English Language Learners and the Power of Personal Stories

Mr. Ferlazzo has written a book about teaching English learners in ways that actually work. - - Donna Poisl

By LARRY FERLAZZO

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
–William Butler Yeats

Community organizers talk about the difference between “irritation” and “agitation.” We tend to irritate people when we push them to do what we want them to do — when we “fill up the pail,” in the words of William Butler Yeats. But we can agitate people when we challenge them to take action on something that they believe is in their self-interest. That’s when we can “light a fire.”

In my twenty years as a community organizer, my job was to listen to people’s stories, then use those stories as a way to light fires.
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