Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Purpose: Expanding Educational Services The Lower East Side Tenement Museum will fund Shared Journeys, an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Through ESOL, the Museum will make available its resources to immigrants learning English. Using a curriculum based on diaries, letters, oral histories, and other material, ESOL students will gain fluency in English, important job skills, and an understanding of American institutions. Shared Journeys will feature 45 ESOL classes around the city participating in a series of six workshops during a two-year period. A special ESOL workbook will supplement the curricula and provide English language exercises and activities. Each class will include a building tour where students will explore historical challenges such as finding work, accessing services and programs, and learning a new language. By Program's end, ESOL students will gain confidence in knowing that they are a part of a continual and fundamental tradition of immigration to the United States.