Pearson Longman November 2009 ESL Newsletter
  NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER                                    VIEW ARCHIVE
Cindy Dodgion
"Let Me Take You There": On the Power of Language Mastery and Reading to Transform Lives
Cindy Dodgion, Senior Conference Coordinator and Event Planner

Judith CoferThe author of popular young adult fiction such as An Island Like You and Call Me Maria, Judith Ortiz Cofer frequently speaks to educators at various conferences throughout the US. Through selected readings from her works and discussions, she shares her personal journey through language acquisition that began as a shy, silent non-English speaking girl in the back of the class to becoming the honored English professor, poet, and novelist that she is today.

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, Judith Ortiz Cofer now makes her home in Georgia. She is a poet, essayist, and novelist, whose work explores the experience of being Puerto Rican and living, writing, and teaching in the United States.

As an English Language Learner growing up in the United States, Judith recalls the role that words and language played in her life. She chronicles these memories in her stories, poems, and essays. Through her stories she inspires teachers and suggests activities in the classroom that offer students the opportunity to share their story and realize they have a voice that matters.

"After our move from Puerto Rico to Paterson, New Jersey, early in my American life," Judith recalIs, "I discovered the power of language to transform my reality, to shape my future. My reality then was intrinsically connected to Spanish and to my native culture, which was the small but familiar and safe world our parents could offer us within the confines of our home and the boundaries of our barrio.

"When I began to master the English language, the language of survival, I expanded my borders. I added new dimensions to my reality, new options to my future. Little by little I reinvented myself as a new American, one who could travel between languages and cultures, adding rather than subtracting from each, taking what I needed for my self-empowerment.

"This is how an individual identity may be born out of choice; how a dream for one’s life may be created — by making an active choice to live a meaningful live that one controls. The alternative: Without mastery of the language of survival, without an education life simply happens to you, with or without your permission."

On writing, Judith observes, "Aristotle said that the task of the historian is to record the events of human history; the poet records the emotional history of humankind. As an educator and a writer, I have a dual job. To present the facts of life in America as a Latina, as accurately and objectively as I can; yet also to transform them into a vision that will hopefully outlast my time in this world."

Students can read several of Judith's engaging stories in the Longman Keystone series for grades 6-12. She also frequently speaks to teachers and students across the country — "feeding their souls," as one teacher in Colorado recently shared.

Want to learn more about Judith? Interested in bringing Judith's work into your classrooms? Visit her website for a complete bibliography and bio.




Do you have an inspirational story to share?
Visit www.pearsonlongman.com/great-teachers
to tell your story about what inspires you as a teacher.

If you do not wish to receive any future e-mails from Pearson Longman, please click here.
Or send an email to ESL_marketing@pearsoned.com

Pearson Longman ESL, 10 Bank Street, White Plains, NY 10606.
Please read our privacy policy: http://www.pearsonlongmanusa.com/privacy