Newly-minted Denver teacher Bill Weisberger was attempting to teach a lesson on common fractions to a group of seventh- and eighth-graders. But as students new to the English language, the meaning of the word “common” got lost on them.
So, he checked in with the students about things they see or do every day. Going to school? Eating pizza? They shot up their hands. Now he was getting somewhere.
It’s precisely this type of knowledge that Weisberger, who begins his career as a science teacher in the fall at Bruce Randolph, is learning as part of required professional development linked to the district’s English Language Acquisition Summer Academy.
The academy, now in its fifth year, serves a dual purpose. Some 4,000 kindergarten through eighth-grade students who are designated as English language learners get a boost in their command of academic language and skills during the half-day, three-week intensive that wraps up Friday at 17 school buildings, many on Denver’s west side.
And new teachers are paired with mentor teachers as a way to enhance their skills working with the district’s growing number of English language learners and meet ELA-T certification. Some 30 percent of the district’s students qualify for ELA services.
“The focus on language is much heavier than it was in my education,” said Weisberger, who earned his teaching credentials through the University of Colorado at Boulder. “The skills I’ve gained in that sense have been helpful and different. I focus on content language objectives. I tell them what they want to learn. We talk about the objective and how they will be learning it.”
At a classroom of second-graders Thursday morning at Centennial school, the 10 students learned all about plants – from seeds to harvest.
David Westenberg, who taught in Aurora for four years before coming to DPS, where he will teach fifth grade at Slavens K-8 in the fall, slowed down his lesson when it became clear the students had never tasted asparagus. They learned it is a vegetable and that you eat the stem.
Lorenza Lara, who manages the academy and the accompanying teacher professional development, said the program is focused around themes based on age. Second-graders dive into plants; while middle-schoolers focus on heroes and popular culture. Much of the learning is hands-on and image based.
“We really want to give them a lot of opportunities to learn through listening, speaking, reading and writing,” Lara said. “They need to think before they talk, then make sense of it.”
Lara said that 80 percent of a student’s comprehension is based on background knowledge and vocabulary, which is why the academy’s focus on the language of learning is so important. But it was clear the students were also having some fun.