Help Adult English Learners: Become a Virtual Conversation Group Co-Facilitator! Training Provided

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Thank you for your interest! Would you like to help adult immigrants and refugees develop confidence in their speaking and listening skills? Are you a good listener with great cross-cultural and interpersonal skills?

This is an opportunity to co-facilitate an English Conversation Group for adult ESL/English language learners (ELLs) with Sacramento Public Library (California). There are virtual and in-person opportunities.

These groups are open to the public but may also include Adult Literacy ESL learners from our tutoring program.

This is NOT a class and not a teaching position, in the traditional sense; we chose the term "facilitator" for a reason! No lecturing please. We want facilitators who will minimize their own speaking and maximize participant speaking time. Volunteer facilitators are trained and guided by an Adult Literacy staff person with TESOL* expertise, so previous experience is not required. As a co-facilitator, you can contribute discussion ideas/content, facilitate discussion among adult ESL participants, and assist in particular with breakout room discussions.

The virtual conversation group sessions have a basic structure with a specific theme or topic (food, holidays, etc.) that a staff person creates, often based on participant and volunteer input, but are otherwise informal. In-person groups have more flexibility and allow for more facilitator independence, although general training guidelines and expectations still apply so that participants have a somewhat consistent experience across our large system.

The preferred number of co-facilitators per virtual session is 3, to help manage virtual breakout rooms. For in-person groups, 2 is usually sufficient and two may not always be needed. For in-person, if we have two or more facilitators for one location, you could work together and/or switch off as needed for personal scheduling reasons.

We currently offer 3 virtual conversation group sessions (listed below) and are looking for more in-person facilitators also, for different locations. You may commit to facilitating one or more sessions.

• Thursdays, 1:00 - Beginner/Intermediate
• Thursdays, 5:00 - Intermediate/Advanced
• Fridays, 1:00 - "Make-up" session, tailored to average level using Thursday's topic(s)
• Let us know if you are interested in in-person groups at certain library branches (28 total)

Due to the time it takes to train volunteers and for volunteers to become comfortable, we ask volunteers commit to 6 months or longer, but there is some flexibility. Longer-term volunteers also help build a sense of community and trust with participants for better persistence and outcomes.

Potential facilitators are welcome to observe a session and volunteer planning session before committing to the opportunity! Please contact us for more information.

*TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages