Testimonials!

What Teachers say about the EASY ESL Series:

The EASY ESL Series is a powerful supplement for Grades 4 through High School Newcomer texts and produces excellent results in Adult Education.

Click here to jump to Grades 4 – 12

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Grades 4 – 12

Tom Carrol is the lead ELD Teacher at Encina High School in San Juan U.S.D. in Sacramento, CA. Encina High School serves a student population with a high percentage of EL students from many different backgrounds and languages. Tom also managed to provide the EASY team with a rare look at a control group of students that were using EASY as a supplement to their adopted text – the results were pretty amazing: a cancellation of the scheduled EL Summer School – because the students weren’t failing!

EASY team: How does EASY complement your main text, High Point?
Tom Carrol: EASY has really helped us a lot to get newcomers started at a level they’re successful at. That’s where we find it really helpful with accessing High Point. And it helps the students who come in late (after the beginning of the school year) get caught up much faster because it really stretches their oral language.

EASY team: When you added EASY as a supplement to High Point, what difference did that make to the effectiveness of your curriculum?
Tom Carrol: Along with an extra English class, it (EASY) has really jumped their scores and given them a real jumpstart on getting into English and getting into High Point. EASY has made High Point more accessible, especially for the students that get here late (after the beginning of the school year). It really helps them get adjusted.
Our summer school ELD class is offered, as a remedial class, only to those who have failed their ELD class. This year our program has been extremely successful and we don’t have enough students who failed ELD to form a summer school class. The remedial class has been cancelled!

EASY team: If you were describing EASY to a colleague, what would you say?
Tom Carrol: I would say I think it’s an excellent program. There’s no such thing as a perfect program, but it is an excellent program. It has lots of teacher support, good lesson plans, it’s easy to use, and allows the students to work at their own rate and really encourages them and moves them along. I highly recommend it.
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Gerardo Garcia is the ELD teacher for Grades 6 and 7 at the Pixley Elementary School in the Central Valley of California. The School has a high percentage of Hispanic students many of whom are in the Migrant Education program.

EASY team: How is EASY being used in your class?
Gerardo Garcia: I use EASY along with Oxford Picture Dictionary, Phonics in Print, and High Point. When I plan, I plan as a unit and fit EASY into the area that I’m going to be emphasizing in conjunction with the standards. I use EASY as an enrichment, I integrate it into the curriculum. I also have found the connection with home to be very useful. If a student has a particular need, I let that student take the CD or video home and work on that particular aspect and then bring it back. I assign some homework with EASY and tailor it to that student’s particular needs. Also, if students get ahead of the class, they can work on whatever it is they need to learn. Sending it home has been so successful that even some of the parents like it and want to use it.
I teach the whole class with the tape first, then they work on the handouts and the CDs independently.

EASY team: How does EASY complement High Point?
Gerardo Garcia: It makes it easier to make the connection to High Point because it goes by units like EASY does so it fits really well with High Point and helps the students access High Point.

EASY team: What are the weaknesses of EASY?
Gerardo Garcia: The early units were a little too brief. It could have been expanded or extended a little bit. Maybe there needs to be some extra enrichment in the workbook. Maybe a written story emphasizing vocabulary and what the unit is about.

EASY team: What are the strengths of EASY?
Gerardo Garcia: The strength is that I am able to make the connection very easily to High Point and to the Oxford Picture Dictionary books. EASY is very on target with my other content. It fits together very well with my other materials. I like the visuals and the interactive part of it because I certainly don’t have video for my other materials. The interactive part plays a big role with these kids, especially with those who are ready to practice and climb out of their shells.
Let’s put it this way. There were (level)1s last year with zero English and they’re coming up this year as (level)3s. A good example of this is that two of my newcomer students from last year who had zero English are giving speeches, in English, this year at the graduation. That’s how much they have flourished. I attribute this to the combination of all my materials and instruction, including EASY.
Bits and chunks won’t work this program, it has to be done step-by-step.
By the way, some of my students really like the girls. They always beg to watch the program and it’s because some of them want to see the girls.

EASY team: How would you describe EASY to a colleague?
Gerardo Garcia: If you want to push your students and have them use their full potential, then I would recommend it. I would tell them how and why it works for me. If someone doesn’t use it the way I’ve been using it, then it might not work. If you don’t run your classroom with groups and interactive activities—if it’s just going to be direct instruction—then it’s not going to work. It has played an important role in what we have done here. Like a piece of a puzzle, EASY has been one of the components that has made a difference in my class and has made it successful. I will keep using the program and learning how to use it better.
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Judy Shivack is the lead EL Teacher in the Job Corps program in Tucson, AZ. Job Corps provides a limited time program to teach English, with many, many students with a low level of literacy who are very new immigrants to this country.

EASY team: How are the teachers at your school using EASY?
Judy Shivack: The students work independently in a computer lab at their level and at their own pace.

EASY team: What other materials do you use?
Judy Shivack: We use a program called Supergoal.

