Recommendations 

Migrant students, especially those in middle school, struggle to learn in classes. They can feel anxious about living in a non-Spanish or other native speaking environment and language and education barriers can keep them from connecting with peers. Student grade level is correlated with age, rather than academic ability, in line with CPS rules, but alternatives exist to unite students with others that speak their own langauge, have similar cultures, or are at similar academic ability.  

Migrant Student Afterschool Activities

Research shows that immigrant-origin students that received extracurricular programming support to complete homework and learning activities show greater academic growth and progress (Brown). ASPs, or after school programs, help provide positive senses of self and community, develop peer relationships and support, and provide a space to reclaim confidence in multicultural background. Migrants are often seen undergoing a linear assimilation process to a host community that increases their chance of staying in school longer, their educational success, and their skill building (Empowerment Report). Racial discrimination, inconsistencies in understanding, and language proficiency are all factors that affect this assimilation model, which can be helped through extracurricular programming for migrant students.

Two models are said to exist for ESL learning, submersion, or the sink-or-swim method, or bilingual English language programs. Bilingual programs have been found to increase ESL student reading comprehension at a higher rate than students only instructed in English. If bilingual programming is not available, ASPs with bilingual teachers/facilitators or students speaking the same language can increase language retention. 

In the creation of ASP programs, it is important to acknowledge barriers to the programming. Student attendance, largely dependent on family structure, can influence the effectiveness of ASPs, along with safety of the community environment, and the teaching strategies utilized. All should be considered when implementing an ASP, as funding constraints or schooling system bureaucracy can inhibit innovations for the future of these programs. 

This extracurricular support can be..

• Creating an ASP program for the school. 

  • • Activities for ASP programs can include...

      • • Single Subject Learning Opportunities: This includes focus on a single subject or area of study the student struggles with, as observed in classroom settings. These activities in ASPs can include continued classroom instruction, homework help, individual and group tutoring, and peer studying. 

        • Art-Based Therapy: sand-play and tactile activities for younger students, narrative-based workshops for telling the story of migration or familial circumstances with therapist facilitation, playback theater and improv theater to empower storytelling and peer collaboration, or art based literacy workshops using poetry, rap, and other writing forms for student expression.

        • This report, the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning Final Report, provides excellent goals, practices, and resources for setting up an effective ASP for students, as well as their Toolkit for creating programs. Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services offers valuable information on where to request funding, how to evaluate programs, and tips for set-up. 

• Pairing with a Chicago Public Library that provides free tutoring and resources to students and utilizing CPL resources. This site provides information on where drop-in homework helps sites are located, which can not only enrich student understanding, but be a safe space for students to go after school if they have uncertain living situations. The sites can specialize with different languages as well, and schedule and drop-in varies by location. 

  • • CPL also advertises Brainfuse, a free online homework help platform available daily from 2-11pm that helps with writing assignments, math, science, social studies, Spanish homework, and English as a second language lessons. Logging in with a CPL library card, Brainfuse offers resources for early elementary through college prep students and can be a universal student resource for tutoring. 

Multiple strategies need to be utilized to create inclusive environments for migrant students. Solutions and methods that Principal Parra of Erie Elementary Charter School can be considered and used as an example for a multifaceted strategy.

• Initiate a summer program to catch up students.

  • • Summer programs for migrant students aid in avoiding the "summer slide," or the loss of academic skills and knowledge during breaks in education that is particularly common for migrant students that do not speak English at home, as well as providing safe care for students. 

• Creating migrant-friendly homework assignments. 

  • • Grades are often perceived by students and teachers as a direct reflection of student performance, outweighing student participation, language growth, and overall academic performance in classrooms, according to a study done by the University of Chicago. However, teacher and administrators that prioritize cognitive engagement of ELS students in the creation of assignments can help their students' English proficiency

    • This includes

      • • simplifying language in the assignments, avoiding the use of fancy jargon, similes and hyperboles, contractions, non-phonetic language, articles, tenses, and others. 

        • heavily using visual aids on assignments. 

        • adjusting difficulty level of assignments based on individual student strengths and understanding. 

