Blog 5- A Learning Haven

A Place to Learn

I never planned on being a teacher.  I went to four years of architecture school before I realized I had to do lots and lots of physics.  I really hate physics.  Once I decided I had to find a new life plan I started spending a lot of time with my friend *Casey.  Although the first true reason I became an English teacher was William Faulkner, the second was Casey.  Casey was able to convince students to stay in school, be successful in academics, be more self-assured, and be the kind of students they never dreamed they could be.  Casey teaches an amazing class in my high school (although at the time it wasn’t my high school.)


When I read the article, “Educational Issues and Effective Practices for Hispanic Students,” I realized she had created a climate where the students in my school were able to bond, learn, and grow in exactly the way the authors described (Orozco, Pimentel & Martin, 2009).  The class she teaches is a special class designated just for ESL students.  Our school has a large English as a second language population and a large low socio-economic population.  A large portion of these students come from a Hispanic background.  Casey’s room provides a place for these students to go and find an “emotional sense of belonging and acceptance, as well as tangible help with homework” (Orozco, Pimentel & Martin, 2009).  In this room these students work in partners, in small groups, or individually on all sorts of classwork.  Casey monitors the class.  There is never down time for Casey.  She may be giving small group instruction on algebra or chemistry; she may be providing a group of student’s tutorials on Mr. Black’s French vocabulary.  In another corner a group could be working quietly on my English assignment.  Students find a way to gather and belong in addition to finding academic support.


This classroom also provides a way to join the school community.  Casey has decorated the room with jersey’s from previous students who have been successful (or at least been members) of clubs or sports.  She does this to encourage the students to join organizations on campus- everyone knows that if a student is involved, the more likely they are to graduate. 


The students who visit Casey’s room benefit from other opportunities also.  These students get to go on team building activities like a trip to a ropes course (she wrote a grant to get the money.)  She took the kids to tour UNT to get excited about college (see photo at the bottom-from years ago).  She visits places in the community where they frequent, meets parents, and makes every effort to become part of their life.  She provides the “closeness” the students in the article long for (Orozco, Pimentel & Martin, 2009).


I asked her what makes her classroom such a benefit for the students, because last year she had to scramble to justify her job when they started making cuts.  I specifically wanted to know the difference between Content Mastery Center and the English Language Learning Center (we call it the ELLC).  Here are the answers to the questions I asked:

Q:What is the difference between CMC and the ELLC and you perceive it?

A:  CMC reads out loud, shortens assignments, eliminates answer choices, etc.  Both of us re-teach often.

 Most of my students do not have a problem reading, but they struggle with vocabulary.  I reword  English phrases, instructions, questions, etc into simpler English, using less complex vocabulary words.  I have conversations with the kids where they must use academic vocabulary from the lesson.

Q:  How often do you have to speak Spanish?

A:  I am not fully bilingual in any language, but I have learned a TON of Spanish.  Although I do not teach in Spanish, I have quite a few students right now who have moved here in the past 2-4 months and come to ELLC every day from math class.  I work a lot on vocabulary and also translations of words (mostly English to Spanish) that are frequently seen on math word problems.  This is especially seen in geometry class.  It is rare, but at times, I will teach math concepts in Spanish and then work on translating Spanish to English.  I have other students from other countries, but most of the student population is Hispanic. For some students, I provide novels in Spanish or simpler English texts, such as Shakespeare Made Easy.  I often help students edit papers for grammar.”

Q:  Anything else you think helps your students by coming here?  I know that some of the students I send are especially successful, and they believe it is because they come to the ELLC.  Why do you believe that is?

A:  I think that sometimes, just as important as the instruction, is the culture in the classroom.  The students feel like they can be themselves and ask any questions without feeling shy in front of their peers.

I don’t think she could have summed up the articles better if she had read them herself!

Hersh C. Waxman, Yolanda N. Padron, and Andres Garcia.  Educational issues and effective practices for Hispanic students. (2009).  In J. Noel (Ed.), Multicultural education (pp. 121-125). Sacramento: McGraw-Hill.