A Whole New World: Valley View's Bilingual Program Helps Students Adapt

Attending school as a pre-teen can be difficult.

Attending schools a pre-teen in a country you’ve likely never set foot in can seem impossible.

Today, thanks to a recent immigration surge, nearly one-in-five school-aged immigrant children are enrolled in the United States school system.

And aside from being thousands of miles away from their friends and family, these students also face the challenges of culture shock.

The , which hosts a number of immigrant students, addresses this concern head on at .

Brooks, a feeder school, is the district's home for the ESL (English as a Second Language) program, which serves students in 6th through 8th grades who are at different stages of learning English.

The program is extended to all non-native English speakers that live within the district’s boundaries.

Each week, 120 students are bussed to Brooks and enrolled in the program, which offers four levels of ESL instruction.

Ricardo Sanchez Lopez, Valley View’s director of bi-lingual education, is responsible for the program’s oversight, while ESL teachers Sylvia Rivera, Jessica Stalo, Tersita Ruiz, Susan Farmer and Claudia Chavez handle day-to-day operations.

Each of the certified teachers functions as an integral component of the bi-lingual team, which seeks to guide and nurture each student on their journey to achieve English proficiency.

Each day, students attend one of the four levels of ESL classes, which focus on bridging the language barrier with teaching strategies that incorporate visual cues and hands-on learning.

The students also travel to classrooms taught by different team leaders who specialize in social studies, science and math instruction.

"All of these kids (within the building) have the same curriculum for math, science and social studies, so their day looks very much like every other students," Rivera says "The only difference is that they need a class with a bi-lingual teacher, which is why they come to us."

In line with , the ESL program is now in the process of increasing its rigor.

Mitchem by challenging administrators and teachers to "raise the district bar.”

Rivera also coordinates the newcomers class, which incorporates experiential learning into the curriculum. Last week, Rivera took the newcomer class on a field trip to both the and to help them gain a better understanding of local public services.

"This year, I have a rather small group," Rivera says. "They are diverse—from China, Philippines, Paraguay, Mexico and Korea. Some adapt faster than others, but they are all here to stay so my job is to be very nurturing to help them learn the basics about our culture."

Many of the things we take for granted like the monetary system, manufactured holidays like Halloween or something as rudimentary as snowfall can seem daunting to these students.

The program is also very understanding of the fact that each student likely misses his or her family and friends they left behind.

To combat that, the newcomer class allows each student to share their unique experiences and background with the class, which enables them to continue to reflect and celebrate the best aspects of their native culture.

"I saw something this year that was so amazing," Rivera said. "Rachel, an 8th grader, is very quiet and shy, free spirit. She had very strong educational foundation in Korea but she was really hiding behind the language barrier last year and communicated very little. Michaela is friendly, bubbly, very outgoing and just a happy girl. She came to us from Paraguay and spoke no English at the end of the last school year, but she was always listening and writing down everything.

"The two started a friendship, helping each other out and communicating non-verbally. This summer, Michaela, who wants to be a journalist, was determined to learn the language. She came back to school speaking English, gave Rachel the confidence to come out of her shell. English has been their connection point and now they are best friends.”