Additional Citizenship Resources
Worksheets for ESL teachers working with students with refugee background (RBers) who are preparing for the U.S. Citizenship Test
During our own teaching experiences, we realized that RBers bring specific experiences with them that we are able to use to help them understand the content of the material.
Our lessons are based on Lynne Weintrub’s “Civics and Literacy” workbook. Our resource was intended to function as an appendix to Lynne Weintrub’s workbook or another ESL citizenship workbook.
These worksheets connect the themes and key vocabulary of the U.S. citizenship test to the experiences of different refugee populations in the U.S. By building on the learner’s personal knowledge and experiences, we have been able to create an environment that fosters understanding, compassion, and mutual learning between the students and the teachers. The teachers are able to learn about their learner’s culture and nationality while the students feel empowered from teaching the teacher. Our students feel grateful that the teacher has taken the time to create specific resources based on their nationality, which may not feel appreciated or valued in the country otherwise.
We encourage teachers to let our resource serve as a template if a population that they are working with is not listed. Please modify our resource and share it with us so that we can publish it for other teachers in the future.
CAELC's VISAS Program at UVA 