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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

March Crossword Key
March 6, 2024

English Learners pursue life in a new culture

From left: freshman Kunlachat Kongkorn, freshman Alex Papachristopoulos, junior Anjes Swart, junior Jules Korman, junior Rintaro Kiriyama, English teacher Rosie Reid, sophomore Ying Zhou.

Hoe gaat het met u?

Ogenki desu ka?

Bpen yàang rai bâang?

Pos íse?

Nǐhǎo ma?

Feeling lost? So are they. The English Learners dive into their coursework in Room 37 during fifth period, determined to improve their fluency in English and cope with the adjustment to an entirely new lifestyle. The common phrase “How are you?” is only a glimpse of their interactions throughout the day.

The English Language Learners (ELL) class consists of students from different parts of the world who are not yet fluent in English.

“These students are so wonderful and motivated,” said English teacher and ELD (English Language Development) teacher Rosie Reid. “They learn so fast—every week they’re better than the last. Their learning curve is so steep and it’s very rewarding to see how quickly they grow.”

Piedmont Unified School District is legally obligated to ask students questions when they enroll for school, which include: What language do you primarily speak? What language did you first learn? What language is primarily spoken around you at home? If any of those questions are answered anything besides English, they are required to take the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), which tests their fluency on five levels.

If students pass the CELDT test, they are redesignated as “initially fluent.” If not, they become an EL (English Learner), and require allotted time for English each day, though they can decline if they do not want help. Once they pass the test, they become ‘fluent’, but are on ‘watch and monitor’ by Reid for two years to make sure they are keeping up in their classes.

“If I have a problem with my homework or a class or a relationship with a student, Ms. Reid helps me,” junior Rintaro (Rinta) Kiriyama said. “She’s so kind.”

Kiriyama, an exchange student from Tokyo, Japan, arrived in Piedmont early September and will live with the Higashi family for the next year.

“I was thinking I wanted to study English,” Kiriyama said. “Then my parents thought it would be good for me so I decided to come here.”

In dealing with the language barrier, Kiriyama said, “I don’t care. I just want to learn.”

“The style of classes is different here,” Kiriyama said. “In Japan, the student just has to listen to the teacher and doesn’t have to say anything. Here, the student has to talk.”

Kiriyama said he is comfortable now. He’s interested in films, he said. He plans to attend film club to fulfill his interests in shooting and editing. His favorite film is the Godfather, he said.

Freshman Kunlachat Kongkorn (Chris), from Thailand, arrived in Piedmont in July with his mother, who married the father of junior Amanda Ballesteros.

“My dad is in Thailand,” Kongkorn said. “I see him once a year.”

Kongkorn said his favorite part of Piedmont is when he is in school. He said the lifestyles are different, and people in Thailand dress more colorfully.

“I miss my room,” Kongkorn said. “My room here is not as good as home. I miss my comic books. My bag was full.”

Kongkorn said he likes ELL because it helps with his homework.

When Kongkorn goes home, he likes to play video games. He wants to join video game club, he said.

Junior Anjes Swart, an exchange student from Holland living with the Waters family, said she was twelve when she decided she wanted to be a transfer student, and it took her over a year to convince her parents.

“I came on the 25th of July, but then went to a camp with 400 other exchange students from all over the world,” Swart said.

Swart said she came through the organization Education First, filling out lists of interests in order to be matched with the best-fit family for her.

“I prepared to say goodbye to home a year before I actually left,” Swart said. “But when I was in the airport, I think there were 70 exchange students and their families. If someone starts to cry, everyone cries.”

Swart said she texts her parents at least once a week and they Skype every two weeks. She posts on Facebook what she’s doing so her friends can see, she said.

In ELL, however, she works tirelessly with Reid to perfect her English.

“In ELL, Ms. Reid helps me read The Scarlet Letter,” Swart said. “If I had to read it alone, it would be a lot harder. The environment in class is relaxing and we are all friends.”

Swart is on the JV water polo team, as a first-year player.

“It’s really hard,” she said. “The first week I couldn’t walk anymore. I was so hurt in all my muscles. It’s really helped me find friends and know faces at school.”

Sophomore Ying Zhou came to Piedmont last year from China and lived with her cousin’s family for a year before her mother arrived.

“Ms. Reid helps me study my English. She supports me and if I have a question she helps me find an answer,” Zhou said.

Zhou said people can make her feel more comfortable at school by just talking to her about anything, like movies or TV.

Freshman Alex Papachristopoulos moved to Piedmont from Greece last year.

“I had a surgery to do on my kidney in the US and we liked it here so we stayed,” he said.

Papachristopoulos said he misses his neighborhood in Greece, where the kids would play soccer in the street almost every day.

In Piedmont, Papachristopoulos works hard on his academics.

“I do homework in ELL,” he said. “Ms. Reid is amazing and I love her. We’re all close in class and talk about what it’s like here. We support each other on bad days.”

“Piedmont has had the ELL class off and on for at least ten years if not longer,” Reid said.

Years they have not had the class due to the budget, students have been supported in other ways.

Principal Rich Kitchens said years the class was not offered, a teacher was responsible for checking in with ELL students, and would pull the students out once in a while to help them with their English.

Reid used to teach at John O’Connell Technical High School in San Francisco where 70% of the students were English Learners or had been English Learners. After gaining the ELD position at Piedmont, Reid connected with one of her old Berkeley professors, and is now on a research team at UC Berkeley to find the best practices for supporting English Language Learners, she said.

“When students are very beginning in English, we do a lot of translation and draw pictures,” Reid said. “I use Google images all the time, allow students to use their translators, and allow students to translate for one another.”

Reid said in most schools, there would be specific classes for English Learners, but here, they are just thrown into regular classes. The difficulty comes when they are in different classes, and she has to help them with different classes in different grades on different CELDT levels.

“They often all need help and trying to find that one-on-one time can be difficult,” Reid said.

Reid said she can not imagine trying to learn the coursework at PHS in a different language.

“I think Piedmont is a very challenging school, but I feel like if we all worked as hard as these students are working, we would have the power to overcome obstacles,” Reid said. “If we really persevere, we can learn, even if it’s really hard. These students are so inspirational to me.”

Photo by Danny Kolosta

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