Plymouth High School ENL teacher, Rebecca Ippel, and bilingual Pre-School teacher, Carolina Figueroa, have discovered a creative way for their students to practice their English language skills.
On May 6, the two classes met together for a reading session.
Ippel’s students, most of whom speak Spanish and are learning English as a second language, are continuing to perfect their reading skills by reading children’s books. During part of their preparation for the special class, the ENL students chose books that they knew the younger students would enjoy. Ippel said. If we didn’t have the authentic audience of pre-schoolers my students wouldn’t be nearly as excited to read children’s books.” She added, “Since all of the pre-schoolers are bilingual too, my students don’t feel as nervous reading in English as they would to native English speaking students.”
Pre-school teacher’s aide, Anna Exiga, said the 18 students in their class look forward to the days when they can hear stories read by the PHS students. Ippel said, “Some of my students have siblings, nieces or nephews, or neighbors in the pre-school class, and it is real good for the pre-schoolers too to see older teens in their life modeling reading.”
The pre-school class, funded by Title III, was put in place at Jefferson Elementary School in November of last year.
Picture 1: PHS Diego Leyra-Sanchez (calendar and circle time center in background) Emily Aguilera Pre-School Arom Pena Jahaira-Gonsalez
Picture 1: PHS Heily Ascencio (sitting on floor –Wall cabinets in background) Silvia Varela-Herrer Pre-School: Ethan Cervante Evelin Jurado
Picture 3: PHS Cecilia Valdez (sitting at table) Jose Rodriguez Pre-School: Willam Hernandez Katia Cervantas
Carol Anders Correspondent
