# data[].attributes.headline
Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience

# data[].attributes.subject
Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience

# data[].attributes.body
26 personal narratives celebrate the different experiences communities go through while making friends and finding common ground. These different cultural societies share their challenges, identities, dreams, goals, and other successes in life. This perspective shows students the different themes of immigration and citizenship while learning to appreciate differences as a whole. Showing students that differences can make us close will cause sensitivity and awareness in the classroom.

Reading ages - 12-15

# data[].attributes.headline
Middle School Math/Social Studies  Lesson Plan

# data[].attributes.subject
Middle School Math/Social Studies  Lesson Plan

# data[].attributes.body
In this math lesson plan from Amnesty USA, students are given statistics of refugees living in countries. They get to compare the number of refugees in different countries. Students learn about frequency, cumulative frequency and learn how to construct different charts and graphs with these statistics. Students are able to see the percentages of refugees and asylum seekers out of the total populations in specific host countries.

This lesson plan is appropriate for middle school students and all beginning statistical units in any grade.

# data[].attributes.headline
Middle School Lesson Plan on the rights of Refugees

# data[].attributes.subject
Middle School Lesson Plan on the rights of Refugees

# data[].attributes.body
In this lesson plan from Amnesty USA students are given tools to help understand what life is like for refugees fleeing from other countries. The students are given two minutes to gather belongings and given newspaper articles and refugee resources. Given these resources, they are able to get a small experience of what life is like for these refugees. Students are given information about what a refugee is and why they leave their homes and also what rights they have.

This lesson plan from Amnesty USA is appropriate for middle school students.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a multiple day lesson designed for a high school classroom on gaining insight on the refugee experience. Passages is a simulation game that can be used in the classroom to promote awareness and empathy for those in refugee situations. It is designed to promote action from its players. The creators of this game want it to inspire you to be an activist for refugees. It is a multiple day game that requires a lot of prep beforehand. This game has students act out the refugee experience. I think this is a really good resource for a high school class if you put the amount of time needed into preparing it.

# data[].attributes.headline
The other side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border

# data[].attributes.subject
The other side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border

# data[].attributes.body
In "The other side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border," Juan Pablo has eleven immigrant teenagers talk about their diverse experiences and how they go through the process of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. These young adults go through many trials and must be courageous and sacrifice everything they have to take this journey to the United States. As these eleven teenagers communicate about their situations, individuals learn the reality of immigration.

Reading ages - 13-17

# data[].attributes.body
This Facebook group is meant to be a resource for refugees. They have information about when and where gathering to support one another will be held. Advisors on the page have experience either with being a refugee themselves or helping refugees. They give general and legal advice for people seeking asylum, the rights that refugees have and humanitarian assistance. It is an okay looking group but I think, like any Facebook group it has strayed from its intention a bit.

# data[].attributes.headline
Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights

# data[].attributes.subject
Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights

# data[].attributes.body
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is an organization that is devoted to advocating for children. They work with kids going through immigration and deportation proceedings. One of their main goals is to help humanize the children going through immigration proceedings, to help people recognize that these people are kids, not criminals. They want them to please be seen as children. They advocate for the safety of children in detention camps, and at any part of the immigration process. They want to completely reform immigration policy and practice. They want to reform immigration law because as it is, there is no difference between children and adults the way that it is written. If you have a student who needs a child advocate, this is the place to go.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Young Center is a champion for the rights and best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children, making sure that wherever they land, whether here in the U.S. or in their home country, they are safe.

Unaccompanied children who are fleeing violence, trafficking, abuse and extreme poverty.

They are all alone.

For the safety and well-being of each child, while they're detained and throughout deportation proceedings-every step of the way.

For the creation of an immigration system that serves children.

The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights pays tribute to the children we serve by naming the organization after one of our first clients, Young Zheng, a young man from China who was smuggled by ruthless traffickers at the age of 14, and expected to work off a debt of $65,000.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Young Center is a champion for the rights and best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children, making sure that wherever they land, they are safe.

# data[].attributes.body
Immigrants Rising is an organization to help immigrants have bright futures. They have many resources for high school students looking to go to college. They have many services including an immigration legal intake service, a California in-state tuition tool, a mental health connector, and support groups. They have a vast amount of resources when it comes to immigrant parole, applying for DACA, even lists of legal terms that immigrants will be faced with when applying for residency.

# data[].attributes.headline
My Undocumented Life                    UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION & RESOURCES FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS

# data[].attributes.subject
My Undocumented Life                    UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION & RESOURCES FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS

# data[].attributes.body
My Undocumented Life is an organization wil many resources for undocumented students. The resources include how to apply for DACA, how to get into college, high school and college scholarship information, and so on. If you know of an immigrant family looking for information, I recommend my undocumented life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Up-to-date information & resources for undocumented students, families, and allies

# data[].attributes.body
'Immigrants in US' not only show the real side of what immigration looks like, but also show the different cultural realities and different objects that are 'normal' to their living. Many immigrants/refugees come from different backgrounds and releasing these to the world helps teach all individuals. Students may have questions about immigration and their “daily living” but this social media account gives the opportunity to learn about these.

# data[].attributes.headline
Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees

# data[].attributes.subject
Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees

# data[].attributes.body
In "Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees," Deborah Ellis turns her attention to the Iraqi Children that were victims of the Iraq war. These children were trying to gain a new perspective on life in the United States while their families had gone through illness, disabilities, or any other trial. Most of the parents of the victims were working illegally or not at all in fear of being deported out of the United States which makes anxiety go through the roof. These children show you through their eyes the diversity they go through.

Reading Grade level - 6-9

# data[].attributes.headline
If You Start from Behind, the Race Isn't Fair: Math Placement of Language Minority High School Students

# data[].attributes.subject
If You Start from Behind, the Race Isn't Fair: Math Placement of Language Minority High School Students

# data[].attributes.body
Powers has done research with ELL students and math placement. Students are often placed in too low of a math class because of their English speaking abilities. This article contains math placement exams that take the language factor out of math placement for ELL students. If you need to place an immigrant student into a math class, I would use this.

# data[].attributes.body
This lesson wants students to contemplate what they know about Iraq and what they think about people from there. Then they want them to read this letter that an Iraqi boy wrote during his time in Tucson to challenge their views. He writes about his time in Iraq and about his time in Tucson and how it wasn’t like what he expected America to be.  It is a powerful letter. Since the US has pulled out of Iraq, it will need some modification and can still be used well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Objectives

read an article about a young Iraqi currently living in the US

discuss Iraqi perspectives of the US

discuss American perspectives of Iraq

Social and Emotional Skills

stepping into another's shoes & compassion

becoming aware of assumptions and bias

critical thinking & media literacy

today's agenda on chart paper or the chalkboard

copies of Ali Rawaf's article "My Tucson: From Baghdad to Tucson, with Love."

In pairs, ask students to share a personal dream, aspiration, goal or ambition. Ask a few volunteers to share with the larger group.

Check agenda

Explain that in today's lesson students will be introduced to Ali Rawaf, a young Iraqi refugee living in Arizona at the time of writing the article included in this lesson.

My Tucson

Ask students to read the article below by Ali Rawaf, "My Tucson: From Baghdad to Tucson, with Love." Ask students to discuss the article, in groups of three.

Then have the full class discuss Ali's dreams and assumptions about the United States and the reality he came to know when he arrived in Tucson. Compare and contrast this to the assumptions students may have about Iraq and Iraqis. Use the questions below to guide this discussion:

1. What would you like to say about the article?

2. How did Ali imagine the United States?

3. What did Ali think about Americans before coming to Tucson?

4. Where did he get his information?

5. Was his information accurate? Was it complete?

6. What do you know about Iraqis?

7. Where did you get your information?

8. Do you think this information is accurate?

9. How do you know?

10. How does Ali fit into this image of Iraqis?

11. What does one of the last lines in the article (about Ali's heart) indicate?

* Connect answers to this final question to tomorrow's lesson, which will focus on the notion of "home."

Evaluation and closing

On the count of three, ask students for a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or a thumbs in between to assess today's lesson.

Homework

Ask students in the coming weeks to follow the news with a specific focus on Iraq and take notes on what they learn about Iraq and the situation there today. Also encourage students to collect images related to Iraq. Remind them to note from what sources they are getting their information (including the media name, journalist name and date). With the information students bring back the classroom, further explore the questions asked to debrief the Ali Rawaf's article.

Other questions to consider:

" How much of our news focuses on American troops in Iraq? Why?

" How much of our news focuses on the Iraqi people themselves? Why?

" What does this do to our understanding of the situation in Iraq?

" How much do we know about the families of American troops in Iraq? Why?

" How much do we know about soldiers who have come back from Iraq? Why?

The goal of asking these (and other) questions is to encourage students to explore complex issues that have come about since the American led invasion of Iraq; not shy away from grappling with, connecting, engaging and taking responsibility. For it is in dumbing down issues such as these and in oversimplification, that a division of the world into "us" and "them" becomes possible, preventing the kind of empathy and understanding that allow us to choose for ourselves how to engage and affect change most effectively.

My Tucson: From Baghdad to Tucson, with love
(Published in the Tucson Citizen on February 18, 2008)
I was an 8-year-old kid when my mother asked me what I wanted to do in the future. "I want to study abroad. Maybe in America or Great Britain," I told her. "Happy dreams," she replied.

When I was in Baghdad, I watched all kinds of movies about the United States, ones that didn't make me feel that America could be on the same Earth [as Iraq] or that Americans are real people just like me. The skyscrapers filled the cities where rain made the ground so green. People snowball fighting not far from two cowboys in the desert shooting at each other: That was the America I dreamed about.

As a little kid, I knew I needed to learn English and speak it well. Luckily, I was accepted to an English-speaking school, the Iraqi Gifted Students' School, which I attended for four years.

Because of my nightmares of memories of people being killed and tortured, I didn't sleep at night in Iraq. I was famous for staying up late and working on school work or writing articles online. At 3 a.m., a friend called and suggested I apply for this program that takes Iraqi students to study in America and live with an American family. "The deadline is in five hours," he said. I submitted my application just 20 minutes before deadline. I took the English test and succeeded, and then I had an interview to test my spoken English and see where I might want to go in the U.S. and what my goals were. "I want to go to Michigan," I said.

Aug. 8 was my departure day. After a week of traveling, my plane landed, and the passenger beside me woke me up. We took our bags and got off the plane. We walked for a minute until I heard a loud, cheerful, "Welcome to Tucson, and by the way, we need to get you four vaccinations this afternoon." I saw no skyscrapers. I saw no grass. It was a bit hotter than Baghdad, and with no snow. Basically, it was nothing like the movies.

But then I discovered downtown Tucson and Fourth Avenue, where you see all kinds of different cafes and all kinds of people who are friendly and nice. Where I can write articles and blog from the Epic Café. I discovered playing soccer at Himmel Park. I discovered sitting in a car on top of Windy Point and discussing my heart with a friend. I discovered Guerro Canelo and grilled jalapeños. I discovered people with open minds who will listen to me share about my lovely Baghdad and who are very generous to Iraqi refugees.

