This guide will get you started if you've ever been curious or interested in using Twitter or were just plain afraid you might be missing out.

Content includes ideas on how you can use DKYPE; Personal Use, Organizational Use, Leadership Use, Marketing your Program and in Teaching and Tutoring.

Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning and its Newcomers Health Group have long recognized the many challenges newcomer families experience in trying to access Colorado’s health care system. These ten stories from immigrant women in the metropolitan Denver area illustrate a number of the health struggles facing Colorado’s increasingly diverse population.

This Family Literacy PowerPoint presentation was designed for work with school staff members and learn how to support diverse families in learning literacy, utilizing culture by finding ways to tell and rework family stories.

This PowerPoint presentation lists the importance of parental involvement is in a child's language acquisition.

A great deal has been written about immigrant children and youth. This brief focuses on implications for school improvement policy and practice. Discussed are (1) different reasons families migrate, (2) concerns that arise related to immigrant students, (3) prevailing school practices for addressing immigrant concerns, (4) a framework for broadening what schools and communities do, and (5) implications for policy.

Using critical incidents in the ESL classroom is one strategy for developing problem-solving skills. A critical incident briefly describes a situation involving members of different cultures where communication has broken down because a language or cultural norm has not been understood or taken into consideration. Using critical incidents is one way ESL teachers can help their students deal with the challenges of American culture while improving their English language proficiency.

Managing Stress to Improve Learning Program Notes, January 2011 issue. The New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, has a new project called Managing Stress to Improve Learning. This is the project's publication. The aim of the project is to help students develop healthy coping strategies for managing stress to improve their learning. This issue gives a glimpse of their work from November 2010 to the beginning of January 2011. Activities were selected with an eye toward adaptability and suitability for the classroom and to inspire teachers to try new classroom approaches. Some of the activities included yoga breathing and balancing techniques, exploring African drums, and using humor and slapstick comedy, and mandalas.

18 practical tips that can help any new teacher manage the challenging beginners' class.

Managing Stress to Improve Learning Program Notes, June 2011 issue. The New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, has a new project called Managing Stress to Improve Learning. This is the project's publication. The aim of the project is to help students develop healthy coping strategies for managing stress to improve their learning. This issue gives a glimpse of their work from November 2010 to the beginning of January 2011. Activities were selected with an eye toward adaptability and suitability for the classroom and to inspire teachers to try new classroom approaches. Some of the activities included yoga breathing and balancing techniques, poetry, Brain Gym, music, playback theater, altered shoes, more mandalas.

A bibliography of resources supporting managing stress to improve learning.

An invitation for teacher contributions, both successes and failures in learning events, in the field of action research.

The presentation addresses how to incorporate employment skills into a four-week program for newly arrived refugees with very limited English. Rachel Graci and Donna Kapp share the development of the program, 'WorkWise' which completed it's fourth cycle July 1. They will share the content areas and activities, the 4 C's to guide lesson development, the service learning-work experiences, and tips for setting up a low level ESL employment training program.

Excerpt from Hand-On English. Suggestions for teacher development.

This short informative article looks at different models of instruction and factors related to learners to try to answer the age old question how long does it take to learn a second language.

Technology does not need to be adopted because it is fashionable, but because the face of learning worldwide has changed dramatically over the past several decades at all levels, from early childhood education to workforce training. When literacy professionals integrate technology in meaningful ways, they ultimately help learners prepare for long-term success. This article is a thoughtful, easy to read piece on examining what technology is needed and how it should be used.

This is a handout from the 2010 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations (Chicago, Illinois). It includes ideas on how to elicit feedback from your students.

A project to gain insight from Denver and Ft. Morgan, Colorado, teachers about their experiences in working with refugee students within the public schools; designed to bridge knowledge, and identify policy and practice gaps by soliciting information directly from teachers themselves about their professional needs and interests relative to teacher development in refugee education programs.

ELT Newsletter, issue September 2009: One of the stories featured is the Worker Integration and Naturalization (WIN) Project which is a national, pilot project designed to increase the availability of English language classes in the workplace.

This report is a result of a comprehensive study done by the Colorado Progressive Coalition, from 2004-2006, on how language interpretation plays a critical role in providing high quality health care to Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients. This report lists recommendations for hospitals and policymakers interested in improving language access.

This guide provides teachers of pre-literate adult and teenaged Somali Bantu students with methods, activities, and steps to use in their classroom.

The Car Occupant Safety Awareness Project: Lessons for English Language Learners on the Benefits of Seat Belt and Child Safety Seat Usage. Included are learning activities designed to involve participants in learning about safe behavior in cars and engage them in activities that reinforce the use of seat belts and car seats.

This document provides some ideas in teaching about syntax.

This document has tips on how to make your students talk more in the classroom.

Compass Points Newsletter, issue October/November 2006: Celebrating 21 years, or 200 Cycles, of WorkStyles: A pre-employment competency-based training for individuals with limited English Language skills. It is designed to provide the opportunity for people to learn skills for getting and keeping a job in the United States in a supportive and challenging environment. The usual format is a two-week, 60-hour intensive course.

A one-page information sheet on ELT: The Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning has been designated by The Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and the Colorado Refugee Services Program (CRSP) to provide technical assistance for English Language Training (ELT) programs serving refugees.

A collection of 16 true stories, based on the author's own personal experiences; each story includes activities that will take you "into-through-and-beyond" each reading; e.g., new words/vocabulary and comprehension questions.

This is a list of English Language Training (ELT) materials that can be ordered through Spring Institute. This form can be printed out; many of the materials are available online.

This document includes two lesson plans on appliances: garbage disposal and smoke alarm; and a lesson plan on being a good neighbor. This document lists performance outcomes, materials needed, and procedures on different activities.

This booklet provides ideas on what to consider when teaching students with low literacy levels or whose schooling has been interrupted. It is important for teachers to understand where students are coming and what these students are going through, in terms of culture shock; and the importance of setting clear and consistent expectations for classroom behavior.

The purpose of this White Paper II–Interventions is to fill the gap between a relative lack of research on effectiveness of mental health interventions for refugees, and the emerging efforts of agencies that provide services to this population. This paper revisits and summarizes the research reported on in White Paper I on the mental health needs of refugee children. The paper focuses on exploring what a comprehensive mental health service model for refugees might look like. Finally, there are recommendations for the next steps toward improving standards of mental health care for traumatized refugee children.

This publication describes the "whys" and "hows" of Total Physical Response (TPR) in the ESL beginners-only classroom.

This publication focuses on adults who do not read or write in any language and have not lived in a society which relies heavily on literacy, in other words, true beginners. The first section provides some historical and cultural background information. The second section is a hands-on guide to practical strategies for the classroom; and the last section offers some helpful guidelines to assessing the performance of non-literate learners.

This publication focuses on adults who do not read or write in any language and have not lived in a society which relies heavily on literacy, in other words, true beginners. The first section provides some historical and cultural background information. The second section is a hands-on guide to practical strategies for the classroom; and the last section offers some helpful guidelines to assessing the performance of non-literate learners.

This is a bibliography to assist program directors and teachers in selecting EL/Civics texts for their own particular populations and goals. It includes data on 36 student texts and accompanying teachers’ manuals; as well as two video tapes and one CD.

This publication includes a guide to syllabus planning and resources for U.S. history and government and a guide for teachers in filling out the N400 Application for Naturalization form. Also includes sample case studies.

This document describes four different techniques teachers can use in their classrooms: Active listening, inviting guest speakers, discovery learning, and field trips.

The document offers some tips to teachers on how to handle crisis or trauma while working with refugees in the classroom and to administrators for paying attention to the needs of teachers and others in programs and agencies who serve refugees.

This document offers a description of adjustment of Somali refugee students in one U.S. community. The purpose of the study was to conduct a needs assessment and provide recommendations for improving adaptation and to document the process of acculturation and adaptation of these refugee youth.

This article summarizes one of the most critical elements in language learning: the listening process. It also includes the factors affecting listening, with suggested general guidelines for teaching and assessing listening; and examples of activities for practicing and developing listening skills for the workplace.

This manual reviews developmental and mental health issues for children in general, highlighting two important factors in lives of refugee children that are layered onto developmental and mental health issues: acculturation and trauma; and it also explains treatment options, and gives specific suggestions on the role of ESL teacher.

This publication looks at performance-based literacy instruction, a pragmatic approach for non-literate learners. It includes ways in which teaching reading to native speakers is, or should be, different from the process of teaching reading to adult ESL learners; plus the rationale behind performance-based literacy instruction, and thoughts on whole language, sight words, and phonics.

Students come with their past experiences, their current challenges, and their need to quickly garner the information and the skills to give them back control over their lives and their futures. If cultural adjustment and mental health issues manifest themselves in the classroom, this publication can assist teachers so that they can do a better job of meeting needs and knowing how, when, and where to refer people to other parts of the service provider network.

This material offers successful strategies that can be used in the classroom to help eliminate barriers that might be encountered by older language learners.

This document offers suggestions on how to better prepare LEP adults who are entering the workplace, by using the employment SCANS skills and competencies.

ELT material on WorkStyles: A pre-employment competency-based training for individuals with limited English Language skills. It is designed to provide the opportunity for people to learn skills for getting and keeping a job in the United States in a supportive and challenging environment. The usual format is a two-week, 60-hour intensive course.

This document describes the goal of STAR (Special Targeted Assistance for Refugees), which is to capitalize on refugees’ qualifications and work experience and thus avoid the wastage of human capital. STAR is a structured approach to climbing the ladder of employment opportunities. STAR offers qualified refugees a program of assistance with credentialing and job upgrading.

This document provides a framework for systematic and consistent self-evaluation of local English language training programs in terms of quality criteria. The intent is for program staff to use the document to assess where their program is in relation to the criteria provided.

A collaborative learning exercise on allocating time and staff.

Descriptions of 26 easy techniques for the ESL teacher and tutor to use in the classroom, including board games, TPR, dictation pairs, interviews, pictures and realia.

This document is a teaching activity on how to help your students fill out a simple employment application completely and correctly.

This document is an active listening teaching activity: Listen, Repeat, and Do

This document is an active listening teaching activity: Information Gap

This document offers ideas on how to integrate the SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) competencies and foundation skills as a way to strengthen the connection between ESL classes and employment for vocational and academic-bound students.

This document is a teaching activity on how to help your students recognize the importance of being safe at a worksite.

With the emphasis on employment-related ESL, this document introduces the competencies of the SCANS Plans Portfolio (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills): What they are; the benefits in using this framework for designing ESL curricula; and what the possible drawbacks might be.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement's Mainstream English Language Training (MELT) developed standards for testing, leveling, and curriculum. This document includes: a competency-based, outcome-oriented Core Curriculum Guide; a system for defining Student Performance Levels (SPLs); and an assessment tool, the Basic English Skills Test (BEST).

This document includes an activity to develop classroom cooperation and team performance, either in small group or whole class.