The newcomers

By Helen Thorpe

Subjects: Teenage refugees -- Education (Secondary) -- Colorado -- Denver, English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, English language, SOCIAL SCIENCE, Teenage immigrants -- Colorado -- Denver, FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY, Multiculturalism, Teenage immigrants, Teenage immigrants -- Education (Secondary) -- Colorado -- Denver, South High School (Denver, Colo.), Refugees, united states, Students, United states, emigration and immigration, Social adjustment, Americanization, Multicultural Education, Foreign speakers, Education (Secondary), Teenage refugees -- Colorado -- Denver, Study and teaching, Teenage refugees, Emigration & Immigration, EDUCATION, New York Times reviewed, English as a Second Language

Description: Follows the lives of twenty-two immigrant teenagers from nations devastated by drought or famine or war, over the course of their first school year in America. The talented and endlessly resourceful Denver South High School teacher Mr. Eddie Williams welcomes these students, who speak fourteen different languages but no English and are completely unfamiliar with American culture, to his specially created English Language Acquisition class. He guides them through the enormous challenges of gaining basic English skills, adapting to life in the developed world, and coping with the usual pangs of adolescence. Together their class represents a microcosm of the global refugee crisis, and highlights the moral issues of immigration, inclusion, and America's role on the global stage.