I discovered that Tucson is a place where all different cultures meet; you can find people from all over the world in the little, nice, sunny Tucson, and they are greeted with warmth and kindness, even though one's heart is far away in the bustling streets by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
This lesson was written for TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome your comments. Email us at info@morningsidecenter.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FROM BAGHDAD TO TUCSON, WITH LOVE: The Story of a Young Iraqi Refugee.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Objectives read an article about a young Iraqi currently living in the US discuss Iraqi perspectives of the US discuss American perspectives of Iraq Social and Emotional Skills stepping into another's shoes & compassion becoming aware of assumptions and bias critical thinking & media literacy today's agenda on chart paper or the chalkboard copies of Ali Rawaf's article "My Tucson: From Baghdad to Tucson, with Love."

# data[].attributes.body
In "Love, Hate, and other Filters," Samira Ahmed writes about Maya who is a Muslim Indian who came to the United States from Hyderabad before she was born. Maya must go through the cultural expectations around dating and marriage while trying to figure out her dreams of being a filmmaker. While she wants to meet her parents expectations for her, she always wants to follow her dreams and create her own life.

Reading Grade Level - 9-12

# data[].attributes.body
American Street is about a young girl named Fabiola and her mother who try to leave Haiti and enter the United States. As they go through this process, the mother is detained by immigration officers while Fabiola has to move on and live with her cousins. She goes through many struggles trying to meet the American culture while missing the life she had with her mother. These difficulties Fabiola goes through only make her stronger and show her the way of her new life.

Reading ages - 14+

# data[].attributes.body
This website is the official government site giving information about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that are offered. Not only does this website give immigrants/refugees opportunities to fill out forms but also to learn about green cards, citizenship, working in the United States, and different tools that you can use. This website gives individuals the opportunity to learn about the government website and what the immigrants/refugees have to go through to get to the United States. Also, if they have any questions about immigration, this website gives those answers with great detail.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Afghan parolees who received the Afghan Parole Information sheet from Customs and Border Protection and did not to go to the government-run locations where vaccination services are provided must attest to their vaccination status.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Afghan parolees who received the Afghan Parole Information sheet from Customs and Border Protection and did not to go to the government-run locations where vaccination services are provided must attest to their vaccination status.

# data[].attributes.body
ILRC is a welcoming community where their prime commitment is to bringing clarity to complicated immigration issues. Many resources are given including: tools for diversity, experiences, and legal support to immigration and refugees. If an individual is seeking legal support, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center is there to educate and assist different fields to advocate for immigrants. This website informs students about the issues that immigrants go through. There are many trials that one has to go through, and learning about these may open their eyes to reality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Community Resources for Immigrants | ILRC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The ILRC's main focus is to educate and assist attorneys and legal advocates in their work to help immigrants. Although our main goal is to work for equal access.

# data[].attributes.body
UNHCR is an organizational website that charts progress against the Global Compact on Refugees. This organization gives the latest news while also having the opportunity to donate to help refugees and their families.  This organization strives to ensure that everyone has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, with the option to eventually return home, or resettle. This website is good to use because it shows students that if anyone knows of anyone struggling with immigration, they are able to go to this website and get help. It also doesn't hurt to learn about how to deal with immigration.

# data[].attributes.headline
How School's are Responding to Migrant Children

# data[].attributes.subject
How School's are Responding to Migrant Children

# data[].attributes.body
Cardoza gives teachers facts about the numbers of immigrants in specific school districts and talks about how there are many more immigrants in detention camps unable to go to school. She shares students' personal trauma stories of why they left their home countries. She discusses the struggles that specific school districts are having with immigrant children and also the methods that these school districts are using to further educate and help their immigrant population. This article gives teachers ideas on how they can best help their students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As I have spent the last several weeks talking to educators about working with migrant children, some have cried.

Their tears, they say, come from a mix of worry, empathy, and frustration with the negative, sometimes hateful, rhetoric surrounding the unprecedented flow of immigrant families across the southern border.

Reporting on migrant children-tens of thousands have come from Central America in recent years-and how they are faring in public schools across the United States as they await their final fates in immigration proceedings is difficult. Lawyers and advocates assisting children and teens are fiercely protective. The kids themselves are often terrified of talking, and not just because they worry about being deported. And the educators teaching and supporting them do not track their numbers formally because federal law requires public schools to enroll and educate children regardless of their immigration status.

I started in February, when I went to Tornillo, a small border town in West Texas, which for months had been home to the largest shelter for migrant children in the U.S. I was there to cover a protest of educators organized by Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year. While the Tornillo shelter is now closed, Manning and other educators used it as a backdrop to call attention to the practice of migrant child detention and the nearly 12,000 children in over 100 shelters spread across 17 states. "We need these children to be in our classrooms," Manning told me. "We will not stop until the detention centers close."

When Migrant Students First Arrive

"So even though it was not my nature, I was quiet and didn't make friends with any of the other boys."
-Fernando, 12

While the shelters remain full, many thousands more children who've crossed the border in recent years are now living with parents, relatives, or guardians and are attending schools. But it can often take weeks or months for migrant children to feel comfortable. Opening up to teachers and school staff about the experiences that have brought them to the U.S. can take even longer, if it happens at all, said Jinni Forcucci, the 2018 Teacher of the Year from Delaware. "Some of my immigrant students, they're taught not to tell their white teachers what they're going through," she said.

Mandy Bucceroni, an immigration lawyer in Philadelphia, said even though her clients know she is trying to help, they are guarded. "They don't trust people because they've been hurt in the past. Family members have turned on them back in their home countries, they befriend someone who becomes a gang member, who now wants to take their life if they don't want to join. It takes a very long time and lots of meetings to gain their trust, because their stories are supposed to be buried."

Educators I interviewed said most of the migrant children they enroll have large gaps in their schooling, meaning that many are well behind their grade levels in reading, even in Spanish. Often, migrant students who are teenagers are more motivated to find work to help support their families, rather than attend classes.

Because best practice is to place students in classes with peers and at a grade level that's appropriate for their age, schools may have to juggle schedules to accommodate the need for migrant students to get one-on-one support from specialists. "It's our job to catch them up," said Scott Eastman, the principal of a dual-language school in Jackson, Wyo. "That's a lot of work, it's a real challenge teachers face every day. And they already work incredibly hard."

Challenges for Schools

While many migrant students have profound social, emotional, and academic needs, most school administrators I interviewed welcome these children. John King, the former U.S. Secretary of Education, said communities have a "constitutional and moral obligation" to educate migrant students. And the educators I spoke to really believed this.

But I also encountered a lot of reluctance to talk about migrant students, including in districts such as Dallas, Miami-Dade, and Florida's Palm Beach County, where many migrant children are enrolled.

One of the most open superintendents was Cade Brumley in Jefferson Parish, La., a politically conservative community just west of New Orleans. In this school year alone, Brumley said approximately 800 undocumented students have enrolled in his district of 50,000 children. He says he tunes out the rhetoric about immigration and what's been happening at the border.

"And I will do whatever it takes to make every single student get the education they deserve when they walk through our doors," he said. "Now, if that's part of a greater political or philosophical debate, then that needs to be had outside the doors of our schools."

Like any child coming to a new school, migrant students are encountering new peers and new teachers. But the fraught nature of being the new kid is compounded by a different language, a completely foreign culture, and, often, a fractured family life. For most of them, it's total upheaval. Teacher Karine Welsh tries to imagine the dissonance for children who've gone from tending chickens with their grandparents in rural El Salvador to a giant high school in Arlington, Va., an affluent suburban district outside Washington where she teaches.

Schools are making small, but important gestures to communicate to migrant students that they are welcome. Some have hung flags of different countries in hallways, some are stocking school libraries with Spanish titles, and others are making visits to migrant students' homes to show they care and build trust.

In some communities, the enrollment of undocumented students has been constant this school year. That's what Nicole Mitchell, the coordinator for a center that assists families with enrollment, health needs, and legal services in Los Angeles Unified, has seen. "We're enrolling kids every day," she said.

But steady numbers of arrivals aren't just happening in large districts where you'd expect them. In the small, upscale resort town of Jackson, Wyo., Eastman said his dual-language school went from two migrant students to 14 in just five months. With that growth, and the state's class-size rules, he had to add the equivalent of a new classroom midyear and the district reassigned staff from other schools to help.

"It's definitely been a pretty significant strain on our system, one that we welcome, but it's definitely been a strain," Eastman said.

As migrant students flow into schools throughout the academic year, there are no funds that follow to help pay for their education. Schools must adjust with the budgets they have.

Brumley, the Jefferson Parish superintendent, said his team has made spending choices to help support this new population. They are working to hire bilingual staff for schools' front offices and bilingual teachers to expand dual-language options.

"Your budget is simply an expression of your values and what you believe in," he said.

Even still, recruiting teachers who are certified to teach English-as-a-second-language has been nearly impossible. Last school year, he had 15 vacancies for ESL teachers in the district's high schools. Not a single person applied.

Suffering From Severe Trauma

"We were all together and we lived very happy until my uncles were killed."
-Alberto, 17

Justin Mixon is an immigration lawyer in Philadelphia who represents about 200 migrant children. He said most have experienced something deeply traumatic in their home country and are forced to leave. "There's always some other kind of plus factor-murder, rape, violence, domestic abuse. They wouldn't normally leave their community, their friends, their language, their food, their grandparents, their culture. For many, it's the only place they've ever known."

The terrifying power of gangs-who wield more authority than police-is what drove many of the older children he represents to leave. "When these teenagers get told they either have to join or pay a lot of money or be killed, they all know the threat is real because they've seen dead bodies in the street."

And during their journeys to the U.S., many are exposed to additional trauma. Students have reported seeing women being raped and fellow migrants left behind on the journey when they couldn't keep up.

Many migrant students are frightened by school because in their home countries schools were recruiting grounds for gangs, said Erika Johnson, an ESL teacher at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. Showing empathy and patience is essential, she said, especially because the students express their stress in such different ways. "Some children have their head down, others act out, and others need hugs every single time you see them."

Eastman agrees. Some students are so resilient and show no signs of what they've endured, he said. Others are "very, very fearful of everything," including a 6-year-old who didn't talk for months.

Teachers in the Prince George's County school district in Maryland have been receiving specialized training for working with traumatized children and how to handle students' emotions and behavior that may escalate quickly, according to Jennifer Love, a supervisor of interpreting and translation in the district. "Things can go from 0 to 100 very fast. We don't want teachers to take that behavior personally," Love said.

In teacher Karine Welsh's school in Arlington, Va., students are given "flash passes" by the school psychologist, which allows them to leave the classroom without asking permission. Mitchell said Los Angeles Unified has placed psychiatric social workers in some schools, wellness centers at different sites, and different kinds of assessments and counseling for children.

