A Welcome Return to the ESOL Classroom

I returned to the ESOL classroom today (for my fourteenth visit) after my unplanned absence on Tuesday. Many kids professed that they’d missed me. I also didn’t recognize one of them, as she had since completely changed her hairstyle. And sure enough, after nine days away, two new students joined the class. So I introduced myself all over again. Forgive me: I don’t mean to sound non-plussed or bored by this routine. The early morning double period ESOL level 1 class was actually a lot of fun. Here’s why.

Tomorrow the students will take a unit test on clothing, accessories, colors and patterns. Their teacher also wants to know how well they’ve comprehended the differences between this/these and that/those as well as when to use each indefinite article (a or an). As such, we reviewed all of this material. First, two students stood in front of their peers so that everyone could observe and write about their outfits. I went about the room, correcting the students’ grammar and spelling. Many forgot to use an indefinite article when one was required (a prime example: She is wearing blue shirt), and other times they included one when it wasn’t at all necessary (She is wearing a pink and white pants). I wasn’t present on the day(s) the teacher introduced this subject, but I don’t think her lesson was very effective. Or they simply require more practice.

Let me tell you: it is hard work supervising students’ completion of assignments, especially when you have twenty-five teenagers vying for your attention at the same time. They eagerly solicit my expertise and correction. I hear my name called out so many times, I can’t respond immediately to every inquiry. Although they understand that I have to act according to the order in which I received the requests for help, some students seem despondent at the wait. I am thankful that this particular group wants to do well and values my feedback. However, it’s not always clear if my corrections will institute broad changes in their learned English use. On the other hand, the ones who do well on their assignments usually seem dejected whenever I say, “Good work!” But today was a little different—probably because tomorrow they have a test. There were big smiles all around whenever I proclaimed, “Perfect! You’re ready for tomorrow!”

The next part of the lesson got them up and moving, interacting with students who don’t sit near them. In this “Find Someone Who…” exercise, the students were to fill out a worksheet listing different kinds of clothing and/or colors, asking their classmates to write their names on the paper if they were wearing any of the pieces listed (a warm sweater, say, or something red). Since I was the only person wearing a scarf (which I couldn’t believe, honestly; it was in the low 40s!), I gladly scribbled my name on that line. Some students misunderstood the directions or flouted them entirely: a couple sat at their desks and observed their colleagues’ clothing from a distance, and yet another (probably the weakest in the whole class) asked everyone who came up to him to give him the answers. I don’t need to tell you this, but many students lapsed into their native tongues, only deploying English to cross language barriers they encountered.

Period 3’s basic reading course for ESOL students was relatively quiet. When the obnoxious boy spotted me in the hallway on my way to the classroom, he cried out. Whether it was in disappointment or disbelief, I can’t be sure. In any case, when his teacher told me that he said that he missed me on Tuesday, I didn’t believe her. I did, however, believe the girl in the same independent reading group when she said so. (Coincidentally, today was the first time that I ever heard her speak in a language other than English, and I pointed this out to her.)

Today’s lesson consisted only of supervising (meaning babysitting) the four students as they read their individual books in the hallway. To alleviate the boredom I endured last time, I brought with me Vaclav & Lena, Haley Tanner’s novel about two young ESOL (she uses “ESL,” short for English as a Second Language) students. It doesn’t bring me joy to admit this, but I have already decided, after a mere 50 pages, to call it quits; I just don’t like the staccato style of the writing (I almost labeled it “oversimplified” but that would be just as reductive). And despite the premise, I’m just not interested in how or why a little girl wants to distance herself from her only friend, a clingy but sweet aspiring magician.

I spent half of the hour, when not reading Vaclav & Lena, going over major plot points in Emma, as my star student was filling out a worksheet after having finished the comic book adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic rom-com. Yes, I deliberately used a film genre to describe her early 19th century literary comedy of manners. Assisting the student was a lot of fun. After all, I got to review my memory of the 1996 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam.

After the bell rang and we returned the five desks to the classroom, I chatted with the teacher about what we got accomplished today. I told her that the two boys were struggling with their books. One, who took forever to choose a book to begin with and wound up with the longest (we’re talking over 100 pages, here), was visibly bored and easily distracted. The other (the obnoxious one) had a hard time explaining to me what his story is all about. Not only did the teacher permit them to choose different books, she also informed me that next Tuesday, she wants me to work with another small group of students (the weakest of the bunch). Incidentally, the group includes some that I have worked with before—and they resented every single minute of it. Hey! If I look on the bright side of things, I can see that next Tuesday’s post should be more… dramatic.

