The Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School houses the elementary ELL population in the Beverly Public School District. Currently, we have 71 ELL students, K-5, representing 14% of our total school population. The ELL program at Ayers has continued to grow over the past year, and the ELL population continues to steadily increase in our district.
The profile of our students’ changes slightly across grade levels. Our students in grades K-1 were primarily born in the US (84%) and other students were born in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Greece. Similarly, the majority of our students in grades 2-5 were born in the US (54%), but other students were born in countries including Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Albania, Japan, Greece, Nepal, Haiti, Kenya, and Ukraine. Within our school Brazil is the most common country of origin, after the United States.
With a varying countries of origin comes a broad range of spoken languages. The languages most commonly spoken by our students include Spanish, Albanian, Italian, Greek, French, Cambodian, Hindi, Vietnamese, Nepali, Haitian Creole, Amharic, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and Russian. In some cases, parents/guardians list their native languages and English as the “primary” language spoken at home. For some, this is a result of one parent speaking only the native language and the other speaking English. There are also influences of other family members, such as grandparents, living at home who only speak the native languages while the parents speak English.
Ayers is the home to many ELL students, and each student comes with a different background both culturally and educationally. Many of our students’ families have come to the U.S. for employment reasons such a...
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... A high percentage of our general education teachers have already completed their SEI Endorsements, and the remaining teachers will complete these requirements in the near future.
The ELL team ensures that parents of our ELL students feel supported and included in our school community as well. Translated documents are sent home to parents, and the ELL teacher makes frequent phone calls or face to face visits with parents. The students are included in whole class instruction as well as differentiated instruction. They are provided with primary language support, peer modeling, and facilities pull-out and push-in services to meet their instructional needs. Using collaboration between the ELL team and general classroom teachers continues to help our program grow and develop with a consistent and successful toolbox of strategies to support our growing ELL population.
As Tienda and Haskins (2011) noted, “Immigrant children are more likely than native children to face circumstances such as low family income, poor parental education, and language barriers that place them at risk for developmental delay and poor academic performance once they enter school” (p. 7). At the school where I teach, the circumstances holding back the immigrant family are clearly visible. A few years ago, I had a student in class whose family had recently immigrated to the United States from Mexico. Language barriers initially set him back followed by poor attendance because he was working nights to help support his family. As his English teacher, I felt ill-equipped to support his success. Many of the issues impacting his academic success were out of both his control and mine. Overall, schools, especially rural schools in Iowa, need to pay closer attention to the diverse lifestyles of their multicultural students and
When I first read about the ESL academy, I was intrigued because I had never attended a professional development that addressed the needs of ELL students. I applied for the academy because there were no teachers in my district with ESL training or endorsements and because I saw it as an opportunity for both professional growth and professional advancement. Although I work in a district where there are very few ELL students, most of the surrounding districts have a statistically significant percentage of ELL learners. I hoped by attending the ESL academy, I would have an advantage by receiving training that will soon be essential for teachers in my district. Because of my previous training on meeting the educational needs of struggling learners and students from poverty, I expected that the ESL academy to offer more information along those same lines.
With the beginning of mandatory education in 1852 and the influx of large numbers of immigrants with their children (Reddy, p5), America was faced for the first time with educating a heterogeneous group of students. These children had diverse social and cultural backgrounds, as well as something the educators of the previous, homogenous schools had not been forced to deal with. Many of these children showed signs of various learning, developmental, physical, and emotional/behavioral problems.
Education is the key to individual opportunity, the strength of our economy, and the vitality of our democracy. In the 21st century, this nation cannot afford to leave anyone behind. While the academic achievement and educational attainment of Hispanic Americans has been moving in the right direction, untenable gaps still exist between Hispanic students and their counterparts in the areas of early childhood education, learning English, academic achievement, and high school and college completion.
...ell can work together to solidify the learning environment for the student in need and create a better learner as a result.
