Rachel Blackmer is the Program Manager for the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC) located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rachel recently shared how one of the tutors at the ESLC has been using Reading Horizons with her ESL students.
The Reading Horizons program has been a wonderful teaching tool for me to use with my students. I teach pre-literate adults with a student or two who have some low-level English. What is great about the Reading Horizons program, is that all students, no matter what their level, can get something from the program. Students, who already know the sounds and slides, can perfect their pronunciation and the preliterate adults can start to form sounds, not only from listening to me, but from others in the class. Since language is still a barrier, the only feedback I get is watching my students engage fully in the activities we do. They use to answer their cell phone calls in class or talk to each other in their own language, but now, they pay close attention and engage fully in everything we do. They don’t seem to even bring their phones to class anymore. One student of mine use to come to class here and there, but since Reading Horizons, she comes consistently to class. She also came up to me one day after class and said, “Teacher, you teach very nice, very nice, like ‘a sound ah’, and slides la, ba, very good teacher.” The program is giving my students the confidence to try and sound out words when before, they would guess or turn away. I love using Reading Horizons!
The ESLC has been awarded the Utah 2011 Non-Profit Volunteer Program of the Year. Way to go to all the students and volunteers!
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