Need for Professional Development

There are cultural gaps and assumptions about migrant children that can lead to misunderstandings and upsetting encounters.

In one case an advocate told me about, a migrant student came to school wearing an El Salvador soccer jersey. The school's police officer saw the shirt and questioned the boy about possible gang connections. Upset, the student insisted he was wearing the jersey because he likes soccer and is from El Salvador.

Sarahi Monterrey, the Wisconsin 2019 Teacher of the Year, said she often sees migrant children come to class with headaches or looking sad. "I tell students all the time, 'let me know if I need to get you water, if you need a break.' And it's very hard to find the right words to say because sometimes I do feel helpless."

To better understand their needs, she attended a workshop on immigration policies and later presented what she learned to staff at her school. "I started off my presentation by saying, 'this isn't about our personal beliefs on immigration. We know that it's a hot topic and anyone can have personal opinions. But this is for us as educators to understand the impact that these policies have on our students. Then we're able to build relationships.' "

Eastman from Wyoming agrees. He's spent time learning about schooling in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to better understand the expectations and experiences migrant children have. And it's often in small moments he sees and hears that remind him of their starkly different experiences. Two 6-year-old students were recently discussing spring break. One said he was going to Denver. The other student, a migrant child, asked how far Denver is from Jackson. "About two hours by plane," answered the first student. The migrant child responded, "no, I mean how long does it take to walk there?"

In the Prince George's County district, where more than 5,000 migrant children have enrolled since 2014, officials are making investments in training for all staff. There are English-learner coaches for mainstream teachers, cultural sensitivity training for bus drivers, and basic Spanish-language training is offered for all school employees. And the district's roughly 100 interpreters have undergone specialty training in vocabulary associated with emotional and sexual abuse.

Given the scale of the district's migrant student population, professional development has been across the system.

That's essential, said Patricia Chiancone, an international student specialist in the 133,000-student Prince George's district, to avoid a situation where having trained staff is "hit or miss depending on what school you enroll in." She also said it sends a strong message that "everyone has a stake in supporting these children."

Building Trust With Families

Educators told me that when it comes to building trust and links to the families of migrant students, there are some big challenges and they must try different strategies to connect. Of course, many families are poor, and parents are working jobs that don't allow time off to come to school events. Many come from traditions in their home countries where teachers and principals are authority figures who are not to be questioned.

Then, there are the very real fears some families have about sending their children to school when their immigration status is so precarious.

Eastman said when there are rumors of raids by immigration authorities, it creates an "atmosphere of fear," and parents keep their children home from school. "Attendance is critical, and when students are not in school, they're falling behind. Most kids can bounce back from missing a day or two, but the ability to do so decreases the more trauma in your home lives."

To put families at ease, Eastman holds events for parents at a public park over a barbeque. "That's easy for folks to access and our turnout rates are incredibly high, 90 percent." He's also changed how he thinks about parental engagement. Their 5th grade families sell apples to fundraise. "One parent said, 'I can't write a big check and I can't come in to volunteer, but I can sell apples.' And it's a good example of how families find ways to participate in their child's education. But it might not look like what you'd expect from an Anglo lens."

Mitchell, in Los Angeles Unified, said being a reliable source of help and accurate information is how her district builds trust. Last year, it launched a campaign called "We Are One," a website and workshops where the district partners with a legal organization to educate immigrant parents about their rights regarding housing, health, and education.

"We take care of their children, so schools have always been that place families trust," she said. "There's a lot of misinformation out there and we want our families to know information that's available, so they can make clear and accurate decisions."

Reuniting With Long-Separated Relatives

"When I came, [my mother] wanted to take care of me, tell me what to do. But I grew up by myself and I took care of myself. I don't need anyone to tell me what to do."
-Natalia, 17

In many families, migrant children are reuniting with a parent or parents they may not have seen in years. Some have American-born siblings they had never met. The dynamics of rebuilding-or building-these parent-child relationships are complex.

And educators see the effects of this when migrant students come to school. Chiacone said parents of migrant students have told her they are dealing with deep feelings of guilt for leaving a child behind. Some tell her they are angry that their children don't express gratitude for the sacrifices they've made to support them-whether through years of sending money home or saving up enough money to bring them to the U.S. At the same time, Chiacone says some students are angry and resentful of being torn away from family and friends in their home country-the same people who looked after them after their parents left.

In an after-school club for students who've recently reunited with a parent in the U.S., Chiacone said students were asked to mark the level of conflict in their recently reunified households on a scale of 1 to 10. One girl, without hesitation, wrote "11." Another educator told me about a 14-year-old boy who kept pulling the fire alarm in school. When counselors talked to him about the behavior, he told them he didn't want to be in the U.S., that he missed the family and friends he'd grown up with. He was angry at his mother, who'd left him behind in El Salvador when he was 7.

Shouldering Adult Responsibilities

"In the evenings, after school, I work as a server in a restaurant. I send the money home."
-Paty, 18

Many migrant youths had adult responsibilities in their home countries, including taking care of younger siblings, and if they could, working. The pull of earning money is strong for many, especially older unaccompanied youth who don't want to be a burden. Paty, a high school student in Virginia, works at least 50 hours a week as a server in a restaurant to cover rent, food, and fees for her immigration lawyer.

Another student in Paty's school, who is 16, lives alone since her parents were deported. She cleans buildings at night to pay her rent.

All migrant children are in legal limbo. They may have to attend hearings and talk to laywers. The immigration system is overwhelmed with cases and currently, it can take up to five years before a child gets a final determination on whether they will be allowed to stay in the U.S. or be deported.

One lawyer described the situation for migrant children in ominous terms, saying the U.S. is in danger of creating a "permanent underclass with children ripe for exploitation."

Resiliency and Contributions of Migrant Students

All the educators talked to me about the many positive attributes migrant children bring to the classroom. Karina Castillo, the executive director of English-language equity and acquisition in Jefferson Parish, said meeting them, getting to know them, and understanding their stories gives her deep insight and a personal connection to what's bringing thousands of children to the border.

"When you see the face of a child, you will have a different perspective," Castillo said.

Ivonne Orozco understands this better than most. Now the 2018 Teacher of the Year from New Mexico, Orozco was 12 when her family illegally crossed the border into the U.S. If schools don't serve migrant children like her, "we're taking away that potential."

Others list the different perspectives migrant children bring, how they expose U.S. children to different languages and cultures and the idea that there is a much bigger world out there than just their community.

"Every child has a story and every family has a story," said Eastman, the Wyoming principal. "It just makes our community richer when we can all share those stories."

Related Video
Thousands of migrant children were moved from shelters to relatives' homes in the United States last year. Many now attend public schools in the United States as their cases wind their way through the backlogged immigration system. Their future is uncertain:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Schools Are Responding to Migrant Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Educators in schools across the United States are working to support migrant students who've recently arrived from Central America. But the intensity of their needs can be a strain.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Teachers Can Help Immigrant Students Feel Safe

# data[].attributes.subject
How Teachers Can Help Immigrant Students Feel Safe

# data[].attributes.body
Eva gives teachers ideas and resources to approach talking about immigration and immigrant experiences in the classroom. She shares up to date legal resources for immigrant families and reminds teachers that immigrant students have the legal right to K-12 education. Eva shares ways to help students deescalate from their immigration trauma and stress and reminds teachers that there are so many extra things for immigrant students to have trauma from and to be stressed about. This is a great resource for teachers to use, especially when the air is full of fear for your immigrant students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What happens if they take my parents? Will they come into the school to get me? What if they hit me?
Over the past few weeks, these are the questions children have been asking Seattle teachers I know. Many students here are undocumented immigrants or have family members who are.

In a post-election survey of over 10,000 American educators, 80 percent of administrators and school staff reported more anxiety and fear among students. One thousand of these educators named deportation or family separation as a central concern.

One teacher in Austin, Texas, asked her elementary students to write or draw about their feelings after an immigration sweep there, reported the Huffington Post. "I am angry and sad because I think I am going to Mexico," wrote one child. "I am so scared," another wrote.

An elementary school student in Austin, Texas, submits a writing prompt after a series of immigration arrests in February 2017. Source: Huffington Post.

What can we do to support undocumented immigrant students at this time? How can we provide appropriate resources and strategies to mitigate some of the fear and confusion students are experiencing?

Regardless of whether you have any undocumented students in your classroom, this issue plays a role in all of our lives. Here are a few suggestions for educating and supporting your students.

1. Stay informed

Depending on your state and school district, you may or may not be permitted to openly discuss immigrant rights in your classroom. However, there are resources readily available for undocumented families from the National Immigration Law Center.

In addition site, this guide for educators and school support staff provides tips and tools to help prepare youth and families in the case of an immigration raid.

Consider consulting with local community organizations to discover individuals and groups near your school who could serve as resources for families (e.g., volunteer attorneys, community members, activists, and/or legal counsel at your school district).

However, here is the bottom line. States cannot deny public education to any K-12 student, regardless of immigration status. Under current federal law, all students in your school have a legal right to be there. The teacher's challenge is to look after students' well-being and psychological safety: Toward that end, they need to be regularly reminded that they belong in your classroom, and they are safe with you.

2. Give students a voice

Even if you are not permitted to discuss immigration orders in your classroom, you can provide appropriate venues for your students to express their feelings.

For example, have them respond to journal prompts, create artwork, and engage in expressive writing activities that focus on naming thoughts and feelings, as the teacher in Texas did.

Discuss relevant articles and editorial pieces with older students, or lead lessons on differentiating reliable articles and facts from unreliable sources.

One high school teacher I know is designing project-based learning experiences that involve the history of immigration in our country, examining assimilation as a process, and making presentations to school staff about how to be more culturally responsive to different kinds of students.

3. Provide opportunities to de-stress

Of course, your very best lesson plan ideas are useless if children walk into your classroom feeling scared. Educators know that fearful brains are hijacked brains.

Children who feel threatened by authority figures certainly aren't primed for learning. The brain's fight-or-flight response compromises the functions of the frontal lobe that involve attention, short-term memory, planning, and motivation.

There are a number of relaxation strategies you can incorporate at the start of the school day or during classroom transitions. Sometimes a brief nervous system "reboot" can be tremendously helpful to your students. (This is obviously good for all students, not just immigrants!)

For example, try a two-minute exercise where you lead students in breathing in for three seconds and breathing out for five seconds. As they practice extending the out-breath, they will be automatically engaging the parasympathetic ("rest and digest") system, which has a calming effect on their bodies.

For children who are less comfortable focusing on their bodies or their breath, you can adapt these exercises by having them anchor their attention on something external to their bodies like a sound inside or outside the room. Or you can offer them an object to squeeze such as a ball or a piece of clay. Gentle stretches and simple yoga practices can also relieve stress and relax the body. (Some students may benefit from more active movement.)

Remember to make all relaxation practices optional, emphasize movement over focused attention (if you perceive any discomfort with breath practices), and remind students that they are free to keep their eyes open rather than closed during all activities.

