Interview Transcript
Jean Carryl
Q:
A: When he first came in to the situation in kindergarten, he was pretty shy, he was little stand offish, kind of sat back in the group, but since has made lots of friends and has lots of play dates with other kids at their homes, and they go to his home. Initially, he didn't have quite as much difficulty as some of my other Hispanic children assimilating with the group because his English skills were really pretty good and he was able to communicate with the other Anglo kids that could speak English, so he assimilated pretty quickly.
Q: Does he go out of your classroom for any special help in English?
A: About once a month, once every six weeks, he meets with the English as a Second Language teacher, and she goes over vocabulary with him to expand that and that's about it
Q: Academically, is he right with his class?
A: Yes, he is. He is an emergent reader, he is able to pick up a kindergarten level book and sound the words out and be able to read the sight words and read pretty fluently, and his number skills are good. He has good abstract thinking skills so he is probably in, I'd say about the top third of the class.
Q: What about the overall challenge to the school of dealing with non-English students?
A: In the classroom itself, I believe, my opinion is that we could use more adults who are able to speak fluent Spanish, especially when the school year begins because that's when so many of the Hispanic children have so few English skills, and they are trying to understand what's going on. The teacher doesn't speak fluent Spanish and it's difficult for them to understand what is happening and what they are supposed to do. And it's difficult for the teacher in the same respect because the Hispanic children aren't the only ones who may need help, so you have one adult to maybe 20 children and it makes it a little more difficult. So what we need most is just more adult help with people that can speak fluent Spanish.
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