to change in working conditions.

12. Curriculum Activities • Introduction to agricultural injuries • Class interviews, calculate statistics • Find the hazard in the picture • Vocabulary activities • Homework

13. Curriculum Activities • Learn about/discuss ways to control the hazards (critical thinking) • Fact sheet: Learn about rights • Practice problem-solving • Apply knowledge to real life situations • Read newspaper articles • Role play

14. Resources • Young Worker Resource Center (youngworkers.org) • Marshfield Clinic: Safety Guidelines for Hired Adolescent Farmworkers • www.marshfieldclinic.org/nccrahs/ • NIOSH • www.cdc.gov/niosh/childlab.html (Child labor page) • www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/youth (Young worker page)

15. Download curriculum at :http://www.lohp.org/publications/esl_curriculum.html Diane Bush Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) University of California 2223 Fulton St., 4th Floor Berkeley, CA 94720-5120 www.lohp.org 510-643-2424 dbush@berkeley.edu