De Houwer, A. Two or more languages in early childhood: Some general points and practical recommendations (ERIC Digest). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. (1999)
Every year, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has grown “significantly.” Chen predicts that by the year of 2020, public schools will have at least 50 percent of students that are non-English speakers (¶5). This shows that it is important that public schools have a successful ESL program. The purpose of ESL programs is “to enhance” ESL students learning, to help students’ “emotional well-being”, and to accelerate students’ ability to learn the new language. According to Chen, some district schools have failed to support ESL students’ learning. For example, Chen stated that “...[some] school districts [have been] accused of not meeting t...
In the United States, it is important for a person to speak English fluently because it is the official language in America and everybody communicates in English. Many people believe that English should be the only language in America and that sometimes people may face prejudice when they speak English with an accent. For some parents, the fear of prejudice makes them decided not to teach their children their native tongue. On the other hand, there are many other reasons why some parents want to teach their children their native tongue. Gabriela Kuntz explains in My Spanish Standoff why she did not allow her children to speak Spanish at home. Kuntz’s explanations are acceptable, but some research studies reveal that most young children can learn two or more languages. Also, many researchers say that children can learn a second language faster than adults.
As migrant and English language learner the transition of living and studying in México to El Paso, is not an easy for any age student. I immigrated to El Paso when I was in my last year of high school and wanting to pursue a career at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. My father decided for the family and we were moved to a school in El Paso. In the high school I attended for about three months, I was placed on tenth grade and in regular classes. I just had one hour daily of English as a second language instruction. The system back in the 1980’s on ESL classes was not as they are in schools now. They made me feel like I did not had other option but to droop school, which eventually I did when I realized that I was going to be placed in the special education department. My self-esteem went down the hill and I was not willing to comply with what the school wanted. Especially if I was coming from almost finishing high school with an average of 9 of a 10 grade scale, I felt that it was not fair for me to be place in the special education department just because I had limited English proficiency. Fifteen years after I had drooped school, I returned to school and learn English at El Paso Community College, and now I am pursuing my master degree as instructional specialist in bilingual education. Coming from another country with different, or similar, family values affect the students’ learning and the way that other look at those students, especially in schools.
[3] Michael Fix & Jeffrey S. Passel, “U.S. Immigration-Trends and Implication for Schools,” Immigration Studies Program, Urban Institute, January 2003.
There are several key ideas that are crucial to understanding the best way to teach young, ELL students. The first idea is the importance of recognizing ELL’s feelings of isolation and alienation. When a teacher recognizes this, they are more capable of helping the student feel a part of the class. The student will struggle to participate if they do not feel like they belong with the other students. There is not only a language barrier, but also sociocultural differences that prohibit them from feeling accepted. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this problem and being aware during classroom activities. She suggests that you get a deep understanding of their cultural background, not just a “touristy” one.
It is important to maintain children’s home language as it may help them learn and understand a second language. Barratt-Pugh (2000) discusses the benefits of bilingualism and maintaining it through early childhood settings, also mentions the concerns families have for their children maintaining two languages through schooling. Research within the article states that children who speak more than one language will have a higher level of understanding literacy content, form, genre, as well as understand the differences and translating within both languages. This demonstrates a contrast of strengths and experiences with literacy (linguist...
Most people who grow up with a foreign language spoken in there house grow up with an advantage in society. This advantage can only occur once the individual learning that foreign language also learns the dominant language spoken in that country. Once both of these languages are learned and mastered, the individual has now placed them se...
After viewing the panel discussion about how our local school districts have implemented English Language Learning in their school, I am very intrigued. From what I gathered the field of ELL is a growing industry in education, especially in Colorado Springs. We have ELL’s students coming from all over the world. Here in Colorado Springs alone, school districts have to accommodate for over fifty different languages spoken by ELL’s. I can only imagine the challenge that comes with such a diverse group of non- English speakers in our community schools.
Being able to speak more than one language is proving to be a valuable skill in modern society. Many children across the world are at least bilingual, leaving many American parents wondering if they too, should learn to speak another language. While this debate remains ongoing, many adults are seeking to learn a second language either to communicate with a new client base or to attain higher status within a corporate setting.