Finally, it's important to be aware of the effects of trauma in your classroom when addressing students' genuine fears for their safety. This article provides multiple resources for responding to children who are traumatized.

4. Foster group connectedness and belonging

Although relaxation techniques might address an individual student's tension or stress in the moment, a long-term, classroom-wide focus on connectedness and belonging is crucial.

Students respond positively when we create a sense of trust in our classroom. If students regularly get the message that "we're all in this together," they are likely to feel a greater sense of safety.

Here are several practices that you might incorporate to foster connectedness.

Circle rituals. Many teachers are regularly integrating communication practices to enhance trust and connectedness among students. The book Circle Forward: Building a Restorative School Community walks you through the components of the circle process and presents a wide range of topics and prompts for celebrating successes, sharing gratitude, and discussing anger, grief, race, inequality, and trauma.

Active listening. Circle practices are designed to create space for active listening, but you can also engage in other concrete exercises to practice this skill.

Shared identity activities. When students feel alienated and isolated, it's also important to foreground commonalities and relatedness in your classroom. These two practices, Shared Identity and Reminders of Connectedness, help to set the stage for more empathic responses.

Whether you have 10 or zero students who are undocumented, all students will benefit from listening to each other's stories and sharing moments of connection.

5. Encourage action

Beyond safety and connectedness, how can we help students to feel a sense of control in their own lives? If we truly want them to play a role in our democracy, we can provide opportunities for positive action and advocacy within our schools.

Now is the time to double down on anti-bullying efforts and focus on developing prosocial behaviors in our school buildings. We can co-create a relationship-centered environment as students, educators, and staff members.

The key here is to focus on methods for encouraging student involvement rather than a top-down approach. These three resources may be useful as you consider your larger school climate.

In this brief video, Californians for Justice introduces an inspiring, student-centered introduction to creating a healthy school climate where all students, regardless of race or status, experience respect and care. How might your students take action in creating a similar approach?

This Speak Up handbook from Teaching Tolerance provides very concrete guidelines for interrupting harassment and micro-aggressions inside and outside of your school. Participate with your students in labeling and addressing harassment in all of its forms.

Finally, research suggests that when peers interrupt a bullying episode, it will likely stop within 10 seconds. If you want to encourage upstanders rather than bystanders, this article shares eight tips for ending school bullying.

If we really are "all in this together," the fears of undocumented students and their families need to be addressed. By keeping ourselves informed, providing appropriate outlets for students' thoughts and feelings, nurturing connectedness in our classroom, and encouraging student voices and action, we can foster more relationship-centered schools. More than ever, our immigrant students need to experience a sense of safety and community in school.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Teachers Can Help Immigrant Kids Feel Safe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What happens if they take my parents? Will they come into the school to get me? What if they hit me? Over the past few weeks, these are the questions children have been asking Seattle teachers I know. Many students here are undocumented immigrants or have family members who are.

# data[].attributes.body
A Different Pond is a book about a young boy and his father who go on a fishing trip. In preparation for the trip the young boy finds out his dad has just got another job and asks why they still have to go fishing. The father explains the trials that comes with immigrating to America. During this fishing trip they talk about many different things. One being that his father used to go wishing back when he lived in Vietnam. The story wraps up with them eating the fish they caught and reflect on the opportunity they have to live in America.

Bao Phi was a first time author when he wrote this book. The decision for this book was simple for him and he wanted his daughter to have more diverse children book options. Boo Phi represents the some of the struggles that immigrants go through. From them being judged by not speaking a perfect form of English to the difference of lifestyle they have to change. It offers accurate information in the way that children can understand it but still get the lesson that immigrants.

# data[].attributes.body
I’m New Here is a book about 3 new students and they all struggle with different things. One struggles with the language and she talks about how back home she used to be able to communicate so freely. Then a boy who struggles with the new letters and feels like he cannot openly write like he used to. Lastly, a girl who does not understand the setup of the classroom and does not feel in place. Throughout the book it talks about these challenges the students have but then at the end they find ways to overcome. The girl who struggles speaking the language practices and makes new friends. The boy practices his writing and also makes a new friend who helps him and he teaches him some words from Korea. The last girl finds confidence to share with the class and then is encouraged to show more work. This story ends with all of these students feeling welcomed to their new school rather than in the beginning when they did not.

The author of this book is Anne Sibley O’Brien is not a first time author and is one of the founders of the I’m Your Neighbor organization that promotes children’s literature that features immigration and any other new cultures to the U.S. This book does a good job showing the children how other children feel in this situation so they can apply it to them because they are the same age. Seeing the struggles will show the students how they can help make it easier by helping these students and including them.

# data[].attributes.body
From Far Away by Robert Munsch and Saoussan Askar, is a book that is based off of the authors real experience when she immigrated to Canada. She left her home country Lebanon during the war and moved to Canada. She had a lot of different struggles that she talks about in her book. This book is a good resource to have because it allows children to understand what these children are going through as they move to an entirely different environment than what they are used to. It also relates to the children because the main character would be similar in age to those reading this book so they would be able to relate to it better.

# data[].attributes.headline
What's Missing from the American Immigrant Narrative

# data[].attributes.subject
What's Missing from the American Immigrant Narrative

# data[].attributes.body
In this Ted Talk she talks about how we create a narrative on “super immigrants” and what “a successful immigrant” means in our opinion. She elaborates how it affects not only the adults but also the children of these immigrants, who feel like they are not fitting in the American perspective of them. They don’t know how to define what success means to them, because others define it for them. It helps us open our eyes to what these immigrants are going through in order to change their futures and sacrifice for their children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What’s missing from the American immigrant narrative

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recounting her story of finding opportunity and stability in the US, Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez examines the flaws in narratives that simplify and idealize the immigrant experience -- and shares hard-earned wisdom on the best way to help those around us. “Our world is one that flourishes when dif…

# data[].attributes.body
From North to South is a book that also has a side by side translation from English to Spanish so for the students who may not be primarily English speakers it could help them be able to translate. This book is by Rene Colato Lainez wrote this book with the message of how hard it is when families are separated. In this story Jose’s Mama gets sent back to Mexico because she is not a legal immigrant to America. This story would be helpful for children to learn about how hard it would be to have a family member sent away. The book addresses how Jose feels and also how other children feel to show that this is not an uncommon occurrence and that it is a struggle for many different children.

# data[].attributes.headline
Advocating With Empathy For Immigrant Education

# data[].attributes.subject
Advocating With Empathy For Immigrant Education

# data[].attributes.body
This educator talks about the setbacks immigrants and refugees experience within the education sphere. How school policies sometimes unintentionally challenge those who need the help. She advocates having an empathetic culture in the classroom to best help their students, and fight for equity. She shares the stories of her students who deal with language barriers and having to start over. She recognizes how it will take extra time and effort to help these students succeed, but if we really care for them we will make sacrifices for them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Advocating with empathy for immigrant education | Lindsey Bird | TEDxModesto

# data[].attributes.body
Areli Is A Dreamer is written by Areli Morales. The story tells Areli’s personal story of when she immigrated from Mexico to New York. This book talks about many different struggles she went through during this time. She was first separated from her parents and lived with her abuela in Mexico until she was 5 then her family sent for her. Areli’s English was limited which lead to her other classmates accusing her of being illegal. Areli struggles to think of America as home until she sees it is a land of opportunity. This would be a good resource for students to be able to read about what these children go through and what they say about them effects them and what they think of themselves. This would be a lesson on how they would treat everyone with kindness because they never know what someone is going through.

# data[].attributes.body
Refugees International is an organization that fights for lifesaving, assistance, human rights, and the protection of refugees. They travel around the world to the most severe displacement areas and they are able to research and find the issues that refugees are facing and find solutions. On their website you are able to find out this information along with many other resources. You can see their work that they have done, the people who are currently involved, and their social media accounts to be able to contact this organization. Lastly and the most important aspect of this website is how to get involved to help refugees, it gives many options such as donations or to join the team itself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Global Voices for Rights and Refuge - Refugees International

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Refugees International advocates for lifesaving assistance, human rights, and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises.

# data[].attributes.body
International Refugee Assistance Project is an organization that helps individuals that are the most persecuted and then assists the next generation to continue human rights movements. This website is a good resource to have because they have specific areas of issues that they work with. They also have the latest news articles pertaining to refugees and resources to help as well. This website also has the option on how you can help those who are struggling with displacement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
IRAP has an innovative model of mobilizing legal resources to provide direct client services and advocate for refugees and displaced persons. We assure safe passage to destination countries and shape thought and practice in the United States and around the globe to ensure fair and humane treatment of these vulnerable individuals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Home | International Refugee Assistance Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
IRAP has an innovative model of mobilizing legal resources to provide direct client services and advocate for refugees and displaced persons. We assure safe passage to destination countries and shape thought and practice in the United States and around the globe to ensure fair and humane treatment of these vulnerable individuals.

# data[].attributes.headline
Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants

# data[].attributes.subject
Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants

# data[].attributes.body
This book shares the perspectives of immigrant parents and the preschool teachers who work with their children. It also discusses how cultural and language differences sometimes prevent these families and the school administration from working together. It evaluates different play-based ideas on how to help these students learn despite the differences in culture and language. It advocates the theory that helping these students early on in their education can set them up for success later on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In many school districts in America, the majority of students in preschools are children of recent immigrants. For both immigrant families and educators, the changing composition of preschool classes presents new and sometimes divisive questions about educational instruction, cultural norms and academic priorities. Drawing from an innovative study of preschools across the nation, Children Crossing Borders provides the first systematic comparison of the beliefs and perspectives of immigrant parents and the preschool teachers to whom they entrust their children. Children Crossing Borders presents valuable evidence from the U.S. portion of a landmark five-country study on the intersection of early education and immigration. The volume shows that immigrant parents and early childhood educators often have differing notions of what should happen in preschool. Most immigrant parents want preschool teachers to teach English, prepare their children academically, and help them adjust to life in the United States. Many said it was unrealistic to expect a preschool to play a major role in helping children retain their cultural and religious values. The authors examine the different ways that language and cultural differences prevent immigrant parents and school administrations from working together to achieve educational goals. For their part, many early education teachers who work with immigrant children find themselves caught between two core beliefs: on one hand, the desire to be culturally sensitive and responsive to parents, and on the other hand adhering to their core professional codes of best practice. While immigrant parents generally prefer traditional methods of academic instruction, many teachers use play-based curricula that give children opportunities to be creative and construct their own knowledge. Worryingly, most preschool teachers say they have received little to no training in working with immigrant children who are still learning English. For most young children of recent immigrants, preschools are the first and most profound context in which they confront the conflicts between their home culture and the United States. Policymakers and educators, however, are still struggling with how best to serve these children and their parents. Children Crossing Borders provides valuable research on these questions, and on the ways schools can effectively and sensitively incorporate new immigrants into the social fabric.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants [Joseph Tobin, Angela Arzubiaga, Jennifer K. Adair] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants

