A student arrived at their ELM class. They’ve recently moved from Mexico to America and don’t know any English, so they were put in this English Lab class to learn. Feeling nervous because it was their first day of school, someone walked up to the student who’s bilingual, feeling a bit better knowing that they can make a friend and have someone to talk to about the challenges that they are facing. A few minutes later the student realized that there were other students who came from different countries. Some came from Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and even Cuba.
This year there has been a total of 50 students that have joined the ELM program, since July of 2023 there has been a massive increase of ML students in the Chicago area and many families moving to McHenry as well.
Ever since the increase of ML students in MCHS the staff members noticed issues with the course and how effective it is, so they added more activities for the ELM students so they can improve their English and grammar skills.
“To help our ML students with their English proficiency, we are implementing a progress-monitoring program in our ELM classes,” Kesley Podgoski the Director of Multilingual Education says. “This enables students and families to see weekly progress with language acquisition. We also have been using a pen pal writing activity in our ELM classes to help connect students with a faculty or staff member in the building.”
These activities that the ML students do helps them improve certain parts of their English skills like spelling, grammer, listening comprehension, writing skills, ect. These things can also help them with passing the ACCESS testing that comes by during the springtime.
“This opportunity allows for students to read and respond back to their pen pals monthly.” Podgoski says, “By offering as many ways to get our students reading, writing, speaking, and listening (all components that are tested on the statewide ACCESS test), this can help students improve their skills overall.”
ACCESS testing is an exam that English Learner students take during the springtime every year to see if there are any skills that the student needs to improve on, there are a total of four tests each one serving an important purpose. There are also other areas beside the main four. There are subcategories that are also taken into account as well, last school year in the state of Illinois there was a total of 6.2% of students who passed the ACCESS testing out of the 100%.
According to the Illinois State Report there has been a total of 3.2% increase of new English learners in the state compared to last year, and a .1% increase of English learners are reaching the goal of passing the ACCESS testing.
Some Students believe that the ACCESS depends on the effort you put into the exam, if the students don’t put much effort the exam tends to be more difficult compared to the students who put more effort into the ACCESS testing.
“I feel like,” junior Diego Mendez says, “it’s not easy, but it also depends on the student too. Like, if they take you seriously or not when taking the ACCESS testing.”
Although the exam can depend on the effort the student places, They do believe that the ML program is helping them and improving their English skills as well.
“I feel like it is, because I feel like it’s been helping me improve my English skills more,” said Mendez. “I like about the ML program because of how it helps me.”
Not only do some of the students enjoy the program, and also make new friends but for the students who don’t know any English yet there is a translating device that can help them to communicate with teachers.
“I provide assignments and lesson materials in English, Spanish and Serbian, but students also have access to a program called Snap and Read,” Said Megan Steck, a staff member at MCHS, “which has a translation feature, and they can use Google Translate. I also try and use pictures whenever possible to help them understand.”
“Students can show their learning in whichever language they feel most comfortable with,” continued Steck. “I also have a bilingual aide, Mrs. Anaya, in the ML-sheltered classes. She helps a lot with communication.”
Because of this translating feature it makes it easier for teachers to communicate with their students with the language the student feels comfortable to use at the moment. There are many activities that they do to help the students improve certain areas that the students struggle with.
After class ends, the new student feels more comfortable with the class because of the students with familiar background, moving from a different place and also improving their English skills.