Somerville Schools Welcome English Language Learners

November 3, 2015, Somerville, MA — Somerville Public Schools Welcome English Language Learners with a Formula for Success

In Somerville, 50% of kids in elementary and secondary school have a mother tongue other than English. And 17% of them are enrolled in English Language Learner classes. In Somerville Public School, the English Language Learner (ELL) program serves more than 900 students.

Sarah Davila is the Director of English Learners Programs for the Somerville public schools, and the District Administrator for families and partnerships.

“More than half of the students in the Somerville Public Schools come from homes where another language is spoken. So we have a program that meets the needs of each child by providing them English as a second language instruction. That’s what we call Shelter English Immersion. It uses special instructional techniques to make the content meaningful and accessible to every child,” she says.

Hannah DeSouza-Rodrigues is a 3rd grader teacher at the Argenziano School in Union Square. She teaches a shelter class that currently welcomes kids from 8 different countries. She told SNN that on average it takes kids 5 years to become fluent in English.

“We are always having new students arriving in the classroom which creates a very interesting dynamic because you might be new today and I will welcome you with open arms and so will the students. They are always so excited to have a new student in the classroom and learn about their culture and where they are from, what languages they speak. And then, next week you are already not the newest person, so it’s this circle of life almost in the classroom,” says Desouza Rodrigues.

For Desouza Rodrigues, it’s not the variety of languages in the classroom that is her biggest challenge, it’s teaching kids in a same classroom working at different levels of English proficiency.

“Students in my classroom have English language proficiency at level 1, 2 and some 3. So that’s entering, beginning and developing. So we are really like a family and help each other”, she says.

Adjaratou Koita and her two daughters moved to Somerville from Mali a few years ago to reunite with her husband. She spoke French, Bambara, but she didn’t speak any English.

“It was hard when I just arrived in the USA because I couldn’t speak a word in English” explains Koita.

But she found help at the Parent Information Center. It’s a place where new comers can find support and learn about the process of school registration.

“It was very hard for me at the beginning to help my daughters with homework, because I couldn’t speak English and the system is very different” she says.

By working with the Parent Information Center Koita was able not only to help her daughters in school, but to learn English herself. She now gives back to the system that helped in her transition as a Parent Leader, helping other new families settle in to the Somerville school system.

Somerville Neighborhood News is a production of Somerville Community Access Television, made by professional journalists, volunteers and staff. The half-hour news show has as its mission to provide a lively, informative newscast focusing on the events, issues and information impacting Somerville residents.