New Books, New Readers uses the standard technique of Maine Humanities Council literature-based programs: an MHC scholar facilitates the discussion of a text. Participants in this program are beginning readers, or just learning to read English. Their texts are illustrated children’s books with powerful stories that offer paths for serious discussion and thought.
Community, a common theme of a New Books, New Readers series, is a particularly apt subject for Portland Adult Education’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. According to Portland Adult Education teacher Joy Ahrens, in recent years the program has seen an increasing number of students who are not only learning English but learning to read and write for the first time as well. Most of these students are political refugees from rural backgrounds where formal education simply did not exist or was interrupted by forces beyond their control, such as war. Many find themselves having to adapt not only to a new language but a culture that, unlike their own, is heavily based on written literacy. Students who come from a completely oral tradition face even greater challenges.
Students who participate in New Books, New Readers delight in the program’s books. Even the simplest texts in a series can present challenges, but students can often understand the story through the illustrations, and this can then help them with the text.
The depiction of family life in Cynthia Rylant’s When I Was Young in the Mountains, with oil lamps on the walls and children fetching water from the well, has been familiar for many New Books, New Readers participants who are refugees. The experience of many family members crowding into a home in Rylant’s The Relatives Came also evokes smiles and an understanding of another connection between their past lives and the lives of people in Maine. With books depicting worlds directly outside of their experiences, students still relate to the human commonality of issues like aging and prejudice through books like Now One Foot, Now the Other; Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge; and The Other Side.
ESOL teachers at Portland Adult Education started collaborating with the Maine Humanities Council in 2000. Over the last two years, participation in New Books, New Readers has grown from 30 students to over 150 students. Though some teachers initially expressed trepidation about using “children’s books” as classroom materials, response from students has been enthusiastic.
