The Problem of Homeless Veterans in US

The Problem of Homeless Veterans in US Introduction There are several veterans who are homeless in the United States of America and are estimated to range between 130, 000 and 200,000 at a given one night. Homeless veterans represent a fifth of all homeless people in America. There are also those veterans who struggle to meet the excessive rent burdens and this has worsened their homelessness.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Problem of Homeless Veterans in US specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is also a growing concern regarding the status of the veterans in the future. Women veterans and those with disabilities are becoming increasingly isolated and are likely to become homeless. This is a common characteristic of those veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Demographics The records at the department of Veteran affairs in the US indicate that majority of the homeless veterans are males, and only four percent are females. Majority of them are single, from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds. Approximately, forty-five percent of them suffer from one form of disability or the other and nurse the effects of drug and substance abuse. These homeless veterans are those who served in World War II, Cold war, Vietnam war, Korean war, Panama, Grenada and Lebanon. Female veterans are likely to be married but most of them end up suffering from psychiatric problems (National Coalition for the Homeless 1). Programs and Policy Issues Various attempts are made to ensure that veterans who are homeless acquire homes. The department of veteran affairs is responsible for funding temporary housing for the homeless veterans. These programs include: shelter and a two year transitional housing that is funded by the grant and their per diem program, long-term care through domiciliary care for the homeless veterans and imparting of some skills such as Compensated Work Therapy. However, these programs do not meet the required demand or the existing needs. There is also the Department of Housing and Urban Development that have collaborated with the HUD-VA to offer supportive and housing programs that can connect the housing choice to the vouchers with the VA case management system and services. The HUD program mainly targets the veterans. The addition of extra vouchers by the government was considered to be a major boost. Veteran assistant staff has been collaborating with local coalitions in various states to ensure that the homeless veterans are guaranteed of their security and safety by providing shelter, food, clothing and other forms of assistance (Todd 21).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The response by homeless veterans gained prominence in the 1980s when the Congress realized that veterans were unrepresented in the data of homeless persons. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans was established to provide services and support to the increasing number of homeless veterans (Perl 18). Conclusion The needs and the demands of the homeless veterans are similar. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans Affairs advocates for effective programs, and they suggest for community based non-profit organizations like veterans helping veterans group to spearhead the process. It has been shown that veterans can be successfully assisted to acquire homes. The government needs to take proactive action to curb the menace of having so many veterans being homeless. Long term planning will make it possible for the veterans to be provided with social amenities and health care. The government also needs to actively examine the issue of wage disparity as it directly contributes to homelessness. Unless these are addressed, the tragedy of veteran homelessness will be an unending mess plaguing the American communities. National Coalition for the Homeless. Homeless Veterans. National Coalition for the Homele ss, 2009. Web. nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.pdf. Perl, Libby. Veterans and Homelessness. New York, NY: DIANE Publishing, n.d. Print. Todd, Ernest. Homelessness: Is Society Looking the Other Way? New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2005. Print.

Preparing to Teach Grammar in an ESL Class

Preparing to Teach Grammar in an ESL Class Teaching grammar in an ESL / EFL setting is quite different from teaching grammar to native speakers. This short guide points to important questions that you should ask yourself to prepare to teach grammar in your own classes. Important Questions to Address The important question that needs to be answered is: how do I teach grammar? In other words, how do I help students learn the grammar they need. This question is deceptively easy. At first look, you might think that teaching grammar is just a matter of explaining grammar rules to students. However, teaching grammar effectively is a much more complicated matter. There are a number of questions that  need to be addressed for each class: What are the objectives of this class?Is the class preparing for an exam? Is the class improving their English for business purposes? Is the class preparing for summer holidays? etc.The answer to this question is important as it will help you decide on how much grammar really needs to be taught. If students are preparing for a Cambridge Exam then grammar will play a large role in your lesson plans. On the other hand, if you are teaching a business class, linguistic formulas may play a larger role as you provide the learners with standard phrases for written documents, participating in meetings, etc.What type of learning background do the learners have?Are the students at school? Have they not studied for a number of years? Are they familiar with grammar terminology?Adults who have not been attending school for a number of years are likely to find grammar explanations confusing while as students who are currently studying will probably be much more adept at understanding grammar chart s, expressions, etc. What learning materials and resources are available?Do you have the latest student workbooks? Do you have no workbooks at all? Is there a computer in the classroom?The more learning resources you have the easier it will be for you to employ different strategies when teaching your students grammar. For example, a group of students who like using computers could use the computer to study a certain grammar task while another group who prefers spoken explanations might prefer to have you explain the point with a number of examples. Obviously, the more varieties of learning opportunities the better your chances are that each student will be able to learn the grammar point well.What kind of learning style does each student have?Is the learner comfortable with standard right brain learning techniques (logical charts, study sheets, etc.)? Does the learner work better with listening and repeating exercises?This is one of the most difficult aspects of teaching - especially teaching grammar. If you have a class of learners with similar learning styles, you can afford to use a similar approach. However, if you have a class of mixed learning styles then you need to try to provide instruction using as many different methods as possible. Once you have answered these questions you can more expertly approach the question of how you are going to provide the class with the grammar they need. In other words, each class is going to have different grammar needs and goals and it is up to the teacher to determine these goals and provide the means with which to meet them. Inductive and Deductive First, a quick definition: Inductive is known as a bottom-up approach. In other words, students discovering grammar rules while working through exercises. For example, a  reading comprehension which includes a number of sentences describing what a person has done up to that period in time. After doing the reading comprehension, the teacher could begin to ask questions such as: How long has he done this or that? Has he ever been to Paris? etc. and then follow with When did he go to Paris? To help the students inductively understand the difference between the simple past and the present perfect, these questions could be followed with which questions spoke about a definite time in the past? Which questions asked about the persons general experience? etc. Deductive is known as a top-down approach. This is the standard teaching approach that has a teacher explaining rules to the students. For example, the present perfect is made up of the auxiliary verb have plus the past participle. It is used to express an action which has begun in the past and continues to the present moment,  etc. Grammar Lesson Outline A teacher needs in the first place to facilitate learning. That is why we recommend providing students with inductive learning exercises. However, there are certainly moments when the teacher needs to explain grammar concepts to the class. Generally, we recommend the following class structure when teaching grammar skills: Begin with an exercise, game, listening, etc. that introduces the grammar concept.Ask students questions that will help them identify the grammar concept to be discussed.Follow with another exercise that more specifically focuses on the grammar concept, but takes an inductive approach. This could be a reading exercise with questions and responses in the structures that are being taught.Check responses, ask students to explain the grammar concept that has been introduced.At this point introduce teaching explanations as a way of clearing up misunderstandings.Provide an exercise which focuses on the correct construction of the grammar point. This could be an exercise such as a fill the gap, cloze or tense conjugation activity.Ask students to once again explain the concept. As you can see, the teacher is facilitating students to do their own learning rather than using the top-down approach of dictating rules to the class.