They are pulling double duty in the classroom every day – learning English as a Second Language (ESL), math, science, social studies, and reading while trying to adapt to a new culture and environment. They range in age from Pre-school to High School. They are English Language Learners or ESL students, and their numbers are growing in the classroom.
Habersham County Schools
“All public school systems in Georgia are required to use a Home Language Survey (HLS) at the time of enrollment to identify the primary (home) language(s) of all Kindergarten – Grade12 students enrolled in the public school system,” explains Habersham County Assistant School Superintendent Patrick Franklin.
He added that if the students are new to U.S. schools, including kindergarten students and newly arrived immigrants, the original HLS serves as a trigger to determine which students should be administered the English Language Proficiency (ELP) screener to identify whether they are or are not English learners entitled to language instructional programs.
“If parents tell us there is a home language besides English, our school system takes steps to determine whether or not the student needs English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) support,” said Franklin.
Numbers in Habersham County
Currently, there are 1,019 English learners in the Habersham County School System, representing approximately 14% of the student population. This figure includes students from 18 countries, including the United States.
For students in grades K-5, one of the ESOL teachers at the local school screens them to determine their English proficiency. The screening focuses on speaking and listening in English for kindergarten and first-grade students. For all other grades, it includes speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Students become eligible for ESOL services if the screening indicates they are not proficient in English.
In Habersham County, there is no shortage of ESOL teachers. In different areas of the country, though, schools are struggling to keep up with the demand.
In the Chicago area for example, 25% of the students in the public school system are English Language Learners, according to Chicago Public Schools Stats. Managing the volume of students is difficult. The ratio there is 11:1.
Goals in Habersham County School Systems
Franklin noted the Habersham County School System’s ESOL program aims to increase both English language proficiency (ELP) and academic language proficiency in content-area subject matter.
The ESOL Program aims to work with all teachers at all grade levels and ELS administrators to provide high-quality instructional programs. These programs are designed to develop proficiency in English while meeting challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards. “Our school system wants every English Learner to succeed and have equal access to opportunities to achieve academic excellence,” Franklin added.
The challenge comes when simultaneously helping the student learn English and the subject matter content. Many students understand the material in their language, but it becomes difficult when they attempt to show what they know because of their lack of English language skills.
Support for students
“All students who are eligible for ESOL services receive language support. The level and type of support depend on the language needs and grade level of the student,” said Franklin.
Teachers offer support in various ways. The ESOL teacher may collaborate with the classroom teacher to teach the class and support students in learning English. The teacher may teach students learning English in a small group to help them develop their English skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The teacher may provide ESOL instruction in a scheduled ESOL class as well.
“Some of our classroom teachers are also ESOL-endorsed teachers. Those teachers can provide ESOL support to any students learning English in their classes at any time,” Franklin added.
Hazel Grove Elementary
Bea Samples, an ESOL teacher at Hazel Grove Elementary, started with the goal of becoming a Pre-K or Special Education Teacher, not an ESOL instructor. “Little did I know that God had a different plan for my life. By the time I graduated, I had earned the Early Childhood Education Certification, the ESOL Endorsement, the Reading Endorsement, and the K-12 Special Education Certification,” Samples explained.
Working with English Language Learners and struggling students has become her passion. Samples said that her mother was from Hawaii and her father from Puerto Rico. When Samples arrived as a child on the mainland, she spoke very broken English. “I may have qualified as an English Language Learner myself. In a way, I feel this position was made for me.”
Samples teaches 6 classes a day in grade levels Kindergarten through 5th grade.
“I feel it is very important to create personal relationships with my students. I not only want to teach them, I want to be one of their greatest cheerleaders, and I want them to know they are not alone,” Samples said.
Sandy Todd, Assistant Principal at Hazel Grove Elementary School, has spent 21 of her 23 years working in schools with no less than 60% ESL students. Todd shared a quote that has impacted her and her views. It is a quote by Flora Lewis, an American journalist, that says, “Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
“The ESOL program in the Habersham County School system is not only making a difference in students’ lives right now but is also creating strong, productive, bilingual citizens that will make our county rich in culture and language, ” Todd added.