• Partnering with Retail Managers to provide goods to migrant families. 

  • • Principal Parra found this to be particularly successful when working with a Target manager. They came to an agreement where migrant families could come and pick up goods that had been returned/could not be resold. This could extend beyond nonfood items and include perishable goods and services from different retailers in Chicago, whether commercial companies or small stores in the area. 

• Allow families in shelters into the gymnasium to sleep on air mattresses.

  • • Emotional safety has large implications for academic performance, and many students in unsafe or uncertain living situations are unable to interact and grow in school environments because of challenging housing situations. Many families in shelters are dehumanized in subhuman living conditions as there is little space, food, and safety precautions as they await information from their immigration lawyers, housing, or other. Facilitating housing for students, even going so far as opening up gymnasiums for migrant families to sleep in, has the dual effect of:

1. Allowing students home safety so that they can focus on their academics 

2.  Strengthening a positive association with CPS schools and safety, consideration, and aid. This can increase a parent's willingness to communicate with the school, increase the perceived value of education, introduce parents to other support programming offered at the school, and reinforce the school as a place of trust. 

The level of comfort and adaptability to the English language has direct implications for immigrant student learning. Teachers and Administrators can expedite learning through these strategies, that go beyond ESL instruction and English Learner Programs in school curricula. While schools are mandated to provide information in native languages for parents and students, these strategies aid families and school employees in bridging language barriers. 

• Language Apps 

Can help translation from parents to teachers/admin and aid children's at home learning.

• • Tarjimly: "A free mobile app that connects multi-lingual volunteers who want to donate their time and skills direct to refugees, asylum seekers and humanitarians. When a refugee, asylum seeker, or humanitarian worker requests a translator for a particular language, Tarjimly’s machine learning matching algorithm selects the best translator available from our community of 24,000+ people. This person is then connected in a live chat with the person in need, where they can send text, photos, or start a phone call." This connection can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, but offers quick, reliable communication beyond automated translation apps. (https://tarjim.ly/en#:~:text=Tarjimly%20allowed%20me%20to%20communicate,kind%2C%20helpful%2C%20and%20professional). 

  • Talking Points: A free and paid platform that translates messages between districts/teachers and parents in 150 different languages. Utilizing an online platform, this site does not require an app download, and sends families a text message to ensure mass communication while securing privacy. 

"TalkingPoints leverages technology to provide a low-cost, scalable and impactful approach to tackle the barriers to family engagement. By harnessing cutting-edge technology like machine learning algorithms and natural language processing, we believe we can build a stronger family engagement practices and home-school connection in support of student success."

"Talking Point's free report outlines the positive impact the site has had on parent-teacher relations, "designed to meet the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Tier 2 standard of evidence" (https://talkingpts.org/research/). The platform offers continued text message capabilities, text to speech, and multimedia captioning with videos and images. 

Talking Points fills a necessary communication need between school and home. A experimental research study evaluated the benefits of daily texts or phone calls from teachers to parents.  They found frequent communication increased student participation in an observed summer class by 15%, on task behavior by 25%, and homework completion rates by 40%. 

• Sites for ESL students:

  • Kids Picture Dictionary: KPD helps students to connect words with images to improve their vocabulary and can be used by ESL and native english students. 

  • Monkey Puzzle: An app specifically created for ESL students at the A1-A2 CEFR level, Monkey Puzzle contains mini games to help students with reading skills.

  • Memrise: An app and platform aimed at ESL teenagers to help improve language learners' vocabulary in real-world contexts. With both a free and a paid version, Memrise offers courses in 23 languages and contains vocabulary, native speaker videos, and speaking practice with GPT-3 AI bots.

• Translation Earbuds

  • Translation earbuds, although they are an investment, have incredible capabilities for learning environments.  A high school in Utah successfully implemented them into their classrooms to help communicate with immigrant students following a 24% increase in migrant student population. The earbuds range from $80 - $300, and popular brands include TimeKettle, JoveTrans, and Google Pixel Buds. AI translates foreign words in real time and can be an asset for both sides of a language barrier. Teachers can use these earbuds to understand non-English-speaking student needs in multilingual classrooms.