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The bilingual/ESL program at the Greenway Middle School serves mostly Spanish speaking students. There are also new immigrants from other countries who participate in the sheltered English and ESL classes. Depending on the level of proficiency, students are placed in bilingual, sheltered, ESL, or mainstream classes.
Bilingual classes are taught using Spanish with Spanish textbooks. Students follow the grade level curriculum and scope and sequence of the mainstream classes. Bilingual offerings include math, reading and writing, science, and social studies.
Sheltered classes are taught in English with double emphasis on content and language development. Offerings include math, reading and writing, science, and social studies. These classes adhere to mainstream curricula scope and sequence.
ESL classes (Levels I-III) focus on English language instruction following the district scope and sequence for ESL.
Transition to Mainstream Classes:
Students are gradually transitioned to mainstream classrooms when they have demonstrated proficiency in a specific subject and have reached a Level III or IV proficiency in English. Students are most often mainstreamed in mathematics first, then in science, followed by social studies and language arts.
Once students have been mainstreamed in all four of the main academic areas, they will continue to take the Level IV-Reading and Writing class before exiting completly the program. The teacher of this sheltered class helps students with learning strategies and study skills needed to be successful in mainstream classes. This teacher monitors students' progress in the mainstream classrooms and serves as a resource to mainstream teachers.
Curriculum and Instruction
In Language and Literacy classes students learn to read and interpret various forms of literature, and to write using different formats at their current level of English ability. All students take language arts, or reading and writing, in either English or Spanish. This curriculum focuses on development of literacy skills. The language arts classes, taught in Spanish, provide an opportunity for students to improve their literacy in their first language. This allows students to develop a strong foundation in their first language in order to acquire a higher level of proficiency in their second language. Students in Levels I, II, and III also take an ESL class which focuses on oral communication and vocabulary development in English.
Content area classes for ESL students are taught by teachers knowledgeable in content areas and in ESL/Bilingual methodology. The program takes a conceptual approach to lesson planning. The Social Studies classes focus on the ideas of: cultures, historical development, American democracy, differences: racial, religious, and societal, time, communities, states, nations, media, integration of history, and identifying and solving problems in our community. These themes are taken from the State Essential Skills for Social Studies.
In math, three levels are taught in English and two in Spanish in order to provide for diverse math abilities and language abilities. Considerable time is spent learning the language of math as well as the operations. The math curriculum focuses on estimating, using patterns, word problems, comparing and ordering, making graphs, statistics, measuring, integers, ratios, proportions, percents and geometry, all taken from the state essential skills for mathematics.
The science curriculum is taught with a constructivist approach and allows for hands-on activity. Eleven objectives were compiled from the National Science Standards and Arizona State Essential Skills for Science in order to provide the conceptual focus of the curriculum and maintain achievement at or above grade level.
School Awareness Program
Each year the bilingual staff conducts a program through mainstream academic classes, titled "Walk in an ESL student's shoes." The purpose of this program is to create feelings of empathy and understanding toward bilingual students. It consists of a 10 minute lesson presented in Spanish by a bilingual teacher. During these ten minutes, students experience lecture, question & answer, and discipline in Spanish. After the lesson, the bilingual teacher and a counselor work with the students to process their feelings. If bilingual students are in that particular class, their feelings are compared with the English only speaking students. The students and staff who participate realize how frustrating school can be to bilingual students. Each year the presentation is done in a different discipline, so that different teachers get to have the experience as well as different students.
In all academic areas, special attention is paid to the multicultural focus of the text books. The language and literature text book used in the mainstream classes is especially representative of the diversity in our society. It includes many high interest pieces of literature written by authors representing various backgrounds and cultures.
Student Ability to Function in Both Cultures
Student ability to function in both cultures is demonstrated most clearly by the high participation in extracurricular activities. While bilingual students only represents 13% of the total student body, 26% of the intramural participants were bilingual students (see #3, Student Outcomes, Part B.) Bilingual students are involved in National Junior Honor Society, Student Senate, as well as sports and other intramural activities. Their ability to function in both cultures is further demonstrated by affective indicators. The students enjoy being at Greenway, they know they are cared about by their teachers, administrators and the entire staff at the school.
