Level 2 class

Stories written by the students in the Level 2 class at Belmont UMC's English as a Second Language (ESL) school were written in the winter of 2020. The students’ teacher is Mary Jane Duke. The first drafts of many of these stories were written in the students’ first languages, and a special thank you goes to Peggy West for editing and typing all of these stories and to Patsy Lanigan and Muye Yu for translating. Peggy leads an ESL conversation class on Thursdays and Patsy volunteers in Level 2 and is fluent in Spanish. Muye, a friend of Mary Jane's, used to live in Nashville and now works in Chicago. The story "Six Degrees of Separation" explains how his translating of the stories came about. All of these stories are available on our website at belmontumc.org/esl-stories.

The 2019-2020 school year was cut short by two catastrophes, first the Nashville tornado and then the Covid-19 Pandemic. The last day of class was March 10, 2020. Many of the students are continuing to study English remotely by doing the lessons Mary Jane sends via email and audio file or with other online opportunities. As soon as it is safe for Belmont ESL to open again, Mary Jane will welcome all of her students back to study English.

Download 2020 Belmont Writes Story Book Level 2

Level 4 class

English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Mary Kaye Jordan considers it a priviledge to work with Nashville's immigrant community and help them learn a new language and adapt to life in a new country and culture.

One of the projects she has her intermediate level students do is write personal stories. These stories are usually showcased in a community wide celebration (ESL Writer's Night) in the spring. Due to Covid-19, this year Mary Kaye is sharing her students' stories online in the form of a downloadable pdf booklet. Her students worked so hard on their stories and Mary Kaye wants to celebrate their efforts.

Download 2020 Belmont Writes Story Book Level 4.