Leadership Through Language and Literacy: How Immigrants Repositioned Themselves into Active Community Participants Through Classroom Discourse

Abstract

First we wanted to improve our skills but now we understand we need more than basic skills. We want not only to survive, but we want to thrive and be connected to our society. Literacy is the act of knowing the world. Literacy gives us more choices for change and more power. Literacy opens our mind to look at reasons and things in different ways. We want students to develop citizenship, get involved in civil society and get involved in their own community. We want to create an equal environment. (From a written document prepared collectively by the students of the Leadership Group for a national meeting of the Lila Wallace Libraries and Literacy initiative, 1999). Write to Read Program--Alameda County Library In 1984, a federal grant allowed several California libraries to launch an ambitious initiative to include literacy services within the range of library services offered to the community Alameda County, using a volunteer one-to-one model based on the Laubach method of reading instruction, opened its doors to provide tutoring services. Since then, the program has evolved, offering small group tutoring, using professionally trained staff with some volunteer support, and providing additional individual tutoring when necessary. Today, the curriculum no longer centers around work books; teachers use a variety of texts with themes that reflect the concerns articulated by students in the program. When the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund approached us with a funding opportunity, our program had already launched several projects to encourage student leadership and participation. Some of our students were involved with Key to the Community, a state library-funded initiative to foster civic participation among adult literacy students. These students, along with others in the San Francisco Bay Area, helped publish an Easy Reader Voter's Guide for new readers. Another group of our students organized Action for Children's Education (ACE) by researching, developing and distributing a brochure to alert other families about ways to advocate for their school-age children. A new opportunity presented itself in 1997 when the Lila Wallace Libraries and Literacy Initiative (1997-99) wanted to expand literacy efforts by moving from individual to small group instruction. They determined that our program could be a possible model and awarded us funding for three years. These monies were used to afford students the opportunity to engage in a discourse atypical of many literacy and ESL classrooms. I have chosen to write about the Read to Write Program because the students found the process provocative, exciting, and life changing -and because this project changed the face of our program. Although we no longer have a leadership class, some students are currently working as administrators or teachers in the program. They are operating at the national level of adult literacy policy and continuing to link community concerns to our literacy classes. Their voices are represented throughout this paper. quotes I have inserted were collected though individual interviews and several focus groups conducted upon formal completion of the project. Some quotes are taken directly from written journals or periodic evaluations kept by the students. I have provided pseudonyms for the students involved to maintain their privacy. Who Were Students? During the program's three-year sponsorship, we enrolled a number of different students in what became known as The Leadership Class. Fifteen students volunteered on the first night we announced the program; though, as the project evolved it became apparent that many of the students were primarily interested in a space to practice their English. As the goals of the class became clearer, only those students interested in stronger community involvement remained with the project. Table 1 features the participants who stayed the duration of the program. …