Bilingual students participate with the rest of the school in elective courses,drama productions, chorus, field trips, and school concerts. Many elect to serve as office aids, nurse's aids, and library aids, where they provide a valuable service to the English speaking staff dealing with Spanish speaking students and parents. Others participate in community service activities including: revegetation, trail maintenance, and neighborhood clean ups along with their English speaking peers.
Each year, some bilingual students in mainstream science classes join their classmates for a trip to Sea World in San Diego, California.
Bilingual students, together with the entire school population visit community colleges and universities. Every seventh grader at Greenway visits a community college and every eight grader visits one of the four year state universities. During these trips, various campus groups with special programs for Hispanic and ESL students also make special presentations to our students.
Community Partnerships
The Greenway Community Action Network (C.A.N) is a grassroots organization that resulted from Greenway's relationship with Dr. Morrison Warren, retired professor emeritus, Arizona State University. For the past four years, Dr. Warren has worked with the students, staff, administration, and community of Greenway. The purpose of Greenway C.A.N. is "to seek ways to improve the quality of life for all families, businesses, and employees of our geographical area, to coordinate our financial and business resources, to join our personal and professional skills so that all members of our community can enjoy the benefits of a quality education, healthy life style and equal opportunity, regardless of race, creed or economic status." The members of the Greenway C.A.N. include representatives from: Aire Libre Elementary, Arrowhead Elementary, Indian Bend Elementary, Palomino Elementary, Greenway Middle School, Paradise Valley Masonic Lodge #61, With Child Center, City of Phoenix-N.E. Parks and Recreation Department, Paradise Valley Community College, Palomino Alliance (Neighborhood Association), and Saint Joan of Arc, Catholic Church. Greenway C.A.N. has identified two concerns: how to build hope in the hearts of students and community and how to assure a safe and nurturing environment for the students of this community as they mature.
Many projects have been spearheaded by Greenway C.A.N. in order to address these concerns. For example, The Greenway C.A.N. committed to the annual raising of $8000 for the purpose of awarding $2000 scholarships to four eighth grade students. These awards are held in trust by the Paradise Valley Education Foundation in the names of the winners until each student successfully graduates from high school. All eighth graders are eligible to participate in the application process. In the 1996-1997 school year, three bilingual students were semi-finalists and one bilingual student was a scholarship winner. Semi-finalists are awarded textbook waivers from Paradise Valley Community College, and all finalists and semi-finalists received free freshman yearbooks and free graduation cap and gown rentals from Jostens.
Greenway C.A.N. coordinated the outreach and fund raising that made the opening of the Northeast Branch of the Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix possible. The Northeast Branch opened at Greenway Middle School in October of 1997.
Involvement of Bilingual Students' Families
There are several avenues for bilingual students' families to become involved in their students' education. First, Spanish speaking parents meetings are held once a quarter. At these meetings, parent and student concerns are discussed as a group with faculty and administration. Topics include: high school registration, college planning, financial aid, gang influences, and others. Second, special outreach to bilingual students' parents fosters a much higher turn out of bilingual students' parents at events like open house and parent conferences. Third, teachers in the bilingual program spend a lot of time making home phone calls to discuss concerns about student progress or behavior. Special individual conferences are arranged with parents when a special issue or concern arises regarding student progress.
Each year, several bilingual students participate in a special program made possible with Title I funding, Project RAP (Reaching All Parents.) Students involved with this program receive five home visits by a RAP teacher throughout the school year. During each visit, effective behavioral and academic information provided by the student's teachers is shared with the families. The RAP teacher encourages communication, positive routines, reading and other activities which enhance student success.
The Parent Academy offers evening classes for families. Classes are taught by Greenway faculty and courses include: cooking, studio art, automotive maintenance, math enrichment, English, and citizenship.
During Family Nights (funded by Title I) parents are introduced to school programs such the Title I program and the Parent Academy, and they enjoy programs such as a Health Fair where representatives from different organizations set up booths to provide free information to all families.
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