# data[].attributes.body
This is a good social media to follow because it is the main United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This social media has updates on opportunities and more information when it comes to gaining citizenship. They also bring awareness to many different areas such as Native American Heritage Month and they also acknowledge those who have become citizens and provide tips on how to do this. I think this would be a good resource to follow so if we had a student who was struggling with gaining citizenship or even their parents we would be able to point them in the right direction and be able to give them good resources to follow.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Joy of Having a Book in Your Own Language: Home Language Books in a Refugee Education Centre

# data[].attributes.subject
The Joy of Having a Book in Your Own Language: Home Language Books in a Refugee Education Centre

# data[].attributes.body
Although based in New Zealand, this book discusses the power of having books in the student’s native language in the classroom. It shares how it brings the students’ culture into the classroom, and helps them share it with others. As they maintain their identity, they don’t feel so displaced and are able to learn better. It includes the reactions of both students and teachers of how this has changed the classroom. This a great resource to get ideas on strategies for helping your students feel included in your classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by 1,* 2 and

School of Education, University of Waikato, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

1. Introduction

In 2018, Aotearoa/New Zealand increased its refugee quota to 1000 persons per year [ 1]. When refugees arrive in Aotearoa/New Zealand they spend six weeks in a resettlement programme. During this time, the children attend a school at the refugee resettlement centre within the requirements and oversight of the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Within the refugee resettlement centre where the school programme is held, there are also programmes for adults relating to English language and living in New Zealand. The school is well resourced and supported by interpreters. The aim of this programme is to familiarise the refugee families and their children with the cultural patterns and expectations of the Aotearoa/New Zealand school system, and also to assess the specific learning needs of the children before they travel to the Aotearoa/New Zealand city in which their family will be settled.

In 2016, the Storylines Children's Literature Trust of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the New Zealand section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), hosted the biennial congress of IBBY at which a number of papers described the extreme deprivation of their language and identity that is experienced by refugee children throughout the world. This anomie was partially attributed to the absence of culturally contextualised books and stories in Home Languages. The congress discussions, including the final address of the president, challenged the IBBY in Aotearoa, New Zealand, (IBBYNZ) to review what was happening for the increasing numbers of children arriving in Aotearoa/New Zealand as refugees from many parts of the world.

When IBBY promoted its annual IBBY-Yamada Foundation grant in 2017, the opportunity arose to meet this challenge. The Yamada grant provides contestable funds to support the development of a book culture for children around the world [ 2]. One of the authors and a colleague, both of whom were involved with the school and early childhood programme at the refugee centre, met with the director of the refugee education centre to see if there was any support that the IBBYNZ could give. It was evident that, despite the existing programme at the refugee education centre being rigorous, well-resourced, and supported by interpreters, there were few books in the Home Languages of the refugee families. The refugee families arriving at the centre, having experienced many years of disruption, brought with them few resources in their Home Languages; in some instances, other than their immediate family, they had had few opportunities to use their language since leaving their home country. Having established a clear need for books in the Home Languages of the children at the refugee education centre, IBBYNZ/Storylines applied for the IBBY-Yamada Foundation funding and in 2018 was awarded $5000 USD to supply books in the Home Languages of the children at the centre for refugee education. A year later, following the report of the first year, a further grant of $10,000 USD was awarded to the project to enable the continuation and extension of the work.

In this article, we will first present some literature supporting the need to support Home Languages, and then describe programmes which have been developed to provide books in Home Languages for children from refugee communities around the world. We will then present the voices of five teachers describing their experiences in the early stages of this programme.

2. Literature Review

We use the term 'Home Language' to refer to the language used by the refugee family at home among family and community members. Generally, the Home Language of a refugee family is different to the language being used as the medium of instruction in an educational setting. In the past, there has been the mistaken belief that it was best to discourage the use of Home Languages in school in order to support children's acquisition of the language of instruction. Discouragement of the use of Home Languages has sometimes involved corporal punishment, and there are many accounts of this in, for example, the case of indigenous languages in colonial settings [ 3]. While the use of Home Languages among refugee communities does not have the same implications for a language's vitality as is the case for the use of indigenous languages, it does have similar implications for the literacy development and educational success of the children.

Negative attitudes towards the use of Home Languages in schools have been documented, even in recent times. For example, in an overview of the themes evident in five separate studies of the experiences of Pāsifika students in Aotearoa/New Zealand classrooms, Hunter et al. [ 4] revealed a range of teacher attitudes to using Home Languages in the classroom, from those who supported this approach and saw its benefits, to those who were still advising parents to use English at home and those who were framing the lack of English as the reason for learning difficulties. Similarly, a survey of Flemish secondary school teachers showed that only 5% of teachers supported the inclusion of mother tongue in the education of students, and a third of respondents thought it would be in the best interests of students to punish them for using their Home Language at school [ 5].

The provision of books in the Home Languages of children in the refugee centre education programme is supported by three themes in the literature: (1) The power of children's literature with respect to increasing understanding of the experiences of refugees, both prior to and during resettlement; (2) the importance of maintaining the Home Language of children whose language is not the medium of educational instruction; and (3) the potential of Home Language children's literature in supporting the educational progress of refugee children.

2.1. Children's Literature Supporting Understanding of the Refugee Experience

The use of children's literature to both reflect their world for them, and to introduce to other readers the experiences of refugee children, has been well documented. Brooking [ 6], for example, unpacks seven picturebooks and two non-fiction articles in a children's educational journal to explore how these forms of children's literature can be used to develop empathy and an understanding of the experiences of refugees, such as how the refugee experience might make a person think and feel. She argues that careful text selection of children's books reflecting authentic refugee experiences can support the integration of refugee children in the classroom and support the development of a human rights culture within educational settings. She continues that 'the integration of child refugees within the school system is integral to their future successful outcomes and education needs to be considered in the same way as shelter or food".

Similarly, Arizpe [ 7] examines a corpus of seven children's literature texts telling refugee stories. Arizpe analyses how text and image allow the reader to understand three main aspects of the experiences of refugees related to the importance of appropriate footwear, the experiences of pain and physical discomfort, and the discourse of forced migration. Like Brooking, Arizpe argues for the pedagogical power of children's literature for supporting the development of understanding and empathy. In both cases, Arizpe and Brooking show the potential of children's literature to provide a window [ 8] into understanding the experiences of refugee children. The books reviewed by Brooking and Arizpe focus on telling the stories of refugee children, rather than stories using Home Languages. As well as validating and supporting the voice of the refugee child in the classroom, the use of literature featuring Home Languages also allows all students to see and hear a range of voices in the classroom [ 9], a very important step in children's awareness of the link between language, education, and power.

2.2. The Importance of Maintaining the Home Language of Children

Research also supports continuing first language (L1) literacy development for children experiencing education in a language medium that is not their Home Language [ 10, 11, 12, 13]. It is well established that children's home language is important not only for their language development but also for their cognitive development and academic achievement. Indeed, research shows that children who do receive some education in their Home Language are more successful than those who do not [ 14]. This knowledge is reflected in Principle 4 of the International Literacy Association's ten principles of the Children's Rights to Read campaign, which states that "children have the right to read texts that mirror their experiences and languages..." [ 15].

This principle acknowledges that the provision of books in the Home Languages of refugee children provides a context for maintaining their Home Language; it also conveys to the refugee child that they, their language, and their culture are valued by the educational contexts and community in the country in which they now live. Furthermore, texts in Home Languages provide families with familiar images, vocabulary, stories, and orthographies to strengthen their sometimes vulnerable family and ethnic identity in what can be overwhelming influences of the majority language and culture [ 10].

Ball [ 10] argues that absence of their Home Language in their new community means that young migrants feel their language and culture is considered of no value. This view is acknowledged by Brown-Hamilton [ 16] when discussing the difference between assimilation and integration of refugees. She reports on a project in the Netherlands to support refugee children to maintain their Home Language and culture through providing books so that parents can read to children in their Home Language while adjusting to life in a new country. As Nola Harvey, said:

A book in Home Language, a story set in one's homeland, and/or featuring images and characters that resonate with familiar cultural and geographical/ethnic markers can create a safe space for adult family members and youth to open up conversations about homelands, the people, places, and things that represent cultural histories and social identities of the past. This can represent a 'home' that some younger children have never, and may never, experience. A small book can offer solace to an adult and at the same time offer younger children knowledge, understandings, and authentic participation in Home Languages and cultures. Children's texts constitute a less threatening key to opening the door to hidden memories and giving 'voice' to a future. Each book, its words, story and images, is a treasure indeed for negotiating a secure identity!" [ 17].

In her discussion of the use of English as the medium of instruction in Kenyan schools, Kioko [ 13] points out the difficulties faced by children who arrive at school with a Home Language which is not English. She suggests that the use of Home Languages in educational settings allows children to navigate the new school environment with more confidence and to bridge learning from home into the new school setting more effectively. In addition, she notes that children are more likely to engage in the learning process when their Home Language is used. Similarly, Bills and Hunter [ 18] explored the use of Tongan language in mathematics classes for Tongan students aged 11-13 years, showing that the use of Home Language in this context not only enhanced conceptual development but also self-esteem. Daly and Barbour [ 19] describe the process of teachers in Vanuatu, native speakers of indigenous languages, translating readers into local indigenous languages. This was done to enact the 2012 Vanuatu National Languages Policy, which acknowledges the importance of using a child's first language in early formal education and which proposes that the first two years of education are offered in a child's indigenous language. Interviews with the teachers translating the readers shows that they themselves had experienced many challenges around learning to read in a language that was not their Home Language [ 19].

2.3. The Potential of Home Language Children's Literature in Supporting Educational Progress

The difference between the three settings just described, and the refugee classroom setting in focus in this chapter, is that in the previously described settings there were teachers available whose Home Language was the same as the Home Language of the children in their classroom. By contrast, in a refugee classroom, there are a range of languages, and it is very unlikely that the teacher will know enough of any of them to be able to teach using this medium. While interpreters are available for translating some information, they are not in the classroom every day, sometimes only once a week. This is where the power of children's literature becomes evident. Children's books can bring the Home Language into the classroom, simultaneously performing many functions including (1) validating the status of the language by encouraging the use of the language in the classroom; (2) enabling those children who can read in their Home Language to maintain this skill; (3) enabling parents to share the stories with their children and others in the classroom; and (4) enabling children with other Home Languages to be aware of the languages of their classmates.

Several authors have reported on programmes designed to ensure that migrant and refugee children have access to children's books in their Home Languages. For example, [ 20] reports on a bilingual family literacy programme delivered to 17 families (90 children) in the United Kingdom and Canada, The programme aimed to promote Home Language literacy while also supporting the learning of English. Some of the resources used in the programme were bilingual children's books in English and the family's Home Language. The researchers document a range of ways in which these children's books were used: Some families read in their Home Language, some read in English, and some read the text in both languages. The researchers noted that, for some families, reading in their Home Language was "a deliberate strategy to maintain their heritage language"; when participants were asked which resources were helpful to use at home, the bilingual books were frequently mentioned. Results showed that, when compared with a control group, the children participating in the bilingual family literacy programme had a statistically significant higher level of literacy skills.

