On October 20th, I observed the ELL classroom at Barranca Elementary school in Los Alamos, NM. This school is very unusual for most of New Mexico. The school district does not offer Billingual education to all students, most of the schools do not even have an ELL educator. I found this disheartnening before going into the school because I felt that it adds to the cultural gap between Los Alamos and every other town surrounding it. Los Alamos is already known for having a mostly Caucasian population that primarily moved to New Mexico to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Their culture has impacted the rich northern New Mexico culture and some feel that they are out of touch with their community outside of the town of Los Alamos. Does not offering Billingual education add to that culture gap?
Barranca Elementary has a stand alone ELL classroom. It is setup very similarly to a general education classroom and the teacher, Rebekka Cabildo, teaches rotating grade level everyday. She generally only does pull-outs and does some pull-ins for 5th and 6th grade, when she has many of her students in one class. She has 32 students from K-6. She meets with every grade level for 30 minutes at least twice a week. She has a set schedule for meeting with students, she found this to be the best solution because if she just did it at random she would not be able to meet with all of her students.
Every day she has a plan of action. Each student has a textbook and workbook that they work in every time they meet. The work they go over adds to what they learn in their grade. Since there are only 4-6 students in each class, she is able to really fill in any learning gaps and give students one-on-one attention. It is a very relaxed but also structured environment. All of the students gather around a rectangular table and she stands or sits at one end while they go over the lesson for the day. After their lesson, they work on their workbook which aligns with the lesson and they also finish any other work. They then play a speaking game and by then their thirty minutes is up!
The students seem comfortable with Ms. Cabildo but since they only meet with her twice a week they are still slightly hesitant, much like they would be for a library or PE teacher. At the same time, they feel very comfortable making connections to their home language, although the class is all in English. They do seem interested in what they are going over and also enjoy working with one another.
I found out through my observation and interview that Barranca Mesa has too many ELL students of different first languages to have a Bilingual class for the whole school. The question arises, what will be the other language? For example, her Kindergarten class has Spanish, Arabic, French and Mandarin speaking students. In one class! She also has students that speak Swahili, Italian, Tewa, Tiwa and many others over her years teaching there.
She has had to learn to modify her teaching to incorporate the different cultural norms that bring with them. She takes a lot of her teaching to stories and always allows students to make their own connections to their home lives.
INTERVIEW:
English Instruction with supports and scaffolding. The curriculum reinforces their learning in the classroom. She does push-ins for older students because of their higher level of need. Students in Kindergarten are learning so much language with their peers that the pull-outs are sufficient.
"Students should be as independent as they can be. It is important for them to know where to find their own answers."
Positive Reinforcement!!
Other teachers that do not see the importance of her work for the students. Also, educators lack of understanding and cultural sensitivity.
The school district is 95% middle class and Caucasian but their school still has students without internet and computers at home. Trying to instill the importance of keeping their first language, many students when they get older do not wish to use it anymore. Keeping their language helps them maintain their culture.
Educating teachers better. More schools should require students to take courses like LLSS 315!!