How one small town is teaching English to kids of immigrants
A northern Alabama community with large numbers of Hispanic immigrants is using federal COVID-19 relief money to fund an experiment to better serve students who are still learning English
RUSSELLVILLE, Ala. (AP) — As part of an exercise to help the class learn English, a third grader pulled a block from a Jenga tower and read aloud a question written on one side. “Where,” the boy read, then slowly sounded out the other words: “Where would you like to visit?”
“Disneyland,” one student said. “Space,” another classmate chimed in. “Guatemala,” said a girl with a bright blue bow.
Kathy Alfaro, a new English language teacher at Russellville Elementary, exchanged a few words with the girl in Spanish and then turned to the other students. “Do y’all know what she said?” Alfaro asked the class. “She said she has a lot of family in Guatemala because she was born there. And I told her that I was born here, but I also have a lot of family in Guatemala.”
This northern Alabama community with large numbers of Hispanic immigrants is using federal COVID-19 relief money for an experiment to serve students who are still learning English. They are hiring and certifying more local, Spanish-speaking staff, like Alfaro. She was previously a Spanish teacher, but took a new role teaching children the English language.
