Every teacher forms a bond with their students and their families in the course of a school year. With teachers in the English Learner program — formerly English as a Second Language, or ESL — that bond lasts for multiple years, according to EL District Coordinator Nancy Rieth and two of her assistants, Judy Armbruster and Mary Corbet.
“You establish a really close bond with these children, because sometimes you work with the same child for as many as three years until their skills are proficient enough to phase out of the program,” Mary said.
Students qualify for the program based on a proficiency screening test known as World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA). Later that year, they take a full WIDA test that measures their proficiency in reading, listening, speaking and writing. There are six levels, from “Entering,” in which the student knows and uses minimal social language and minimal academic language with visual and graphic support, to “Reaching,” in which the student knows and uses social and academic language at the highest level. This test determines when a student exits out of the program.
“It normally takes five to seven years to develop English proficiency,” Nancy explained. “In Grosse Pointe, they tend to get out a little sooner.”
Nancy attributes much of this to her staff.
“These ladies dedicate everything to the students and it really helps them pick up the language quickly. And the Grosse Pointe staff — the gen ed teachers — are fabulous with the students too. We all work as a team.”
Every teacher who has an EL student in their classroom is invited to attend a workshop in which they are trained in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) strategies used to help the students meet academic standards and succeed in the classroom. All the EL students participate in regular academic and social activities with the guidance of the EL staff, either in small groups or individual instruction inside and outside of the classroom.
Tips provided to teachers of EL students include speaking at a slower pace with deliberate enunciation, using simple, straightforward language, supporting verbal presentations with visuals, planning lots of hands-on activities, and providing multiple ways to assess students’ work, allowing them to demonstrate their knowledge by drawing a diagram, conducting an experiment, or completing a project, for example.
Parents of students in the EL program are introduced to the services offered to their families at the beginning of the school year during a parent information night. Parents meet in the library where Nancy provides information via a PowerPoint presentation on everything they need to know, from navigating Schoology to calling the office when their child is sick. Meanwhile the students are entertained in the gym with games and activities. This is followed by a large family dinner.
“It’s really nice to meet the families,” Judy said. “Some of them from the same countries have a connection to each other and they’re a great resource for each other, too. It’s a great evening.”
“They make great bonds,” Mary pointed out. “A lot of the Spanish families will have Thanksgiving together because they’ve become their new families.”
Students come from all over the world — Africa, Albania, Germany, Poland, Russia and Spain, to name a few. Their teachers and EL staff encourage them to share their cultures with their classroom peers. For example, recently a child from Russia brought in her nesting dolls, known as babushka dolls, and Nancy read the class an accompanying storybook.
An English Learner Game Night originally scheduled for January has been postponed until March, but the idea is for the EL Department to provide a dinner along with educational games and activities for students in kindergarten to grade 8. Tables will be set up with games at each grade level, with a few writing activities thrown in. Pizza is on the menu, and the plan is to have third graders take a clipboard and interview their peers on their favorite pizza toppings and graph the results.
Game Night — like many of the activities— encourages social interaction, which is something the students gravitate toward naturally, increasing their motivation to improve their English.
“They want to interact with their friends,” Nancy said. “They want to meet new friends. They’ll learn the social language first and then they’ll go into the academic language.”
A pen pal program was started this month for students in Young 5 through grade 8, pairing a kindergartener from Defer with a kindergartener from Mason, for example. Students are given notebooks, special pens and stickers so they can write back and forth and get to know one another.
A summer school program in July for kindergarteners through fifth graders helps the students maintain their language skills over the summer.
“If we can keep them reading, writing, listening and speaking in English during the summer, it really helps so they don’t fall behind,” Nancy said.
Last summer the instructors piloted a poetry club for middle school students.
“We tested it out one day a week to see how it would go and the students loved it,” Nancy said. “I think we’re going to run that again this year. We incorporated some art projects along with the poetry. They wrote their own poems and presented them in front of the class. It was a great experience.”
The teachers can’t say enough about their students or their parents, from whom they get “all positive feedback,” according to Nancy.
“I always ask the students — it amazes me because they’re bilingual — how do you keep the languages straight in your head?” Judy said. “They can go back and forth and they tell me, ‘We just do it!’ It’s a gift. They are amazing children.”
To celebrate the success of one EL family — Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, parents of third-grade twins Ei’eze and Kenza Mamba, opened up an East African restaurant in Detroit called Baobab Fare that features food from their native country, Burundi — the EL staff hopes to plan a gathering at the restaurant as a bonding event.
“We’re family, too,” Mary said.
