Meet Westfield's Summer English Language Learners

WESTFIELD, NJ — An Olympic theme was the focus of the English Language Learners (ELL) Summer Experience, a camp for Westfield students that provides meaningful enrichment activities to help students form other areas continue their English language acquisition.

This year’s ELL program ran from July 12-23 at Wilson Elementary School and welcomed 14
students in grades 1-5 whose native languages include Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Polish,
Russian, and Portuguese.

“The first week we learned about the Olympics – the origins, traditions, and the modern
practices/games,” says Edison world language teacher Jillian Martinez, who runs the program
with fellow world language teacher Mercedes Poyntz. “The second week, we focused on
playing games, practicing sportsmanship, and being a good team member and part of a
community.”

Martinez says students were given hands-on opportunities to create arts and crafts to represent
their native countries and cultures, while also playing games modeled after actual Olympic
events.

“The idea was to have them bond with their peers about their unique backgrounds and hopefully
create fun moments watching the real Olympics with their families,” Martinez added.

K-12 World Languages and ELL Supervisor Enrique Pincay says the 2021 ELL Summer
Experience has been a success.

“Given the many restrictions our students faced this past year, our teachers focused their efforts
on hands-on activities and kinesthetic learning,” Pincay said. “Capitalizing on the 2020
Olympics – postponed last year due to the pandemic – our teachers brought the games into the
classroom and playground.”

Pincay said social and emotional learning also was addressed with daily yoga, friendly
competition and collaborative activities.

“We are happy that we have been able to offer our students an opportunity to learn through
play, especially after such a challenging year,” he said.

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