Story Photos
 Photo by Greg Ebersole The Camacho brothers, Martin, 17, left, and Alberto, 15, relax in the living room of their family's Longview apartment. |
Latino brothers tackle learning curve
Saturday, September 2, 2006 11:45 PM PDT
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleIt would have been a comforting message for Alberto Camacho to hear on his first day at a new high school -- if he could have understood what his teacher was saying.
"No one chooses the family they were born into," Mark Morris High School social studies teacher Kim Ulman told his new students Tuesday, Spanish-speaking Camacho included. Ulman discouraged teasing in his classroom, especially any motivated by prejudice.
Any bullies might find it easy to pick on Alberto, 15, and his brother, Martin, 17. The two sophomores are Mexican-American, their immigrant family is working to gain economic traction and, most frustrating to them of all, they can't speak English.
"I feel like an outsider because of the language," Martin said. But this only motivates him to learn English that much faster, he said.
The Camacho brothers are part of a growing population of immigrant students in Longview and Kelso schools who can't speak English, a trend that reflects the growing number of Latino people who are setting up permanent residence here.
The enrollment of English language learners (ELL students) has nearly doubled in the past six years in the Kelso School District, and rose more than 20 percent in Longview schools during the last four years.
Both districts expect those numbers to continue climbing, and they've had to rethink and adapt their curriculum to teach immigrant students how to read, write and speak English.
For Alberto and Martin, mastering a new language well enough to scrape by in school is perhaps the biggest challenge of adjusting to life in America.
The two grew fond of Kelso High, but they had to switch to Mark Morris this year because their dad couldn't drive them into Kelso anymore and the Kelso bus route doesn't extend to their home. The brothers weren't looking forward to changing schools.
"We're not going to know as many people at Mark Morris," Alberto said a few days before his first day of school. "If they're good people, they will accept us."
The new kids, again
Alberto and Martin enjoyed their first week at Mark Morris, despite their initial concerns. They've made a few Spanish-speaking friends in their classes and are optimistic their two periods of English Language Learning (ELL) a day will help them learn English faster.
During biology class, the brothers watched and learned from their peers while getting settled into the classroom.
Alberto and Martin were some of the last students to get out of their desks and retrieve a lab binder, allowing their classmates to lead the way. The brothers hesitantly flipped through their new notebooks while their classmates shuffled papers and repeatedly clicked their binders open and shut.
"Hey, that paper in the bottom goes in the front," a nearby student whispered to Martin.
Martin looked at him inquisitively, but by that time, students had started putting their notebooks away on the shelf in the back of the room. Alberto and Martin swept up their handouts and shoved them in their binders before putting them away.
Their first day in an unfamiliar school was a little confusing but still going smoothly -- until fifth-period history.
Martin mistakenly thought he had the same history class as his younger brother.
"Is there anyone who's name I didn't call?" Ulman asked his class after roll. Martin got up from his back-row seat, quickly walked to Alberto's desk, leaned down to whisper something in his ear and sheepishly exited the room.
Unlike his older brother, Alberto sat confidently in his desk during history, his head cocked to the side and his back aligned. He chatted with a new bilingual friend who helped translate between Alberto and his partner during an ice-breaker game.
"Up until this point, no one's made fun of us," Alberto said Thursday. "No one's told us anything bad. Even if people were to make fun, we're still going to learn English."
Alberto didn't have to speak English in front of the class on Tuesday, but "as time goes on, I'll probably require more and more," said Ulman, his history teacher. "I understand it's going to be harder for him, and different."
Life at home
At home, Alberto and Martin live with their mother, father, sister and infant niece in an apartment in Longview's Broadway neighborhood. The walls of the living room are decorated with pink flowers, exotic paintings and family photos. Nobody in their family speaks English.
The brothers enjoy spending time with their family cooking or visiting Longview parks. They also play soccer with their Spanish-speaking friends, enjoy video games and study.
Besides fitting in at school, Alberto said he wants to learn English as quickly as possible so he can get a good career. The brothers said they have an interest in mechanical and electrical work.
The brothers spent their summer working graveyard shift at a fish factory in Astoria. They loaded fish onto a conveyer belt from midnight to 8 a.m. for $8.50 an hour. They didn't have a problem with the unusual hours, and often got called into work unexpectedly.
"I didn't like it," Martin said, adding that the job grossed him out. But working there did give them extra cash to afford back-to-school clothes.
Breaking through in a 'closed world'
When they first entered the American school system, the brothers recalled deep feelings of isolation.
"Our world was totally closed," Martin said.
The brothers didn't attend any school dances at Kelso High, but Alberto went to a few sporting events.
And as time went on, the brothers befriended students in their classes that could speak both English and Spanish.
"There had to be at least one Hispanic person in each one of our classes," Alberto said. "It was just the way it worked out."
The brothers would also try to interact with students who only knew English.
"We'd hang out with somebody who spoke English, and then he'd explain things to us," Alberto said. "We'd teach him Spanish, he'd teach us English."
Alberto and Martin were involved in the ELL program at Kelso, which consisted of one daily class period in the high school's orchestra room. Looking back on it, they said they felt the program was unorganized, and instructions were difficult to understand.
"We weren't sure what we were doing as far as homework goes," Alberto said. He and his brother would take their homework to a bilingual friend in their fourth period class to get help. The brothers skirted by, grasping for help from their friends when they could, and passed their classes. They were advanced to the 10th grade.
Adapting for ELL students
Local school districts are creating better teaching strategies for its growing population of English language learners, school officials say.
"We're trying to give them as much help as we can," said Joshua O'Reilly, Martin and Alberto's ELL instructor at Mark Morris. "It's always hard to learn another language."
The ELL program Alberto and Martin are enrolled in at Mark Morris is new to the high school this year.
The Longview School District also has ELL classes at Monticello Middle School, Northlake Elementary School and R.A. Long High School, which have the highest number of ELL students. And more Longview teachers are learning how to teach ELL students.
During the 2002-2003 school year, the district had about 250 students enrolled in its ELL program. At one point during last school year the Longview district counted 313 ELL students.
"Our numbers have gradually increased over the last four or five years," said Krystal Laier, an ELL specialist for Longview schools.
In the Longview district, most ELL students are native Spanish speakers, but there are other English language learners who were raised speaking Russian, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Chinese, to name a few.
Last year, the Kelso School District had 186 ELL students, up from the 102 ELL students the district had in 2000. Both districts predict the number of these students to grow, but they are unsure by how much.
"Each year we gain about 30 students in the program," said Mary Beth Tack, Kelso’s coordinator for the ELL program.
Tack estimated about 70 percent of ELL students in the Kelso district are native Spanish speakers, about 18 percent speak Russian, 3 percent speak Cambodian, and two percent speak Chinese.
The federal government recommend educators create some type of ELL program for a half-hour each day, Tack said. The program focuses on teaching reading, writing, listening and speaking.
"This program is by far one of the least-funded from the feds," Tack said, "but we do what we can."
The Camacho brothers said some of their friends have learned English in three years, but "seven years is pretty typical," Tack said. "Each student has different strengths and needs."
And students who aren't fluent in English can demonstrate skills in alternative ways, Laier said. They might not be able to write a paper, but they could draw a diagram, she explained.
The way Ulman grades ELL students in his history class might not be equal, but it is fair, he said.
"In public schools, our job is to educate every child and help all children receive a quality education," Tack said. "Success for ELL students means success for all. That diversity in the classroom is so important."
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