This day-long event was filled with sessions to inform and inspire! Participants gained strategies for empowering immigrant students, creating more welcoming classrooms and centering the immigrant voice across the curriculum in the free virtual conference 2024 Immigrant Student Success: Strategies and Tools for PreK-12 and Adult Educators.
Toolkit
Hosted by The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute and featuring experts from across the nation, participants learned from presentations, interactive activities and discussions with speakers how to:
- Improve the mental health of English learners
- Foster belonging, identity and agency in your students
- Provide quality holistic learning experiences for refugee students
- Navigate the rights of immigrant students with disabilities
- Harness AI for use in the ESL classroom
- Engage students with immigration-themed read alouds
- Incorporate South Asian immigration into your middle and high school social studies classes
- Understand the immigration landscape today
The 2024 Immigrant Student Success virtual conference was free of charge, but participants had to register to participate. This virtual conference was designed for PreK-12 and adult educators, administrators, counselors, volunteers and librarians. Certificates of completion are available upon request. It is the educator’s responsibility to ensure that they are meeting the requirements of their state or district.
New this year: The Immigrant Learning Center is a registered Professional Development Provider (PDP) by the State of Massachusetts. This conference is part of the Immigrant Student Success PDP course, which grants educators 15 PDPs in the following content areas: 1) English Language Learners, and 2) Safe & Supportive Learning Environments. The course is free. Contact Ariana Moir at amoir@ilctr.org to learn more.
Recordings & Resources
Keynote with Simran Tamang
First-place essay winner of the 2024 Teen Perspectives on Immigration Contest
Multilingual Read-Aloud: Ten Strategies for Teachers to Support Immigrant Student Success
Kyongson Park, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Education, Health and Human Services, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Check out these resources:
- The ILC Educator Resource Hub: Immigrant and Immigration Stories
- A language learning database with vocabulary, grammar, and lessons for 100+
different languages: https://mylanguages.org/index.php
Immigration Landscape Today
Michelle S. Dromgold-Sermen, PhD, Assistant Director, Institute for Immigration Research
Check out these resources:
- Dr. Dromgold-Sermen’s Published Work: “The Bureaucratic Waiting Tolls: Social Consequences of Prolonged and Uncertain Waiting in U.S. Lawful Permanent Residence Processing.”
- The Institute for Immigration Research’s Immigrant Data on Demand Profiles where specific fact sheets can be accessed and requested
- Article from the PEW Center analyzing immigration trends in Philadelphia over the last century
- Department of State Visa bulletin showing the waiting times for green cards, updated monthly
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ updated list of countries from which immigrants can apply for temporary protected status (TPS)
Immigrant Students with Special Needs
Diana I. Santiago, Esq., Senior Education Attorney, Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC)
Check out these resources:
- MAC free helpline (617) 357-8431 or massadvocates.org/helpline (multilingual voicemail)
- MAC sample letters for education advocacy
- MAC Immigrant Rights in Education fact sheet
- MAC videos about the special education process (English) (Español)
- Professional development program providing training for educators to create a
supportive classroom environment
AI in ESL: AI, Assisting Instruction
Christopher Stillwell, PhD, English as a Second Language Instructor, Saddleback College
Check out these resources:
- An AI tool which, instead of giving users direct answers, prompts them with questions about their ideas: Debate Devil
- An AI resource specifically useful for providing roleplay situations to help learn a new language: Pi, your personal AI
Improving Mental Health of English Learners
Daniela DiGregorio, PhD, Associate Professor of Education, Wilson College
Holistic Learning in Refugee and Immigrant Education
Julie Kasper, Director of Teacher Learning & Leadership, Center for Professional Learning, Childhood Education International (CEIntl)
Check out these resources:
- CEIntl’s Open Educational Resources Library
- CEIntl’s Center for Professional Learning
- CEIntl’s Center for Professional Learning micro-credentials
- Resources from SchoolHouse Connection to support immigrant students experiencing homelessness
Teaching a Collaborative Ethnic Studies
Jessica Man, PhD Candidate, History Department, Boston College
Check out these resources
- Historical origins of ethnic studies
- Historical and political overview of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley
- Resource roundup for educators teaching about South Asian Immigration to the
United States - Resource for ethnic studies teachers and learners with free detailed curricula
- PBS documentary illustrating the journey of students in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School
Digital Literacy
Gabriel Brum, Digital Literacy Instructor, The Immigrant Learning Center
Check out these resources
-
- The National Skills Coalition’s report on the need for digital skills in the U. S. labor market
- NorthStar digital literacy assessments and educational tools
- Resources to develop typing skills
Belonging
Meisha Lamb-Bell, Program Director, Re-Imagining Migration
Check out these resources
- Resource for building a sense of belonging in classrooms
- Practical tools and strategies to support immigrants in an educational environment from ReImagining Migration