Jaqueline Figueroa was five when she was suddenly thrust into a strange new world where everyone spoke a foreign tongue: English. Her family had moved from Mexico to Orcas Island, and Figueroa, fluent in Spanish, had to adapt.

“It’s really hard,” said Figueroa, now in 6th grade at Orcas Elementary. “Your spelling, your math, everything… you don’t have a clue. But after a while, working really hard, you get that; it’s like, okay, I got this.”

English Language Learners is a program designed to help Orcas Island Schools’ students like Figueroa gain the fluency they need to succeed in school.

Spanish teacher Catherine Laflin serves as the ELL coordinator, focusing on professional development for general education teachers. Laflin visits classrooms and helps teachers design student assessment tools.

Laflin said the program was developed to serve an increasing need for help with English literacy.

Ten years ago, there was one student in the program; now there are 16, most with Spanish as their native language but others who’ve come from Indonesia and China.

“Once kids have been a couple of years in school, they’re considered conversationally fluent, but the academic language isn’t there, because who goes out on the playground and talks about sums, for example?” Laflin said. “Socially they’re functioning very well, but it’s kind of the tip of the iceberg; you can really be surprised.”

Figueroa, at 11, is reaching a level of fluency that could soon let her test out of the program. It’s still tricky trying to learn English words without forgetting her Spanish in the process, she said, and her parents speak Spanish at home. What is her greatest wish?

“What I’d really like is a little less homework, more teaching in the day,” she said.

Laflin is working to incorporate “Sheltered Instruction,” a general program of classroom strategies that help make content comprehensible to ELL learners. One specific model of ELL learning is GLAD – Guided Language Acquisition Design, which includes lots of visuals and charts on classroom walls.

“Your walls are a living language,” said Laflin.

Six Orcas teachers, including Laflin, are GLAD certified.

Laflin is proud of the interest shown by the Orcas School teachers.

“The teachers have really stepped up,” she said. “It’s been neat to see them take that challenge and go with it.”

She also said Robin Freeman, who has worked a a specialist aide for the past four years, “has been invaluable.”

How the community can help

One obstacle for these students is a lack of good literacy materials in Spanish – not just English. Laflin said kids whose parents read to them in their native language tend to pick up English more easily.

“A lot of those skills transfer,” she said. “The studies say, the more, the better.”

Laflin said interested community members can support the program by donating toward downloadable bi-lingual books, or “Imagine Learning” computer programs, at $150 per child, which help teach phonics, language and reading.

She said there is also a great need for bi-lingual volunteers to serve as Spanish translators; no is training required.

Starting their school experience early seems to help pave the way for ELL students. Laflin said Erin O’Dell, representing Orcas Family Connections, has had a “huge impact” by helping more children attend preschool and become better prepared for kindergarten.

“That’s helped us a lot,” Laflin said.