It’s Wednesday morning and two brothers are facing off in a friendly competition at New Hope High School.
Lucio Martinez, 18, towers over his 8-year-old brother Hilario Martinez, but the little brother has the upper hand in this game.
Katie Burchfield, the high school’s English Language Learners coordinator, is testing the brothers on “sight words.” Burchfield presents a flash card with a basic English word such as “red” or “room” or “see” and the brother who can verbalize it first wins. Hilario, who was only 5 when the family moved to New Hope from central Mexico, speaks English fluently. Lucio was already a teenager when he arrived in the U.S., and though he understands English very well, his verbalization isn’t quite as fast as his younger brother’s.
Although Wednesday’s class entailed many games, the work Burchfield and the New Hope staff do to prepare their English Language Learner (ELL) students to succeed in a new language and culture is challenging. This is her third year working on the New Hope campus, where she helps eight ELL students, who are spread out from third grade to 12th. Burchfield has built the ELL program into a more formal operation with the help of Lowndes County School District assessment coordinator Spence Andrews, NHHS principal Matt Smith and New Hope employee Roberta Weeks.
Much has changed for the students, too.
“Three years ago, Lucio didn’t speak any English,” Burchfield said. “He wouldn’t make eye contact. But I think the unity of learning with the other students has given him confidence.”
Now, Lucio Martinez is making his final push for graduation in May, and can be seen with a fixated smile in his afternoon auto mechanics class.
ELL in the Golden Triangle
The need for ELL programs has increased in the last decade for local school districts.
LCSD now has 16 ELL students — eight at New Hope and eight on the Caledonia campus, according to Andrews. The majority are originally from Mexico. Caledonia has a family from Saudi Arabia and New Hope has one Vietnamese student.
In the Columbus Municipal School District, there are 44 students from four different countries, the most common of which is Mexico, according to CMSD Title 1 coordinator Dr. Candace Aldridge.
CMSD has 29 ELL students in elementary school, six in middle school and nine in high school. The district also provides ELL tutoring for 12 students who attend local private schools.
At the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, there are 32 ELL students, according to director of assessment and instruction Julie Fancher.
“We’ve seen our ELL program grow in the last couple years,” Fancher said. “It’s been growing rapidly.”
The majority of SOCSD’s ELL students hail from Japan, China and Mexico, Fancher said. The district has an ELL coordinator at each building.
ELL instructors are faced with the task of constantly evaluating their students’ proficiency with the language and comfort level with the culture.
At SOCSD, the district tracks progress with the LAS Links Assessment System, a test that analyzes English proficiency. At the beginning of the year, any student who speaks a foreign language in the home is given the LAS Links test. If their English is considered good, the students will simply be monitored by the district. If the students are still learning, they are enrolled in the ELL program.
At SOCSD, ELL students often work with iPads to play games that help them build vocabulary and master action words, much like New Hope students.
Breaking down the cultural barrier
Burchfield works with all eight students on the New Hope campus, but focuses on the high schoolers. As Lucio Martinez approaches graduation, she will work with his teachers and school administration to ensure he is receiving the support he needs. On weeks when he has a test, Burchfield will talk with his teachers about concepts he may be struggling with and will spend extra time with him in those areas. Burchfield has a degree in Spanish, and will speak occasionally to Lucio Martinez in his native language to get him on the right page.
The windowless room where she is based in New Hope High School resembles a kindergarten classroom. There are posters with the alphabet and basic English vocabulary words. There are posters of the founding fathers and the Pledge of Allegiance to help fill in students on knowledge many American students view as common knowledge.
Depending on where the students come from and how old they are when they arrive in the U.S., their experience as students can vary widely.
“Sometimes they may not have had formal schooling, so the concept of coming to school everyday can be difficult,” Burchfield said.
Some students, like Tue Tai Tran, 10, who arrived from Vietnam this year, have excellent educational backgrounds. Although he has only been in the country a few months, Tran already speaks adequate English because of his schooling in Vietnam.
Burchfield adapts to her students by making home visits to get to know parents better and understand their culture more. But she said it takes the support of the entire New Hope faculty to ensure success for her students. She said Lucio Martinez’s progress gives her constant affirmation of the school’s work.
When Lucio Martinez gets his degree in May, the entire staff will smile with him.
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