ELL Classes

After presenting in my consultation class about ELL classes I discovered that I had no idea what sort of ELL services were offered at the high school. I knew about all of the types of ELL programming, like English-only, pull out, transitional, maintenance, and dual-language learning. I thought that surely a school with so many resources would have some of the best researched ELL programs available (maintenance or dual-language learning). But to my surprise, students in ELL classes received instruction only in English with the idea of teaching English (rather than maintaining the student's native language). Therefore, if you are a 15-year old student coming straight from a foreign country, you would be placed in an ELL class where no one spoke your language and also regular English classes -- expected to perform at the same level as everyone else.

Does that sound crazy to anyone else?

Granted, I can appreciate that my area happens to only have about 30-40 students per year that qualify for ELL services. But can we really call that services? Are we doing them some kind of service by forcing English and American expectations on them? Is the argument really that it is the best we can do?

My mother is an assistant principal at a Chicago Public School with a community filled with diversity. I almost wonder if the students at my high school would be better off in Chicago where they would at least be immersed in a diverse community.

When I went to observe the ELL resource classroom at my school, I had a long conversation with the teachers about these issues. As they are on the front lines, they are well aware of all of these complications. I asked them if they had an advocate and there seemed to be some gray about that. We sat and brainstormed possible solutions to many of the problems. I truly hope that next year we can figure out some new ways to accommodate these students. We discussed the possibility of a school-community collaboration with diverse communities. Gathering a resource list of bilingual social service members would also be beneficial to have.

It just boggles my mind how a community can support new sports uniforms when students aren't receiving an appropriate education.