Devos [ 21] described another programme developed and implemented in Flanders in Belgium, in conjunction with IBBY Flanders. This programme, known as O Mundo, involved the collation of ten books in ten languages spoken by immigrant and refugee children for use in five multilingual primary schools. The books were chosen in consultation with native speakers of these languages, specialists in the country of origin, and a panel of literacy experts, and were shared with the schools in 2013. Challenges faced during the selection process included finding stories which were culturally recognisable, while simultaneously avoiding the danger of stereotypes, as well as finding books written in Home Languages which were predominantly oral languages and so did not have a strong written tradition.

The reactions of the schools, teachers, and children to the O Mundo programme in Flanders were evaluated in January and June 2014, and Devos reports that "the teachers were surprised by the overwhelming reactions of the immigrant pupils, by their pride in 'their own' books and the interest they displayed in the languages of the other pupils" (p. 153). Teachers also reported that the use of the books had very positive effects on the children's emotional well-being and self-confidence, "which had a positive effect on their willingness to learn and participate" (p. 155). Parents also seemed to benefit in improved self-esteem when the books in Home Languages were brought into the classroom. Devos noted that these collections (a second set was developed in 2014) were purchased by many schools, but for others they were too expensive, and it was often local libraries who purchased the sets and made them available to local schools. The sets seemed to fill a gap for libraries who were very open to making their collections more multilingual, but who did not have the expertise to find or select these books.

Thus, the literature shows us that not only is it desirable that we support the literacy of refugee children by using their Home Languages in classrooms, it also provides examples of ways in which children's literature can be used to not only support the wider population's awareness of the refugee experience, but also to support Home Language maintenance, learning engagement, and parental involvement in the classroom. With this in mind, we will now describe the experiences of Storylines/NZIBBY in identifying and obtaining books in the Home Languages of Aotearoa/New Zealand refugee children in a refugee resettlement programme.

3. Setting up the Programme: Challenges and Rewards

Refugee families arrive in Aotearoa/New Zealand in six intakes throughout the year, and the countries from which each intake of refugees come can differ markedly. The first challenge, therefore, was to establish the Home Languages of the refugee children in order to source appropriate books. Through working closely with the director and teachers at the refugee education centre, a schedule of the most likely Home Languages of the refugees for each intake was established.

We found that books in some of the wide range of Home Languages of the refugee families arriving in Aotearoa/New Zealand were hard to access. Few local bookshops, publishers, schools, libraries, and other educational communities had suitable books. While it was challenging to find sources for procuring the books in these languages, Storylines/NZIBBY, had recently hosted the biennial IBBY Congress in 2016, with delegates from 66 of the 75 IBBY countries. We had developed active and positive relationships with members of other national IBBY sections who could access books in some of the languages of the Aotearoa/New Zealand refugee families. IBBY colleagues provided contacts with publishing companies, bookshops, and individuals, and books in a number of languages were purchased or, in a number of cases, generously donated by IBBY national sections.

Since the funding was received in 2018, over 350 books were sourced in a range of languages including Farsi, Arabic, Tamil, Punjabi, Burmese, Karen, Chin, and Spanish. While books in some of these languages were easy to access, for example, Arabic because of its use in many countries, other languages proved to be extremely difficult to locate in children's book form. We faced challenges locating children's books in languages such as Karen and Chin, spoken by refugees from Myanmar, and North African languages such as Tigrinya and Amharic spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia, respectively. For refugees from Rohingya, few books exist as their language is predominantly oral, and finding books in the written script Rohingyalish was challenging.

Ensuring that the books were culturally and linguistically acceptable was another challenge. A decision to focus on picturebooks was made because: (1) They were deemed to be more appropriate for families, and for parents and teachers to share with children, or siblings to engage in peer reading contexts; (2) the quality of the texts and images could more easily be assured; and (3) novels, junior fiction, and young adult were more likely to have cultural and religious themes, which may have been difficult for us to verify. We were also aware that the illustrations, context, and the language used in the books may evoke negative responses from children who had had traumatic experiences as the result of persecution or war, and such books were avoided.

The books that we purchased, or were donated, in many cases could be assured to be of reasonable literary quality because of the integrity and knowledge of those from whom they were sourced. Books recommended or donated by members of national IBBY sections we could be assured were acceptable, although we did need to be sure that books were apolitical. Interpreters, and other personnel at the refugee centre who were fluent in each of the languages, checked each book to ensure it was well written, non-political, and likely to appeal the children.

Freight costs were high, but were not as great a challenge as anticipated, as these were reduced in many cases through personal conveyancing. Although initial funding was expected to set up the programme, to run it for about a year and then to be supported by funding sourced locally, the IBBYNZ/Storylines was delightfully surprised to be awarded further funding early in 2019 to continue, and extend, the project beyond the initial years.

4. Teachers' Voices: Use in the Classroom

Winning funding and locating the relevant books has been an interesting and complex process, which it is important to document. We were also interested in the books being used in the classroom; how they were received by teachers, children, and families; and how they were being used. We had the privilege of discussing these issues with five teachers in refugee education centre classrooms where the books were available. At the time of the interviews, the books in Home Languages had been in the school setting for the three to four 6 week intakes of students. After ethical approval for the research had been gained, a presentation was made to the teachers in the programme about the research and what participation would involve. Five teachers kindly volunteered to be interviewed by one of the authors not involved in the programme funding using a semi-structured interview format [ 22], which was based around a set of guiding questions (see Appendix A). This format was chosen, rather than a focus group, to allow the individual voices and experiences of each teacher to be fully heard. The interviews (which ranged in length from 13 to 36 minutes) were conducted between July and October, 2019. They were audio-recorded and then transcribed. Participants checked and amended their transcripts, and in the next section a description of the five participants (using pseudonyms), their classes, and a summary of responses related to the questions in the interview are presented below.

4.1. Teacher Participants and Their Classrooms (Questions 1-3)

Claire had been teaching for three years and was currently teaching secondary level students. Her 22 class members ranged from early learners of English to advanced English speakers. In her current intake, she had students from Colombia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Iraq.

Margaret had been teaching at the school for 18 years. She was primary trained but teaches across all levels. In the year the interviews took place, the school had Swahili speakers from the Congo, Pakistani speakers of Urdu, and Malay speakers.

Maya had been teaching for 18 years and was an Early Childhood teacher. At the time of the interview she had about 19 students who came from Eritrea, Somalia, Pakistan, and Iran.

Patricia had been teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for the last 18 years, and at the time of the interview was teaching adults and people above 14 years at the preliterate and beginner level of English language proficiency. She had students from Myanmar (several languages), Afghanistan, Colombia, the Congo, and Iraq.

Tim had been working in the school for the last 15-16 years and had worked with children of all ages from 5 years up in that time. At the time of the interview, he was working with children between the ages of 10 and 14 years; his intake included Spanish speaking children from Columbia, Arabic speaking children from Syria and Palestine, Afghani children, Sri Lankan children, and children from Myanmar.

4.2. Ways in Which Books Are Being Used in the Classroom (Questions 4-6)

Across the five teachers interviewed, it could be seen that the books were being used in a range of ways. Margaret explained that when the Home Language books first arrived at the school, the teachers had thought about having them in every single class, but this is not what happened in the end. For a variety of reasons, they ended up focusing the use of the Home Language books in the middle levels of the programme. At the time of the interview, the teachers had split the books into four groups (for the four whare or classrooms), which were checked in and out as needed in the classroom.

Margaret explained that the books were sometimes put out as one of a range of activities children could choose to do. So far, there had been very successful use of the books. She reported that "the joy of having a book in their own language which they could see...the children were totally engaged, just intrigued to hear a book being read to them in their own language". Margaret explained that, for the first intake of students after the books came to the school, a session of older students reading to children was organised, and in subsequent intakes two similar sessions were organised. In more recent times, they were aiming to have one session per week for the four middle weeks of the six week programme (Weeks 1 and 6 not included). Tim reported making the books available for independent reading and described the children being initially surprised and excited that books in their Home Language were in their new country. Maya, who taught kindergarten aged children, explained that, by the end of the first week of each six week programme, she had introduced book reading (using the Home Language books) during a quiet time at the end of the day.

Another way in which the books had been used in the classroom was to invite adults/parents from the adults' classes to come in and read to the younger children. Tim explained that, the first time, some adults were not that keen. He reflected that maybe they were unsure or felt they might be judged. It is also possible that reading in this way was an unfamiliar activity, but once they knew what was involved, volunteers increased. When the adult readers went back to their classmates and reported how well it had gone, there were more volunteers than were needed for reading to the children. This was good, because it meant there could be several smaller groups, more stories being read, and children could choose who they might prefer to listen to. Tim explained that he went with whatever made the children and adults most comfortable and interested in reading.

A variation on the approach of having adults read to children was described by Tim, who asked the interpreters to read the books to the children. He observed that this was really good because it gave the interpreters something different to do, and it created a bond between them and the children. They were doing something fun and the children were enjoying it. It was a shared experience for them to "use for the next time they had to interpret something they [the children] did not want to hear, such as the rules of the school or if they were in trouble". Tim felt that this experience seemed to change the relationship between interpreters and children. The interpreters usually came in once a week, and there were important facts, explanations, and instructions that needed to be translated in that time, thus opportunities to establish a good relationship between children and interpreters were very important.

As well as the teachers using the Home Language books, some of the older children were observed using the books in specific ways. For example, Claire reported seeing teenagers in her classroom sharing each other's writing systems. "A lot of the teenagers have heard of Arabic but they've never seen Arabic written, or Farsi or Urdu. The teenage unit is really tight so there's a lot of socialising that goes on. And you see them hanging out with each other, showing each other their scripts, and they're really interested...".

4.3. Perceived Impact of Home Language Books (Questions 7-10)

4.3.1. Impact on Children

Margaret noted that, when the books were read to the children, there was a high level of engagement, more so than when books were read in English. There was no problem with behaviour when Home Language books were being read. This effect on behaviour was also noted by Claire who described a 'golden hour', when the older students came in to read Home Language books to younger students. During this time, suddenly, any behavioural issues did not occur, apparently because of the children's the engagement with the books. "They [the children] wanted to be there and they wanted to be part of what was happening. They were excited and interested in it, so it makes a big difference". Claire reported that her teenage secondary students had previously explained to her that doing maths is a kind of a break from English in their day, and she could see that reading the Home Language books was a similar break from having to grapple with English: "It's a break from the endless English that's going on and on and on, and often they feel a bit overwhelmed".

Tim noted that, the day before he first made the Home Language books available in his classroom, they had had a session with English language books in the classroom and that, by comparison "the take up and engagement level was that much higher when the books were in a language which some of them could already read". Tim also noted that when the children picked up a book in English they sometimes just had a quick look through the pictures, but when the book was in their Home Language they took time, and were engaged in a different way.