The Changes Need No Translation

Today was both my 10th day in the ESOL classroom and my first day back there in three weeks. (In between, I went to New York with my siblings, hosted my sister at home, and then served as an election judge.) I returned to find that some things had changed, while most everything else had stayed the same.

The early double period in ESOL level 1 may have been the most pleasant and enjoyable time I’ve ever spent there. As soon as I stepped through the doorway, I saw big smiles on the students’ faces; I was just as happy to see them. One boy even playfully reprimanded me for my excessive absenteeism: “Where have you been?! I’ve missed you!” “I missed you, too!” I replied, a little overwhelmed by their collective response. A few minutes later, when their teacher made the announcement that she’s leaving today for France (she’s chaperoning advanced French language students on an eleven-day trip) and that they’ll have a substitute teacher all next week, I noticed that the girl who used to show very little patience with me at the beginning of my tenure was relieved and pleased that I would be coming by next week, too. I had never felt so welcomed in that class before (that’s not to say it is uninviting), which made it feel so good to be back. Even the stubborn girl who once accepted and then rejected my help during lunchtime seemed to open up to me more, asking for help to retrieve her email password and exchanging smiles with me throughout the double hour. I sincerely hope she changes her mind again and lets me privately tutor her during lunch sometime in the near future.

But those aren’t the only changes I noticed. I quickly spotted two new faces: a boy who’d been moved down from level 2 because he’d been failing and a friendly girl who is new to the school. She was one of two students who each presented a PowerPoint slideshow introducing us all to members of his/her family. Glimpsing a bit of her home-life made me wish that I had been able to see the rest of the class’s presentations. However, most of the double period was devoted to mastering four critical prepositional phrases and the names for businesses and offices in a town/city. For example, the students practiced reading and saying sentences like “The bakery is next to the bank” and “The hotel is around the corner from the post office.” From what I could tell, everyone handled these new grammatical structures really well, never leaving out words from the prepositional phrases.

To my surprise and delight, my translation services (from English into French and from Spanish into English) were even requested. While monitoring the students’ work in pairs, three boys, each from a different country, inquired how to say pareja in English. It took me a few seconds to understand the word, and rather amusingly, one of the boys pressed his shoulder on his partner’s to signify the meaning, adding, “You know, like husband and wife.” “Oh! Pair or couple,” I recalled. “Yes!” they all exclaimed. And then I took a risk by playfully asking the leaning boy, “Are you two a couple?” They all laughed, and then he said, “No, we’re a couple of students.” Yes, that you are!

Period 3’s basic reading class for ESOL students was a little more calcified. I was surprised to see that the gang of four whom I tutor in reading comprehension had not yet finished nor even really continued The Odyssey in all my weeks of absence. Today, we finished reading the comic book adaptation of the epic poem. This time, I remembered to assign speaking parts to the students to keep them active and engaged rather than full pages to read. It was a happy accident that the strongest reader of the bunch recited the narrator’s (many) lines. Genuinely impressed with her abilities, which previously never came across as strong at all, I complimented her on her great work today while we walked out of the teacher’s lounge together once the bell rang. She smiled and thanked me upon hearing my enthusiastic praise.

Not everything was as splendid, though. I didn’t like to hear it, but I finally got the obnoxious boy to admit why he dreads seeing my face all the time (he was sorely disappointed that I turned up today, out of the blue). It’s nothing to do with me personally, he said—he just doesn’t like working in the boring teacher’s lounge, separated from his friends and classmates. I’m afraid my explanation (that we need the space, quiet, and distraction-free zone to get our work done) did little to convince him of its worth, and I was a little wounded that at least one of his classmates agreed with him. If the subject arises again, I’ll say he should be proud, as he’s more advanced than the classmates who stay behind in the room. Despite their dissatisfaction, I couldn’t believe that all four pupils stayed on task. I didn’t have to goad anyone into participating. My announcement that their teacher was going to quiz them on The Odyssey tomorrow probably motivated them the most.

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to report about the special education reading class (period 4). It was the same unwelcoming, somewhat hostile place to which I’ve  grown accustomed. I spent the hour socializing with the two friendliest friendly students, attempting to assist another in her reading (she was slow and lazy), and then reading from one of the novels in the classroom’s library of remedial reading materials. I should have whipped out Haley Tanner’s Vaclav & Lena, a novel about two friends who meet in an ESOL classroom, which I am dying to start.