Designed to introduce new U.S. residents and other English as a Second Language (ESL) students to the natural environment in central Los Angeles and to foster environmental stewardship, UC’s Water: An English as a Second Language Curriculum for Adults is a wonderful resource to meet these goals.
The curriculum focuses on issues that are relevant to many recent immigrants living in arid, urban situations. It can be used in conjunction with the Teacher’s Edition.
From the author, UC Cooperative Extension Natural Resource Advisor Sabrina Drill:
In 2004, University of California Cooperative Extension, with support from the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and in collaboration with the English as a Second Language faculty and students at East Los Angeles College, began to develop a curriculum for English language acquisition based on local environmental issues. The driving principle behind this was that awareness, understanding, and stewardship of one’s environment was an important element of membership in a community, and that this understanding would improve both our environment and our communities. Immigrants to the United States should be aware that they have the right to a clean, healthy environment, that there are avenues they can take individually to influence the quality of their environment, and that the decisions made by communities and governments affect that environment…
…When first embarking on this project, we choose to follow the mainstream ESL education community in embracing the concept of English immersion. Hence, all materials are provided in English and can be used in a classroom where a wide diversity of national origins are represented…
