A one period only food court opened and closed in E11, or Marie Finman’s room, to showcase the work of her second period English Learning Development (ELD) class. The restaurants included: El Rincon Mexicano, Mr. LSR’s Kitchen, The Three “Gs”, and Fadi’s Falafels.

The opening of restaurant row exhibited the learning of the latest lesson: restaurant vocabulary.

This class sports eleven students who come from China, El Salvador, Mexico, and Syria.They are students whose first language is not English, and the ELD program is a support to them while they learn English.

This is how it works.

“Ms. Finman explains the activity for the day, in English and then explains it again in Spanish. I listen to what she says, and sort of simplify it,” said Christopher Mauerman (10), Finman’s student aide.

It has been a part of SJHHS since the school was first established in 2007, and was previously taught by Kathy Callier. Now it is taught by Spanish teacher Marie Finman and English teacher Courtney Koehler.

An obvious challenge in class is the language barrier, but it is overcome by the use of “Google translate as a support, but what goes on in class is in English,” said Finman. She also reported that the students “all help each other, they share their cultures, they share their languages,” and they “have the support system of each other.”

Alondra Castillo (9) attends SJHHS because she “want[ed] to learn English“ and while she misses the diversity offered in Mexico, she has “friends and Mrs. Finman and Ms. Koehler are good teachers.”

According to Finman, “the biggest challenges for them are not their ELD classes, it’s their regular classes.” How they meet this obstacle is really utilizing the time spent in their ELD classes by allowing the students to “bring their other work and we can help them.”

“Lots of pictures, lots of movement, lots of examples” is how Koehler expressed the communication style in her class with the students, and she is also aided by a Spanish-speaking aid.

James Liu (9) also misses his friends, but he accepts that “I am living here now so I will try to make friends,” and his favorite part of living in California is “living near the beach.”

The best part of teaching this class is “the sense of community” the students and teacher share with each other, and the “acceptance of everyone, no matter who is better at English and who is worse,” described Finman, she also added that “the world should be like this.”

Spanish and two-way immersion teacher, Jamie Gonzalez is also the SJHHS ELD coordinator, her duties include “making sure that all our English learners are receiving all the services they need and succeeding in their classes.”

Gonzalez is also responsible for distributing the Comprehensive English Language Development Test (CELDT) to track the learning progress for newcomer English learners.

She also agrees that the largest challenge presented to newcomer English learners is that they are “just thrown in with all the kids,” and that they as teachers can only “hope for the best,” especially in classes like American Government and Economics where not being fluent in the English language is a disadvantage, “it’s a struggle,” continued Gonzalez.

Along with Finman, Gonzalez’s favorite part being involved with the program is “the kids, I love the kids.”
“I think it’s fun to get a different perspective, they live such a different life than a lot of our students are used to, [and] they are going through that a lot of kids at SJHHS go through or experience,” responded Koehler when asked her favorite part of teaching the ELD class.