Alumni Through the Decades
Our 100th anniversary series on GPPSS alumni continues
Michael Sacchetti
Grosse Pointe North High School
Class of 2015
Michael Sacchetti is the first to admit the field of medicine is crazy right now — but there’s no place he would rather be.
On a visit on Dec. 21 with Grosse Pointe North students enrolled in Sue Speirs’ Applied Medical Research with Clinical Investigation and Liz Michaels’ Physiology classes, Michael talked about his educational background, his clinical experiences, in particular with COVID-19, and why he chose to become a doctor.
Michael’s original impetus to pursue medicine came from losing his grandmother to cancer when he was in elementary school. Later, the 2015 North graduate was inspired by his high school science classes, including Microbiology, Physiology and Honors Biology with Mrs. Michaels, Applied Medical Research with Mrs. Speirs, and Advanced Placement Chemistry with Steve Kosmas (now retired). Another teacher who influenced him was English teacher and Student Association adviser Jonathan Byrne. Michael took several of Mr. Byrne’s classes and served as an SA Senator for four years.
Relating to the students sitting in the same seats he sat in not that long ago, Michael encouraged them to take advantage of what they were learning today. His teachers pushed him “to the max,” he said, preparing him for the rigors of his studies to come. Skills they learned in their classes, in particular researching, graphing, and creating posters, would be invaluable for their future tests and professional pursuits, he assured them.
Michael attended the University of Michigan, receiving a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. After he graduated in 2019, he decided to delay applying to medical school. Instead, he remained at U of M, enrolling in a master’s program in hospital and molecular epidemiology with a minor in public health genetics.
“The main difference between clinical medicine and epidemiology is clinical medicine is the study of an infectious disease on an individual and epidemiology is the study of infectious disease on a population level,” he explained.
He decided to study the field of hospital and molecular epidemiology because he knew he could apply it no matter what field of medicine he decided to go into.
“I started my master’s in fall of 2019 and COVID hit in February 2020,” Michael said. “That first semester we had just studied Intro to Viral Diseases and I remember a PowerPoint where we talked about different viruses and at that time coronavirus was just a regular virus out there that my professor is showing on a slide.
“Fast forward a couple months later and I’m sitting at home finishing up my master’s and I turn on the TV and it’s Governor Whitmer. I look up and there’s my professor at the press conference talking about COVID.”
While completing his degree at home, Michael took advantage of the opportunity to work in the emergency room at Beaumont Grosse Pointe, where he began volunteering his junior year at North.
“I remember my parents were hesitant about me going in and working and I was like, ‘No, if I want to be a doctor, I’ve got to be able to do this night or day, no matter what the disease, no matter what is going on’.”
During his time there, he witnessed things he never imagined possible. He described the experience as “surreal,” as he was studying and writing papers about COVID while also working with patients dealing with its harsh realities.
After completing his master’s degree, Michael applied to more than 20 medical schools, interviewing at several before choosing Central Michigan University College of Medicine.
While he acknowledged the challenges of getting accepted into a medical school, he had words of encouragement and advice for the students.
“My advice for those entering the medical profession is that it is a long and very challenging road ahead so don’t lose sight of the path you’re on and the goals you have,” he said. “Because once you reach those goals, all of the hard work is well worth it. While the healthcare profession is demanding, the ability to help people is incredibly rewarding.”
He encouraged students to seek research and clinical experiences and opportunities to volunteer and demonstrate leadership to strengthen their applications. He also urged them to focus on developing good study habits.
Sue Speirs was pleased her former student had the opportunity to model these qualities for her current students.
“They learned what is possible for a hard-working Norseman like Michael, like them,” she said. “They imagine themselves taking a similar journey. What an inspiration Michael was, and still is, to North’s learning community. Our past and current Norsemen are so blessed by Michael. I am certain that the medical field, with its vast array of professionals and patients, is lifted up by Michael’s tenacious enthusiasm, empowering empathy, and intellectual insights.”
Do you know someone to nominate for our Alumni Through the Decades series? Click here or contact info@gpschools.org.
Strategic plan virtual townhall scheduled Jan. 20
Mark your calendar and join Superintendent Jon Dean and members of the Strategic Planning Committee for a virtual Community Town Hall on the new Strategic Plan on Thursday, Jan. 20, from 6-7 p.m. There is also a virtual Town Hall for GPPSS staff members on Tuesday, Jan. 18, from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m.
Key facets of the Strategic Plan will be presented and questions will be answered.
Help us spread the word! Encourage your friends and neighbors to attend, especially those who don't have children in the school system so they can stay up to date.
Click here to submit questions.
Click here to watch the livestream event.
Contact info@gpschools.org for more information.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.