Puerto Rican native and new Norwich resident Helda Mejías was early and eager for her appointment last week with two English as a Second Language instructors at Samuel Huntington Elementary School. Beth Brunet, English as Second Language/bilingual educator coordinator, and English as Second Language teacher Bernie Flowers nodded as Mejías explained in Spanish her fidgeting, blonde, pony-tailed daughter, Pamela Cintrón, 8, was an “all-A student” in Puerto Rico and is ready for the fourth grade in America.

As of the latest data from October 2005, 47 percent of Norwich students are minorities (including native English speakers) compared to 25.8 percent during 1996, yet the district’s enrollment fell this year from 4,215 in 1996 to 3,914. Local and state education officials say adult immigrants are coming to the area to fill new jobs at casinos and ancillary businesses. Not all of them have children in the schools, however. “We have entire neighborhoods a school bus never stops at,” Aubin said. “They’re full of adult people that work either at Pfizer or the casinos, and they don’t have children.” (more…)

search for : English as a Second Language instructors, bilingual educator, English as Second Language teacher, Spanish, Puerto Rico

This year, Loudoun County Public Schools Foreign Language Department added two new Spanish courses for students who speak Spanish fluently. Spanish for Fluent Speakers and Spanish Language Arts are designed for students who speak their native language but do not know how to read and write it well. panish for Fluent Speakers is a literacy-based program designed to meet the needs of native speakers who speak and understand the language, but are functionally illiterate, Foreign Language Department chair Suzette Whys said. The course was created with a goal in mind, to make students more literate in their first language, to help them learn English.

“It is impossible to do in a second language what you can’t do in your first language,” Whys said. In previous years, Spanish-speaking students enrolled in Spanish classes geared toward non-English speakers. Whys said these students were often bored in classes. Now, they will have the option to take a course geared toward their specific needs.
The course will be available to students in eighth through 12th grades and will be offered in 15 out of 20 of the county’s secondary schools, including Dominion, Park View and Potomac Falls high schools. Approximately 350 students have registered Spanish Language for Native Speakers Level I course, a foreign language elective. Next year, Whys hopes to add a second level course to allow students to build their literacy skills. (more…)

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For Colgan Leaming, it has to be about people first. Colgan Leaming has an important message to share, but even she couldn’t have guessed how she would be sharing it. Leaming ‘08, a special Education and ESL major wants to change the way people with disabilities are viewed. “It has to be about the person first and the disability second,” she says.

eaming’s brother Kevin has Down syndrome. Down syndrome occurs when a child has 47 chromosomes instead of 46. The extra chromosome leads to cognitive and physical delays in the child. Her essay My Brother is Not His Disability focuses on clearing up misunderstandings about Kevin and other people with disabilities. Leaming had been working with a writer who was doing a piece on people who had siblings with disabilities. Due to some bad timing the story never ran. Leaming still wanted to get her story out there. She found out about My Turn online, a section of the Newsweek website where readers can submit essays. (more…)

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Literacy and numeracy skills for students in local school boards and across the province are in an upward spiral, according to the release of the latest EQAO results today. All four local school boards demonstrated significant improvements mirroring the improving provincial results since standardized testing was first implemented five years ago.

At Bayshore Public School, which has a large ESL population, the lessons taught in the classroom make their way into the homes of students, said Betty Liebregts, an ESL teacher. The Catholic school board also fared well and attributed their improvements to professional development throughout the system. The board has various initiatives to promote increased literacy and numeracy skills. “Certainly as a board we are looking at all schools and working collaboratively with principals to work with all students. Seventy-five percent is the provincial target but we want 100% of our students to be successful,” said Camilla Martin, superintendent of staff development, evaluation and research.

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The Education Department is saying it’s OK to leave out the test scores of new students with limited English when states evaluate schools. The goal is to give schools extra time to work with those students before being held accountable for their progress under the No Child Left Behind law. The policy applies to students who have been in a U.S. school for less than a year. Math and reading scores for those students no longer have to be counted.

Though final now, the flexibility is not new. Forty states have been granted permission to exempt scores since the policy change was introduced in draft form. The final version adds language to make sure students learning English aren’t ignored. More than 5 million public school students are learning English as a second language. (more…)

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An epiphany brought Sarita Williams, 25, to the Fort Valley Adult Literacy Center. It came in the form of 3-month-old Makimba, her daughter she now had to care for. “Sitting at home all day wasn’t going to cut it,” Williams said. “Working at a $5 an hour job wasn’t going to cut it.” Williams left Peach County High School six years ago. Though she completed the 12th grade, she had failed the exam for graduation. She carved out a meager living by working in restaurants. Becoming a mother made it clear she needed access to better opportunities in life and she found she could gain that access through the LEAP program.

Literacy Education for Adults in Peach was established in September 1998. The goal of the LEAP program is to reduce the number of Peach County residents in need of literary services by 51 percent by 2008.

The program’s literature states that 4,792 Peach County residents over the age of 16 do not have a high school diploma or GED. So far, the program has provided services to more than 2,300 peoples, nearing its goal to halve illiteracy in the county with more than a year to go.

The Fort Valley Adult Education Center and the Byron Adult Education Center are under the leadership of Middle Georgia Technical College. The LEAP program is funded through private donations.

The program provides Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language courses. The services are free. (more…)

search for : Literacy Education for Adults, high school diploma or GED, Middle Georgia Technical College, Adult Basic Education, English as a Second Language

The kindergartners in Lillian Carrasquillo’s class at Devers Elementary School start their morning singing, to the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?”. Their Spanish is certainly shaky. Almost all of them love to sing, though, regardless of their abilities. Carrasquillo uses songs, hand puppets and stickers to make Spanish a fun subject for the pupils. This is the first year a foreign language has been offered at Devers, which is on Fort Bragg. Kindergartners and first-graders take 90 minutes of Spanish over the course of either two or three classes each week.

The Foreign Language in the Elementary School program gives the pupils, even the 5- and 6-year-olds, a knowledge and interest in global affairs, Carrasquillo said. The children also get an overview of the Latin American culture, she said. “They learn about how kids in Uruguay live, how kids in Colombia live,” she said. Students on military bases can especially benefit from such a class, because they might live overseas or have a parent sent to another country, Carrasquillo said. (more…)

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How do you seek medical treatment if you can’t tell the doctor what hurts? When most of us face tasks such as visiting the doctor or buying a car, we may worry about the cost of the prescription or the monthly payment. However, these tasks can present formidable challenges for those without English speaking skills, said the Rev. Esteban Guerra.

Students in Cathy Mitchell’s ESL class at the Rome Floyd-County Library agree. The classes are offered at the library through a partnership with Coosa Valley Technical College. Members of Mitchell’s advanced class know some English and are working to learn more. The students represent a variety of countries, including Japan, Mexico, Guatemala and Switzerland. Student Miyuki Sato knew almost no English when she moved with her husband to Rome from Japan for his job about five years ago. Although English grammar is taught in the Japanese school system, little focus is placed on speaking the language. After five years of the course, Sato feels better able to communicate with those in her new community. (more…)

search for : English speaking skills, ESL, English grammar