UW-Whitewater grad helps close language gap in Whitewater schools
Released: October 17, 2003
Teachers across the United States face the daily task of creating lesson plans that are fun, yet educational for their students. And if that task wasn’t challenging enough, they must now also worry about the possibility that some of their students may not speak English.
This is precisely the challenge affecting hundreds of teachers throughout southeastern Wisconsin, with teachers in the Whitewater School District being no exception. Since 1995, Whitewater has experienced a 400 percent increase in the number of limited English proficient (LEP) students and that number is expected to rise as more and more immigrants from Mexico and Latin America move to the area.
In an effort to help teachers overcome these growing language barriers in the classroom, the Whitewater School District has formed a partnership with a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater program known as Project SWEETT (Southeastern Wisconsin Excellence in Education through Teacher Training). The program, now in its third year, provides support in schools by training bilingual community members as teaching aides and promotes “grow your own” efforts by recruiting high-achieving high school students into the program.
Ana Mayorga, a UW-Whitewater graduate and one of the first students to come through Project SWEETT, is an example of a local community member dedicated to closing the language gap. Currently a teacher at Whitewater Middle School and Whitewater High School, Mayorga teaches Spanish class in the mornings at the middle school and a freshman-only course in bilingual skills as well as team-teaching a section of a bilingual writer’s workshop in the afternoons at the high school.
“I got involved with Project SWEETT right when the program began,” Mayorga said. “Not only did the program help me financially, but it helped me become the educator that I am today.”
Mayorga graduated from UW-Whitewater in May 2002 with a degree in secondary education, emphasis Spanish. She also minored in bilingual education.
Under the guidance of UW-Whitewater professors and Project SWEETT co-directors Susan Huss-Lederman and Wallace Sherlock, together with Narciso Aleman, professor of curriculum and instruction, Mayorga decided to pursue a master’s degree in English as a Second Language (ESL), which she completed this past summer. According to her, however, the opportunity to teach at Whitewater High School fell into her lap almost by accident.
“I had completed my student teaching at the high school in spring 2002. I wasn’t looking for a teaching position because I had planned on attending graduate school full-time,” Mayorga said. “But during the summer, the teacher that had my position moved. I was contacted by Vance Dalzin, the principal at Whitewater High School, and was offered a teaching position. I initially declined his offer because I was set on finishing grad school in three semesters. But then I thought about how foolish it would be for me to pass up this great opportunity and called Vance back two days later. I went in for an interview and was hired.”
A native of El Salvador, Mayorga knows first hand what it’s like to overcome a language barrier. At the age of one, her family moved to New York where she didn’t learn the English language until she entered kindergarten.
“Neither of my parents knew how to speak English, so I didn’t learn to speak it until I went to school,” she said. “While I do remember my elementary school in New York and my middle school in Waukegan, Ill., having a bilingual education program, I was never placed in any of them. Badger High School in Lake Geneva did have an ESL program, but again I wasn’t placed in that one either.”
Mayorga’s experience is not unlike that of many of her students, which is why she feels having a program like Project SWEETT is so important.
“Project SWEETT focuses on a marginalized group of students. The population of English-language learners (ELL), especially native Spanish speakers, is growing rapidly, yet there are not that many teachers certified in bilingual education or ESL,” said Mayorga.
“It is vital to assist ELL students in becoming successful in our school system and in our society. What Project SWEETT has done is help fill an essential part in making that possible by developing certified bilingual education and ESL teachers.”
While Mayorga isn’t shy about expressing her love for her job, she does admit that she faces a great deal of challenges both inside and outside of the classroom.
“One of the main challenges I constantly face is meeting the needs of all of my students, especially when I have some that are at drastically different levels in the same classroom,” she said. “I have some students who do not speak any English and some students who speak English very well, but have different needs than those who cannot speak the language at all.”
Mayorga has also been faced with the daunting task of helping her Latino students overcome a long list of barriers that in other school districts might have prevented them from achieving academic success.
“Language has been and continues to be a barrier. Many Latino students have to work twice as hard to be successful in our school system. Not only do they have to learn the English language, but at the same time they also have to learn the academic language,” she said. “Another barrier is economic status. Many students have to work after school to contribute to their family income or to buy things for themselves that in other households students can easily obtain from their parents.”
To help her students overcome these challenges, Mayorga has developed a curriculum that is relevant to them by reading books by Latino authors. She makes it a point to motivate her students to do well in school and instill pride in who they are and in their Latino culture. As advisor of the Latino Club, Mayorga helps students develop their leadership skills and serve the Whitewater community.
“I try to be a role model for the students. It is important for them to see that Latinos can be successful in this society,” she said.
Mayorga said that the overall response to Whitewater’s ESL program has been very positive.
“The students know that they are fortunate to be in a school district that can offer them services to help meet their needs, as do their parents,” she said.
And how does Mayorga feel about the program?
“It’s great to be working in a district that is seeking ways to meet the needs of our English-language learners,” she said.
- Melissa DiMotto ,dimottom@uww.edu
