My name is hamdi farah I am in
12th grade. I attend fowler high school. I have been in the country
for 7 years, five of those years I have lived here in Syracuse.
There
are a number of problems facing ELL students:
In
Liverpool, the student/teacher ratio is around 20:1. At SAS, the student/teacher ratio is around
15:1. In the city schools, it is around
30:1. One teacher can’t give all their attention when the class is too full. Because
students aren’t getting enough attention, their class grades drop and they
begin to fail.
When
students fail to learn and fail exams, they have to repeat the grade, and many drop
out. In addition, when classes are overcrowded, students can’t focus and most
of them choose to skip or get frustrated and give negative attitude to
teachers. If students are not getting along with teachers, or feel
misunderstood, many feel pushed not to come to school.
After
all those problems students have to take the regents. High school students have
regents in almost every subject. In order for you to graduate you have to pass
5 regents tests. So, if classes are already overcrowded, and students are
already behind from skipping or being disruptive, then they fail the tests and
cannot graduate. They drop out because of frustration and difficulty learning,
or because they are over age and become full adults.
It’s very
good to have ESL classes during the day, but as ELLs learn, they should have
book clubs and writing clubs for students. That will help them learn fast and
make reading and writing become a habit. This was done in middle school, where
we had the same teachers all day and they taught us most subjects. Learning in
that way helped me communicate with others faster, make new friends, and
understand the teacher’s lessons much better. When ELLs are beginning learners and start
going to high school, they should have tutoring classes during the day. In
their general classes, they do not understand their teachers, which holds them back
from graduating on time, or pushes many to drop out. Instead of them having a
class where they can learn the English language first they start with Regents
classes, which they don’t pass, and therefore don’t graduate on time. I think there
should also be more outside programs available to help those ELL students, such
as the Northside learning center, LPP and Hillside.
Fowler
needs many more translators and dictionaries in many different languages. My
school has at least 20 different languages spoken throughout the building, and
not enough people to help all students communicate. Even though we have many
obstacles in our way, our teachers, especially our ESL teachers, have been
wonderful- they have encouraged us, and pushed us to find our way and follow
our future. But they can only do so much without these other resources.
So many
ELL students are putting in their best efforts, but in order to reach their
full potential they need every resource available to overcome the many
obstacles set before them. Please keep
these points in mind as you create the policies for our schools, and help determine
the path of these students. Thank you for your time.
