Help English Language Learners Stay Organized

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Benjamin Franklin once said, “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” For my ESL students, this invaluable gain in time can be spent on focusing on learning, increasing their likelihood of academic success and gains.

My ESL students come from Mexico, the Philippines, and Iraq.

Recently, my students completed autobiographical narratives, and an overwhelming number of my students reported that they came to the United States "for a better life." Many have come here without the presence of their immediate families--some staying with aunts and uncles or grandparents, others with family friends. While all my students currently struggle with the level of English required of them in their core classes, another challenge is the gap in knowledge incurred by interrupted education. As an effect, many lack the basic skills of organization. My goal by the end of the year is for all students to be able to independently organize and manage their notes and other class materials. After providing them with the materials necessary, I will train and monitor students' organization as evidenced by keeping all papers in the proper spot in their binders and by keeping daily assignment logs for each subject.

My Project

I am requesting the supplies necessary to set up my ESL students with organized, AVID-style binders along with copies of translation dictionaries for my Spanish, Tagalog, and Arabic speaking students. I will train my students on how to utilize daily assignment sheets and how to keep their school materials organized. Initially, I will do binder checks every day to ensure they keep up this habit of mind. Once they are well-trained, I will commit myself to weekly binder checks. Writing and annotation tools (pens, pencils, and highlighters) will also be used to practice daily annotation and note-taking of reading-level appropriate texts. By supporting students' ability to take meaningful and well-organized notes, students will be more likely to generalize these skills in their other classes, increasing their likelihood to be successful. Dictionaries will be available to my Tagalog, Spanish, and Arabic-speaking students to support student learning.

This project will support educational equity.

Most of my students come from economically disadvantaged households where, additionally, English is not the primary language. By providing the tools necessary to become organized, coupled with my ability to train my students to use these tools effectively, students will be more likely to take meaningful annotations and notes in the target language, record daily assignments to be completed, and succeed in their classes and in life.