Essex High School ELL First Visits

In my first two school visits in the English Language Learning classes at Essex High School I have experienced one of the most fun and supportive learning environments.  These students all come from different parts of the world, and speak different languages but they come together to form a dynamic and truly caring group.  In my second week I watched a student give a fellow student a back massage, with permission of course, because she had a bad headache.  They are all eager to learn, but also all eager to help each other.  Often times immigrants and non English speakers get a bad reputation in society, however being around these students confirmed for me that this bad reputation is unfair.  These students are all caring and respectful towards each other, their teacher, and me as an outsider.  All the students were eager to say hi to me and some had rehearsed things to say to me and practiced my name.  This was a truly positive learning environment, and certainly seemed to be one where students could learn to their fullest potential.
I work with two different groups of students when I am there, depending on the week.  The first week I visited I observed 5 different students in the middle level ELL course.  They could all speak and understand English quite well, but were still working on reading and writing.  Here they were reading a book called Home of the Brave which told the story of someone immigrating to the countryside in Minnesota, an experience very similar to these students coming to Vermont.  In my second visit to the school I worked with eleven students in an ELL lab.  These were all students who were in the ELL program but are also taking other courses in the school.  This lab gave the students a little extra help in their classes as it may take them longer to do some of their work, and they may need some words translated or extra writing help. Here I helped one student with neuroscience homework, and another with work writing an opening statement for some kind of law course.  It was incredibly interesting to see the high level of work that students were doing who only a few years ago spoke no English at all, and had never attended school.