In some sessions, when parents came into the classroom to read books to their children, Margaret reported that the children wanted more and were sad when the book was finished. They appeared to feel happy that someone from their country was reading the book to them. The families whose Home Languages had a very small numbers of speakers were really surprised to see books in their languages.

Tim related an incident in which the use of Spanish fairytales books during a Colombian student's time at the school seemed to have a demonstrable effect on supporting her English language acquisition. Tim explained that the student was "initially difficult to engage, especially in speaking, reading, and writing in English, which she found difficult". However, she was immediately drawn to a book of fairytales in Spanish (that Tim had purchased from a second-hand bookstore). After this experience, she began reading some of the other Spanish language books in the Home Language book collection. Tim noted that she would choose to read either the fairytale book or another book in her Home Language at any available opportunity during class, instead of using computers or playing games like many of her classmates. As time went on, Tim encouraged her to use a bilingual (English/Spanish) dictionary, which again she was attracted to because it contained her native language. She began using this to supplement the English she was learning to write in class. For this particular student, her mother, and her teachers, the progress in her English language acquisition encouraged by the books in her Home Language was extremely pleasing to witness. Tim believes that this may not have occurred without access to the books in her Home Language.

4.3.2. Impact on Adults/Older Students

According to Margaret, the effect on the adults reading the Home Language books to children had also developed over time. In the first week, the adults were not sure what to do, but by the second time more than one adult volunteered. Margaret noted that they were reading to small groups of about six. Some held the books up; some read around a table; some of the adult readers, who may have had previous teaching experience, elicited vocabulary from the students. Patricia also noted a range of confidence in reading Home Language books to children. For example, one of her students from Colombia was animated and read the books in Spanish to some of the other Spanish speaking students. Another student enjoyed the role of 'being the teacher'. Margaret noted that sometimes, when parents came in and read the books to their children, the parents said they enjoyed reading to the children because it made the children happy. She reported that, during these sessions, the children asked questions and the parents said they enjoyed being with the children; they liked the way the children really listened, and it was clear that the children were using their imagination.

Tim noted that, when adults came in to read Home Language books to the children, the children loved having family members in their classroom. The children were learning the importance of reading at home and this experience was simultaneously showing the parents how important reading to their children was. From the very first time they came into the classroom to share the books, Tim noted the pride the children took in having a family member coming in to read a Home Language book at the school. Maya related a time when a parent came to her with a book (from the Home Languages collection) and asked her to show him how to read a book to his child. He wanted to know things like when to stop, and when to emphasise. At lunchtime he came back and they practised reading the book. As Maya explained, "he was so happy doing that. He was so excited and proud that he could read it for everyone. It was very touching when he came and said he hadn't been able to read much. He wanted to know if he was doing it 'right'". She said her experience was that, in the Early Childhood setting, the parents needed to be encouraged, and having the books in their home language meant they could learn to read to their family.

4.3.3. Challenges

The challenges around bringing the Home Language books into the refugee classrooms reported by the teachers in the early stages of the programme revolved around (1) sometimes not having a book in the language of every child in the class, (2) managing access to the books across the school, and (3) having more books for a wider age range.

4.4. Range of Languages

One of the difficulties encountered at the start of the programme was that the books were initially sourced in Home Languages for the current intake of families and their language in the refugee education centre. However, as reported earlier, in each new intake there were speakers of new languages and this was very difficult for the children for whom there were no books. Margaret noted that, for example, at first they did not have books for Urdu speakers. The Urdu speaking children were disappointed, and the parents even more so. This meant that the teachers did not bring the books in Home Languages out as often because some children might have felt excluded. Margaret explained "that's one thing we try very hard to do here; everyone has an equal voice. Even if there is only one speaker of a language, they have an interpreter." In one intake, the school had a group of children who were bilingual French and Swahili speakers from the Congo, and as there were not yet any Swahili books. Margaret went into the local library and got French books which could then be translated into Swahili, and the families were very pleased. IBBY was soon able to help the IBBYNZ/Storylines team to source some of the books in the missing Home Languages, and the children were thrilled when these arrived. Maya noted that she had considered not handing out the Home Language books if not all languages were available for her students, but she has always handed out what she had and explained to the others why books in their languages were not available.

Tim also noted that it was difficult when books in the Home Languages of all children were not available. When this happened, he explained to the children, through the interpreters, the reason for this. Due to the difficulty in sourcing books in some Home Languages (as noted above), there was sometimes a lag in the books arriving, which could exceed the six week programme of which that group of children were a part. One of the strategies used by Tim when books were not available in the Home Languages of some children was finding people who could read English language books and simultaneously translate into the target Home Language.

4.5. Access to Books in Class and after School

Margaret, Tim, and Patricia both noted that another challenge was that the students could not take the Home Language books home with them. Tim said that parents of the children had asked if books in Home Languages could be taken home. He commented that the refugee education centre promotes both reading at home, and maintaining Home Language, so being able to take Home Language books home with them would support both kaupapa (aims/beliefs). Tim did make an exception and allowed one parent who had been involved in coming into classrooms to read Arabic books to children to take home a book each night to read to her daughter. He explained, "After coming to the primary class to read books to children in Arabic, one of the parents (and her daughter) asked if they could borrow an Arabic book each night so that they could continue to do this at home. As a parent was involved and the primary student herself was a responsible child, we felt comfortable with a system that involved that student's teacher checking a book out to her each day and checking it back in on the next. This girl and her mother had been living outside of their homeland all of the young girl's life and as a result had not often had the opportunity to read books in their Home Language. They were very appreciative of being able to do so ".

Claire also noted that her teenage students would have loved to take books home. "It's so beautiful to have a book in your own language; the children want to take them home". She described the balance they had to achieve in allowing the students to use the books, but not being able to allow them to take the books home. She recounted that they explained to the students that the books needed to be there for the next group of students coming through.

Access to the books during school time was another issue which arose because of the value of the books, which meant they were at times stored away and not always available for incidental reading. Tim noted how great it would be to have books in Home Languages in public libraries and perhaps a teaching resource library which families could access during their time at the refugee centre.

4.6. More Books for Teenagers

Claire was the only teacher interviewed who was teaching older teenaged children, and she noted that, in addition to having more books available so that the children could take them home, it would be good to have books at a suitable level and content for teenagers. "Maybe they are reading beginners but they're not having to read 'baby books'...because teenagers usually prefer not to be seen reading young children's' books. Having books for teenagers would be so amazing". She suggested having bilingual books with Home Language and English text to allow understanding of longer texts.

4.7. Ideas for the Future

All the teachers were really appreciative of the affordances of having books in Home Languages available for their students. As well as opening up new ways of supporting Home Language maintenance and development for their students, a value that is already embraced within refugee education centres, it opened up numerous other possibilities. A recurrent theme in the interviews was finding ways to make the books more freely available. An after-school library where children and parents could browse at their leisure, as well as having the books freely accessible at all times within the classroom, were ideas suggested by the teachers, and indeed, since the time of the interviews, we have been told this has been made possible. Books in a wider range of languages, and at a range of levels suitable for teenagers, would ensure that children in every classroom could access books in their Home Languages more freely. We also discussed providing the children with two or three books in their Home Language to take with them to whichever part of Aotearoa/New Zealand they settle in after leaving the six week resettlements programme. Such books could also be used to encourage the school librarian and classroom teacher in the school they attend to find more such books.

5. Discussion

In this discussion, we focus on some of the challenges, as well as the affordances, of the IBBYNZ/Storylines project supplying Home Language books for children in the refugee education centre, making links to the existing literature.

5.1. Challenges

Locating children's books in a range of languages, some of which are not spoken by large communities and which did not have a tradition of producing children's books was, as described above, a challenge. As with the O Mundo programme in Belgium [ 21], the support of IBBY colleagues and the contacts they have shared has enabled a large number of appropriate books to have been acquired for the IBBYNZ/Storylines-Yamada project. IBBY colleagues worldwide have also helped in checking the content and quality of these books with native speakers of each language. The challenges for teachers in ensuring the availability of the books within their teaching context, and strategies used to attend to the needs of some children who did not have books in their Home Languages, do not appear to be documented elsewhere. In this study, the strategies of asking readers to simultaneously translate from the language in which the book is written to a particular Home Language and finding appropriate books from public libraries or secondhand book shops have been documented. It is planned that these findings will be explored further in follow-up interviews with the teachers. The creation of text for silent picturebooks (or visual narratives) is an avenue not mentioned by teachers in this study, but one which may warrant further investigation [ 23]. Such creation of living materials from static learning materials such as books has been documented in programmes preparing teacher educators in refugee responsive pedagogy [ 24]. Documenting and encouraging teachers in the development of such strategies, rather than requiring certain strategies to be used, is consistent with the desire of the IBBYNZ/Storylines to ensure that teachers in the refugee education centre have ownership of the way in which Home Language books are used within their teaching practice.

5.2. Affordances

The overarching theme relating to the affordances of this programme is that there is so much more going on than children getting books in their Home Languages. To begin with, the pride and joy the children reportedly displayed in encountering books in their Home Languages was very similar to that reported by Devos [ 21] in the O Mundo programme. Not only did children take pride in their own language, they also showed interest in the languages of their classmates. There were also many examples of ways in which the teachers reported observing the children engaging positively with the books, which we can assume will have positive educational benefits. While this study does not report any specific literacy data showing improved literacy outcomes, the vignette of the Spanish speaking student, whose English language progress appeared to be strongly linked to her engagement, firstly with Spanish fairytales and then with other Home Language books provided as part of this programme, would seem to support the potential for many such positive outcomes. Anderson, Friedrich, and Kun's [ 20] Home Language biliteracy programme reports similar outcomes.

Additionally, children were thrilled to see their family members come into the classroom to share books, which leads us to a second very important positive outcome of the Home Language Books programme: Parental engagement. This is similar to that found in the Canadian-British Home Language Literacy programme described by Anderson, Friedrich, and Kun [ 20]; likewise, Devos [ 21] described improved self-esteem amongst parents. In their work with children's literacy development using iPads to create ebooks, Rowe and Miller [ 25] also found the use of heritage language translations supported engagement with parents. Parental engagement was certainly evident in the incident reported above where a father very deliberately practised reading techniques so he could share the books with his children and join in reading books to children in the classroom.

At a wider community level, it is hoped that this programme, like the O Mundo programme [ 21], will lead to the books being made available to the refugee children when they move to the city in which they will be settled after the six week resettlement programme. While many public libraries in Aotearoa/New Zealand are already developing collections to meet the needs of migrant and refugee communities [ 26], it is less common for a school library to be able to do this, due to smaller numbers of children in each school. However, if refugee children are sent to their new schools with a few books in their Home Languages, as suggested by several teachers interviewed, the development of such resources may be supported.

