East Kentwood High School is proud to be home to many English Language learners. The resource to the left explains all about how we celebrate and support our beautiful diversity.

Fostering “Remarkable Power” with EL’s

I often explain in my AP Language and EL English 12 classes about how “mastery of language affords remarkable power” (Frantz Fanon). This is the crux of my classroom. It is a place where we learn about how to create “power” for ourselves and others through language. The many EL students I already have flourish in my classroom because I am good at getting that message across, therefore motivating them to work hard.

In addition, one of my strengths is differentiating and accommodating, thus allowing all students to reach their highest potential, to give me 100% of whatever they have that day, week, semester, year. While this is beneficial in all classrooms, it is especially so in an EL classroom. For example, I know which skills all my students are capable of performing and at what level. Once I find this out, I create “enrichment” assignments for the advanced/motivated, “regular” assignments for everyone, and then “correctives” for the ones who need extra practice. In fact, one of my special education students wrote to me in an evaluation last Tuesday that, “I love the way you gave us options on every big project we did. I just really love how you teach.” Furthermore, I have been trained in SIOP over a few years and with in-class coaching. I would love to bring this training experience to Kentwood.

My deep understanding of English as a subject is an advantage in my current EL classroom. I already have a master’s degree in English literature, and if, through this program, I were to augment my subject knowledge with the classes at Aquinas, I would be able to help students reach their academic language acquisition goals that much more quickly. I even think that in a few years, Kentwood might become a model school district for supporting EL’s. I can imagine sharing what we can do with other schools in the area, and how we might be important influencers in helping all kids succeed.

Ultimately, I believe that being an EL teacher means being well-rounded and curious enough to engage and interest people from around the world. It means being genuinely interested in learning about others’ lives and cultures. It means being able to read others’ eyes and hearts as much as being able to hear their voices. It means having the heart of a servant, one who is willing to go above and beyond to bring “remarkable power” to kids who need it!