School program at U.S. Grant High School helping to ensure English language isn’t a barrier

Steven Rodriguez, 18, is a varsity soccer player at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City who has been in this country for a year and eight months. He said he decided to move here because he wants to have a good future for his family.

Rodriguez is like many other Hispanic students who have been in America for a limited time. These students have to adapt to a new culture and meet and interact with people who have lived here their entire lives. Both he and his teacher, Maura Espinoza, agree it’s important for him to learn to read, write and speak English quickly so he can keep up.

This scenario is common, and national studies show children who don’t speak English are over-represented among those who are performing poorly in school.

These days, at least two school districts in the metro area — Oklahoma City and Putnam City — are working to make sure students in this group don’t get left behind.

Taft Middle School’s Kelly Forbes, a newcomers’ teacher in the English Language Learners (ELL) program, said he tries to engage his students by bringing in therapy dogs to work with them. He said it makes the students more relaxed and more open to learning the language.

"I bring my Chihuahua to school; his name is Cupid, and the students read to him and other dogs, and these therapy dogs lower what is called the effective filter, which makes the students more relaxed and, therefore, more accessible to learning the language,” Forbes said.

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