County strives to better teach students who can’t speak English
Warren County’s efforts to better teach its increasing non-English speaking students received a significant boost recently as 15 local teachers became certified to teach English as a Second Language.
The teachers comprised the first of two groups of local educators to participate in the ESL Enterprise Project, a grant funded by MTSU and the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of improving the quality and quantity of English as a Second Language instruction.
A main benefit will be that nearly every school in the county will have trained ESL coaches who can assist English language learners who choose to remain in their community schools rather than be transported to one of the four county schools with formal ESL programs. They will also be able to act as resources for their fellow teachers who have such students in their classes.
Program participant and Bobby Ray Elementary School teacher Carole Cathcart said to earn program endorsements, group members had to take a plethora of online classes dealing with such subjects as ESL methods, multicultural issues, grammar, writing, technology and linguistics.
“It was very difficult to take classes online because there was no teacher there to answer your questions,” Cathcart said. “For those of us who persevered, this turned out to be an exhausting and exhilarating experience. We became a team in every sense of the word. We studied together after school hours, we researched and wrote together and came to depend on one another as a sisterhood.”
Of all of the classes the teachers were required to take, Cathcart said the one on multicultural issues brought about the greatest change in their classroom practices.
“As we worked our way through this class, reading journals, books, articles and stories written by people of different ethnic backgrounds, we all began to realize that, although we believed we were unprejudiced and open-minded, we had deceived ourselves,” she said.
In all, the program’s participants were required to take six graduate-level courses, attend several curriculum institutes and two summer academies at MTSU. This spring, the teachers took the Praxis II exam to complete the certification process, thus rendering them “highly qualified” by the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act.
“Warren County now has trained, certified and highly qualified ESL teachers who are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the students we teach. By doing this, we can also make a difference in the community,” said Cathcart.
A second group of Warren County teachers is set to begin the ESL Enterprise Project this fall.