The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
PARENTS BECOME THE STUDENTS
Teachers provide English classes for Spanish-speaking parents
Some English Language Learner teachers of the Elyria School District have expanded their audience of students by not only teaching students, but their parents, as well.
Since late April, Natalie Soto-Burke and Maria Gilmore have been teaching free, English-language adult classes at Franklin Elementary in Elyria for any member of Spanishspeaking families in the district.
Soto-Burke and Gilmore said they want to teach basic English to parents and family members of Elyria students to provide better communication and understanding between themselves and teachers.
The ELL student program is about four years old and taught by three different Spanish-speaking instructors at three schools, according to SotoBurke.
Gilmore is the ELL teacher at Elyria High School while Soto-Burke is the teacher for all elementary students in the district and a third teacher covers all middle school students in the district.
The ELL teachers have taken on more students with the increase of
“Like they say, ‘it takes a community to raise a village or children.’ There’s a need, and we just need to meet their needs whatever way we can.”
— Teacher Natalie Soto-Burke
children and families who have come to Lorain County after the destruction from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Soto-Burke, who is also an English teacher for kindergarten through fifthgrade at Franklin Elementary, said the district had to hire more Spanish-speaking tutors to help.
Soto-Burke said herself and Gilmore noticed a dire need to help parents and their families as Spanish has become more prominent in the county than it’s ever been. The two wanted to create afternoon adult classes that could help parents become more adept in English.
The classes are held twice a week at Franklin Elementary.
The classes are held at a location that is closer for many of the Spanish-speaking families, Soto-Burke said.
She said their goal was to bridge a gap for these family members.
“We want to make the parents feel comfortable and make them feel like (the classes are) an open door to become active in their child’s education,” Soto-Burke said.
She said that teachers, in order to succeed, need that connection with the parents.
“Like they say, ‘it takes a community to raise a village or children,’ ” she said. “There’s a need, and we just need to meet their needs whatever way we can.”
In their classes, they each teach English at a beginner and intermediate level.
Some of the parents and family members are able to understand and comprehend, yet, they just need to learn the speaking aspect of it, Soto-Burke said.
Their main focus is to simply show them how to have a conversation, she said.
The English they focus on teaching are the terms that may come up if they were to schedule an appointment with a principal, a doctor or meet for a job interview. Soto-Burke said they also teach words that can guide them to the career they are looking for.
Staff from Franklin will help watch the youngsters of the parents while class is in session, also.
Gilmore and Soto-Burke each said they can relate to many of these families who are trying to adjust to the language barrier.
Gilmore was from Nicaragua and once a student in Arlington, Virginia, who was learning English.
“I remember sitting in class and not knowing what was going on,” Gilmore said. “I learned English as a second language with the help of my (ELL) teacher, who would pull me out of class every day to work on learning English.”
She added that her experience is what drove her to create the Elyria ELL program at Elyria High.
Soto-Burke recalled when she was younger she saw the struggle her mother went through not knowing any English.
Throughout the couple hours spent teaching these families each week, Gilmore and Soto-Burke said that the families have made milestones every day.