40 City Teachers in Language Program: After Taking Courses for 21 /2 Years, the Educators Will Be Certified Through Penn State Berks to Teach English As a Second Language.

By Rebecca Vandermeulen, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Nov. 5–Forty Reading School District teachers are involved in a Penn State Berks program to assist them in teaching English to students who speak only Spanish or another foreign language.

With a school population that is about 75 percent Latino, the Reading School District is trying to bolster its ranks of teachers certified in teaching English as a second language, or ESL.

The teachers are taking classes as part of Project ISLAS, a federally funded program that stands for Increasing Second Language Learner Acquisition Skills. Islas also is the Spanish word for islands.

Walter F. Fullam, Penn State Berks’ director of continuing education, received the $1.4 million grant for classes that teachers take online and at their schools.

In 21 /2 years, the teachers will be certified through Penn State Berks to teach ESL.

The program involves teachers at Reading High School, Northwest Middle School and Northwest, 10th and Green, 10th and Penn, and 13th and Union elementary schools.

The district chose schools that have a high number of students learning to speak English but few ESL-certified teachers.

Jodie D. Madueno, Reading’s ESL program director, said about three-quarters of city students are Latino and that the number who don’t speak English is rising.

Sixth-grade language arts teacher Shannon M. Darlington said that at Northwest Middle School she gets new students who haven’t even been to school for years.

“A lot of these kids, if they come from Puerto Rico or places like that, they haven’t gone to school,” said Darlington, who is taking the Penn State classes.

Darlington said that while students who don’t know English used to be taught separately, Reading now keeps them in class with the other students.

“They’re not singled out anymore,” she said. “They’re one of the group, basically.”

She said teachers in the program are sharing techniques with other teachers, such as incorporating words and pictures to help students pick up English.

The $1.4 million grant lasts for five years, so another 40 teachers will follow the initial group. Fullam hopes to hire a program director by January.

“It seemed like a good opportunity with all the challenges that the district is facing,” Fullman said of the grant.

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