If the development of such collections in public and school libraries is achieved, the Home Language books not only provide a mirror for the refugee children to see themselves and read stories reflecting their cultural identity, their very presence in school and public libraries simultaneously provides a window for children and their families from the dominant language to develop their awareness of other languages and ways of being in the world, as noted by Brookes [ 6] and Arizpe [ 7]. As mentioned earlier, Principle 4 of the International Literacy Association's ten principles of the Children's Right to Read campaign, stating that "children have the right to read texts that mirror their experiences and languages..." is for all children, not just children whose language is the dominant language of the society in which they live. Realising that Aotearoa/New Zealand refugee children are New Zealanders with the same rights to hearing their stories and having literacy in their Home Languages is an important part of the gift that Home Language books can provide in the community.

A limitation of this research is the small number of teachers interviewed and the early stage of the introduction of the books at which the interviews were conducted. Anecdotal reports since the interviews indicate that the ways in which the books are used in the refugee classrooms are continuing to develop and flourish. We have heard, for example, that since our interviews the Home Language books are now available at all times in the classrooms and nearly all language groups are catered for. While a very small number of books have gone missing, it was apparent they had been taken home. While the loss of books could be considered a challenge, it is also an indication of the success of Home Language books in the classroom. The joy of a book about a child's homeland and in his/her Home Language is evident; and keeping it close may be a form of reassurance that their 'new home' has objects that are familiar and valued.

5.3. Future Directions

There are many ways in which this research can be developed in the future, including initially re-interviewing the teachers in this programme over the next 12 to 18 months to see how their practices have developed using Home Language books over time. Interviewing children and parents for their perspectives would also be hugely valuable, but this was avoided due to the vulnerable status of refugees within their first six weeks of being resettled in a new and strange country. We think that interviews with parents and children retrospectively a few years into their resettlement is a more probable and ethical possibility. Being in the classroom to observe the ways in which the books are used and received by teachers, students, and their families would also be of interest, and a way of avoiding the limitations of reported observations.

Following the outcomes of the present study, several plans have been made to develop the programme, including to (1) establish a library of books which are duplicates of those used in the classroom on site at the refugee education centre from which families can borrow; (2) continue discussions with the refugee education centre and the Library Association of Aotearoa/New Zealand, as well as the Red Cross, who have responsibility for oversight of refugee settlement in their new communities, to encourage the inclusion of Home Language books in community libraries. As these two extensions of the project get underway, they will be documented and evaluated using a collaborative action research approach.

6. Conclusions

This article has described the development and initial implementation of a programme providing books in the Home Languages of refugee children in a refugee education centre in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Interviews with five volunteer teachers in the programme identified the ways in which the books were being used, the impact of the books on the children and adults, and the challenges the teachers identified in relation to the range of languages present, access to the books outside of the classroom, and including books for teenagers. The challenges and affordances of the programmes have been discussed in light of literature describing the importance of Home Language education, the potential of children's books, and the experiences of similar programmes. Future ideas for developing the programme based on reflections and suggestions from teachers using the books have been identified. Certainly, the reception of books in Home Languages has been overwhelmingly positive; the challenges faced are interpreted as opportunities to shape the future development of the programme by purchasing books in more languages for a wider age group and making these available freely within classrooms, libraries, and refugees' new homes. All children have the right to read in their Home Language stories which reflect their cultural heritage and identity [ 15]. This has implications for their future educational success and for the maintenance of the Home Language. The prime purpose of the programme described in this article is to ensure that refugee children, who face many challenges as they settle in their new home, have this right protected.

AMA Style

Chicago/Turabian Style

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Joy of Having a Book in Your Own Language: Home Language Books in a Refugee Education Centre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 2018, Aotearoa/New Zealand increased its annual refugee quota to 1000. When refugees arrive in Aotearoa/New Zealand they spend six weeks in a resettlement programme. During this time, children attend an introduction to schooling. First language (L1) literacy support for children experiencing education in a medium that is not their Home Language has been identified as essential for children's educational success.

# data[].attributes.body
This lesson plan works really well with A Different Pond and is very detailed. It gives a variety of questions that you can ask the students at the beginning, middle, and end of the book. These questions are able for the students to really analyze the struggles this family is going through. One of the question addresses the fact that the boy’s father struggles with English implying that English is not his first language, so the students have to analyze how that might make the boy feel. It then also has activities that the students can do after they read to further their education skills. These skills include the use of similes, writing a poem, and understanding the sequence of the story. If I were to use this I might use this more as a reflection rather than the poem and I would have them right a reflection on how they would feel if they were in the little boy’s situation.

# data[].attributes.body
This Lesson Plan with I’m New Here really focuses on the emotions that these students may feel, which I think is important for students to be able to understand. I think at young ages the best way for students to connect to different ideas is through emotion because they understand the concept that it does not feel good to be sad or excluded so I think this lesson plan does a good job explaining how new students who may be different may be feeling and how they can do a good job welcoming them. So this activity goes through different experiences these students have gone through in their life, when they were new to something, when they felt different, and then also how they have been welcomed to something. Then after asking these questions then the students are asked how to apply it to new students as well.

# data[].attributes.headline
Who is in the Classroom Now? Teacher Preparation and the Education of Immigrant Children 

# data[].attributes.subject
Who is in the Classroom Now? Teacher Preparation and the Education of Immigrant Children 

# data[].attributes.body
This source examines the quality of teachers in the classroom with the changing times. It advocates increasing the conversation about how we can best help immigrant students. This article reflects different events that have changed how the world sees immigrants and how that affects immigrant children in the classroom. It concludes with different strategies on how to become more prepared for these issues before we even get into the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In light of shifting immigration trends and demographics, teacher preparation must be rethought to ensure culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and classroom practice. This imperative is one with which educators have long been struggling, but have yet to adequately address. Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article about this very same imperative, which looked "at the issue of teacher preparation in light of changing demographics as a direct consequence of increased immigration" (Goodwin, 2002a, p. 156). The article concluded that "conversations about the unique needs of immigrant children and recommendations for better teacher preparation are futile if society and educators do not have the will to do the right thing" (p. 170). A decade and a half since that article was published, it is troubling to find it necessary to engage in the same examination and assessment of the same issues. The question now is: What, if anything, is different in terms of who is in the classroom now? Are teachers any more prepared to work with immigrant children? Have the issues facing immigrant children--and their families--changed? How is the world different and what does that difference mean for education? Immigration and immigrants are indelibly woven into the fabric of American history, so any discussion about the education of immigrant children is embedded in an ongoing socio-historical conversation. In what ways have educators been full participants in that conversation? Have we done the right thing? This article attempts to address these questions about preparing teachers for newcomers entering US classrooms today. It begins by looking at curriculum and teaching practices that seem to be in place (or not), and outlines key issues facing todays' immigrants to the United States. The article closes with some suggestions for teacher preparation if we are truly committed to educating all children well.

Descriptors: Teacher Education Programs, Immigrants, Teacher Competencies, Student Diversity, Curriculum, Teaching Methods, Minority Group Students, Student Needs, Terrorism, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Economic Climate, Budgets, Children

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ERIC - EJ1154324 - Who Is in the Classroom Now? Teacher Preparation and the Education of Immigrant Children, Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 2017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In light of shifting immigration trends and demographics, teacher preparation must be rethought to ensure culturally and linguistically responsive curriculum and classroom practice. This imperative is one with which educators have long been struggling, but have yet to adequately address.

# data[].attributes.body
This presentation shows the logistics that are involved with students and their families who are immigrants. It explains the reality of how these families are exposed to a whole world and complexities that they have never encountered or simply don’t understand. With a different language, culture, and school system, they need the guidance to know how to help their children be successful. It implores for educators to be the advocates for theses families and help them overcome the roadblocks they encounter as they relocate and try to provide a better life for their children.

# data[].attributes.headline
To Be Happy: An Immigrant Student's Tale

# data[].attributes.subject
To Be Happy: An Immigrant Student's Tale

# data[].attributes.body
This video shares a story of a school in Kansas City that has a demographic fully of diversity. It shares how it thrives off of the variety of culture and how much they learn from their students who have had to deal with being relocated. It shares about the opportunity these students have to come and learn at these schools, and how it changes the lives of those involved. The teachers share hardships and also experiences they’ve had with these students, and in the end how grateful they are for the opportunity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
To Be Happy | An Immigrant Student's Tale

# data[].attributes.body
This is a powerful Ted Talk about the dangers of stereotypes and assumptions. She shares her experiences with being labeled and being the labeller. She advocates looking at everyone as who they are as individuals and how everyone has something to offer. She warns against limiting people around us by categorizing them with shallow beliefs we have about them. It is a powerful resource not only for teachers but students as well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

# data[].attributes.body
This page regularly posts different resources for refugees and their mentors. They post about different workshops that are available and events to help with their schooling. They also provide resources for other events to help their physical and emotional well-being.

# data[].attributes.body
Organization where your donations help fund essential 21st century educational skills for refugees. The skills included digital literacy, media literacy, financial literacy, and leadership skills. They call it a “small business incubator”, helping them make a life for themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Internet was not the all-encompassing monster that ruled every part of modern life until the arrival of the smartphone. Like all world-changing tools that came before, it can be used for good or evil.

Without proper training in essential digital skills, the Internet is nothing more than a distraction, a nuisance even. However, with training and practice in essential digital literacy, the Internet is a portal to the entire world. A resource to learn, a means of expression, a meeting place to connect with diverse people across the globe. A smartphone with Internet access in the hands of refugee youth with digital literacy skills can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity.

Refugees are ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances. The majority of refugees worldwide are stuck in limbo with limited economic or educational opportunities. Their talents and potential are waiting to be realized.

Founded in 2016, Hello Future is a nonprofit organization that bridges the education gap for adolescent refugees. Our mission is to transform the refugee youth experience from forgotten, alone, and stuck to connected and empowered so they can thrive anywhere. We accomplish this by teaching the essential skills needed to become entrepreneurs and community leaders.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Internet was not the all-encompassing monster that ruled every part of modern life until the arrival of the smartphone. Like all world-changing tools that came before, it can be used for good or evil. Without proper training in essential digital skills, the Internet is nothing more than a distraction, a nuisance even.

# data[].attributes.body
Organization looking to provide safe and well prepared schools and learning environments for immigrants and undocumented students and families. Recognizing that fear of safety, losing their families, and violence impacts their academic and social success, they have created resources to best help these students. They also bring in educators who are specifically prepared for this.

# data[].attributes.headline
International Student Service Association 

# data[].attributes.subject
International Student Service Association 

# data[].attributes.body
This organization provides resources for higher education to immigrant students. They give advice for college applications and resume building. They also provide information for scholarships and financial aid. It promotes these students to continue their education after high school.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Home - International Student Services Association

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ISSA provides underserved immigrant and international high school students in the US (citizens and non-US citizens) with mentoring and workshops to guide them down the road of career success and college acceptance. Career exploration Internships & resume building Resume, Cover letter, and Interview prep College application process assistance Scholarship and Financial Aid ACT/SAT preparation strategies ISSA has established relationships with schools that are actively seeking international students.