EASY team: How does EASY complement Supergoal?
Judy Shivack: It provides opportunity for enrichment and additional practice as far as concepts, vocabulary, (and) grammar. And additional practice individually for listening and speaking skills because when you’re working in a group or in pairs, one person may dominate more so here is the opportunity for that student to really practice speaking, recording and listening on his own. EASY is very thematic like our other programs, so that helps.

EASY team: What are the shortcomings of EASY and how would you improve it?
Judy Shivack: I think there is a big jump between the two series 1-6 and 7-12. If there was something in between that was a little more transitional, that would help.

EASY team: How do you decide when to move the student on?
Judy Shivack: I used the worksheets and quizzes. If they understood it or if they did well, then we went on to the next part of it. If they didn’t, then I knew that they needed to go back to that CD again and work on certain things. I liked the fact that there was so much repetition in them, that was very helpful.

EASY team: What are the strengths of EASY and how does your program benefit?
Judy Shivack: The obvious strength is that, with an open-entry program, the fact that the students can work on this individually, work at their own pace is extremely important. The fact that it is realistic using real people in the video I find very enjoyable for the students. That they are the same age, they’re peers, was also very good. I really enjoy it a lot.

EASY team: How do you measure your student gains?
Judy Shivack: We measure gains informally through observation.

EASY team: What are the students’ attitudes toward EASY?
Judy Shivack: They like it a lot! They’re very enthusiastic about it. I tried working with (name deleted) and they were much less enthusiastic about that because it’s so static. EASY has the video where you see actual people in actual situations and these people are students in a high school classroom. It’s everything that they can relate to as opposed to (name deleted) just being still pictures and hearing this really rather boring voice saying, “A man and a woman…a cat and a fish,” you know? EASY is also great because it’s getting at a theme, a function as you’re going to a bank and registering at schools (name deleted) doesn’t do that. Also, EASY gets at some of the grammar and the verb tenses that (name deleted) does in a very subliminal way that I really don’t like because regardless these students need to know how to say something in the present tense, the past tense, the future tense and be very cognizant of it. So, EASY is more explicit and direct.

EASY team: If you were describing EASY to a colleague, what would you say?
Judy Shivack: I would say it’s dynamic, interactive. It focuses on themes which are interesting and important for these students. For example, the CD that focuses on driving and getting a driver’s license—that appeals to them. It’s appealing to the students. It’s a very easy format. It’s easy to use. The worksheets and supplemental materials are very easy to use. I also like the way the print is large and easy to read which is very good, especially for at-risk populations. Also, the ability to hear native speakers and record yourself and compare yourself to them is a strength.
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Adult Education & Family Literacy

Gordon Peterson is EL/Civics Coordinator in the Adult Education Dept. at Paris Junior College, TX. They use the BEST Assessment with their students.

EASY team: How are the teachers at your school using EASY?
Gordon Peterson: Our teachers are using it for the conversational aspect and how to put sentences together. They really like the words beneath the conversation because that helps them understand it a little better. EASY has become our main curriculum for teaching English to our beginning students.

EASY team: What are the shortcomings or weaknesses of EASY?
Gordon Peterson: That’s a tough one…our teachers love it.

EASY team: What are the strengths of EASY?
Gordon Peterson: The strengths are that the actors speak slowly and that it has the text written at the bottom of the screen. The pace and the text facilitate teaching basic conversation.

EASY team: If you were describing EASY to a colleague, what would you say?
Gordon Peterson: It’s a program that draws in all of the students’ attention. Some of the other programs are a little dry. The students are totally absorbed with these tapes. So, it’s interesting and they seem to be learning from it.
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Frank Corralez is Director of the ESL program at Compton Adult School, in Compton, Los Angeles. Compton, with pressures typical of an urban school district, is part of the
Los Angeles metropolitan area and has a large and growing population of working class immigrants from Latin America. The In-Class and Distance Learning (Video Check out) programs use the EASY program. The EASY Series was actually selected by the students as their favorite program. The results, as shown from the recorded improvements in their CASAS scores, are exceptional. For the record, Compton now has 350 sets of EASY being checked out.

EASY team: How is your program being run?
Frank Corralez: The way I run the distance learning (video checkout) program is that it’s set up on a two-week basis. The students comes in to check out the video and the workbook pages and bring it back after two weeks. At that point we review the video contents and the workbook and they check out the next sequence.
EASY team: What other ESL programs are you using?
Frank Corralez: We use the Side By Side books and the (name deleted) video program.

EASY team: How often are you assessing your students?
Frank Corralez: We assess them after every two videos (every four weeks).

EASY team: Do you have any suggestions for improving or expanding the program?
Frank Corralez: No, not really. The students really like it, they really enjoy this one. When I first started the program we were using (name deleted) and that was totally confusing. Then when I showed the students EASY with a few other programs, they immediately went for EASY because they said they could follow it much better (than the rest).

EASY team: What do students like about it?
Frank Corralez: They can follow it. It’s very easy to understand.

EASY team: How has your program benefited from it?
Frank Corralez: Just that the students really like it much better than the other programs. Since we started using EASY there has been improvement in the students’ progress and in our overall program. The students are improving their English ability as proven by their CASAS tests. If we were using a different ESL product, we wouldn’t have such a high percentage of people involved in our program. So, EASY has helped to increase our student population.

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