This podcast describes an 8-week joint class project between Nebraska Writing Project teacher-leader Cara Morgenson’s Thematic Issues course for level three English Language Learners at Lincoln High School, Dr. Robert Brooke’s college junior Uses of Literacy students, and Homestead National Monument of America. The project focused on immigration issues in Lincoln, Nebraska, grounded in the historical study of the Homestead Act as a “first wave” of immigration in Nebraska, Morgenson’s students’ first-person accounts of recent immigration to Lincoln, and cooperative work with four local agencies providing support for refugees: Center for People in Need, El Centro de las Americas, Asian Community and Cultural Center, and the Yazidi Cultural Center. The project is an example of the place-conscious educational principle of “spiraling out” from local to regional/national/international issues.

Guests

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• Dr. Robert Brooke, Director, Nebraska Writing Project
  
• Cara Morgenson, Doctoral Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education; former Lincoln North Star High School English Language Learners Teacher