Kids, teacher translate it in one classroom
By Hipolito R. Corella
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The massive change in how most Arizona schoolchildren with limited English abilities are taught shows in passing classroom moments.
Alexis Bejarano, like his classmates, uses his finger to follow along word-by-word during reading time.
Yet he rarely joins them in reading aloud.
Alexis, 6, understands his English-speaking teacher better than Daniela Cardenas does.
So Daniela, 7, keeps close to Alexis to make sure she is doing things right in class.
Both Craycroft Elementary first-graders are new to school and even newer to English.
That means they are in an English-only classroom.
Craycroft Elementary, 5455 E. Littletown Road, did away with traditional bilingual classes this school year after passage of Proposition 203. That's the voter initiative that changed classroom lessons for Spanish-speaking students and their teachers.
Now, children across Arizona who speak little or no English are placed in one-year English-immersion programs, though some can qualify for waivers to stay in bilingual classes.
Of the 5,890 students in the Sunnyside School District identified as English-learners, 1,834 have received waivers. The district has about 15,000 students.
At Craycroft Elementary, 321 of its 570 pupils are English-learners. They are spread among all the classrooms.
Alexis and Daniela are two of nine English-learners in Marsha Schull's first-grade class.
Both are adapting well to the class and language, Schull said.
But she worries that they might have trouble later in the year when classroom concepts get more difficult, like telling time and counting money.
For now, though, Alexis and Daniela use each other to get through some assignments.
"I understand everything the teacher says," Alexis says in Spanish, when asked if he has trouble communicating with his teacher. But he still prefers to speak Spanish, he adds.
Aidan Lizarraga is unaware that the reason she's sitting next to both of them is a strategic move by their teacher. Aidan, 6, is bilingual and helpful.
Alexis and Daniela turn to Aidan when they get confused by instructions given to them in a language they are learning.
"They understand almost everything," Aidan says.
Not all the pupils are as supportive.
When Daniela joins a classmate for an animal flashcard game in music class, she easily identifies animals in Spanish.
The classmate pushes Daniela to use English instead.
When Daniela's pronunciation of "cat" sounds too much like "cats," the classmate makes her repeat it several times.
Daniela gets frustrated and the game quickly ends.
Later, both she and Alexis refuse to read aloud during a classroom exercise.
Jean Favela, director of bilingual education for Sunnyside, said English-learners are often reluctant to speak out in class because they get teased.
"These kids aren't going to fall right in and immediately speak English," she said. "There are different stages of language acquisition. It's gradual."
Over the summer, Favela offered teachers in the district training to help them instruct students who speak little or none of the same language.
They were told to use gestures, props and to let pupils point to objects until they are comfortable speaking English.
All pupils in Schull's class answer her in English.
But Spanish has not been erased from the class.
In a writing exercise last week asking pupils to list three things they are thankful for, some listed Mamá and Papá.
While keeping her lessons strictly in English, Schull sprinkles what Spanish she does know into her class.
Last week, Spanish-speaking pupils jumped at the chance to tell her how to say strawberry, carrot and corn in Spanish.
"Como se dice sad," Schull asks in "Spanglish" to pupils reading a story about unhappy turkeys. The children look up and say "triste" before reading again in English.
"It gives them a good feeling to tell a grown-up something they don't know," says Schull, a teacher for 30 years.
Schull said she also uses Spanish to make sure pupils understand an assignment.
"Sometimes I have to use a little Spanish," Schull said. "I need to know they understand.
"That's what matters."
* Contact Hipolito R. Corella at 573-4191 or at corella@azstarnet.com.
