Meet Westfield's Summer English Language Learners

Westfield NJ

05 August, 2021

10:01 AM

Description

WESTFIELD, NJ — An Olympic theme was the focus of the English Language Learners (ELL) Summer Experience, a camp for Westfield students that provides meaningful enrichment activities to help students form other areas continue their English language acquisition. This year's ELL program ran from July 12-23 at Wilson Elementary School and welcomed 14students in grades 1-5 whose native languages include Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Polish,Russian, and Portuguese. "The first week we learned about the Olympics – the origins, traditions, and the modernpractices/games," says Edison world language teacher Jillian Martinez, who runs the programwith fellow world language teacher Mercedes Poyntz. "The second week, we focused onplaying games, practicing sportsmanship, and being a good team member and part of acommunity." Martinez says students were given hands-on opportunities to create arts and crafts to representtheir native countries and cultures, while also playing games modeled after actual Olympicevents. "The idea was to have them bond with their peers about their unique backgrounds and hopefullycreate fun moments watching the real Olympics with their families," Martinez added. K-12 World Languages and ELL Supervisor Enrique Pincay says the 2021 ELL SummerExperience has been a success. "Given the many restrictions our students faced this past year, our teachers focused their effortson hands-on activities and kinesthetic learning," Pincay said. "Capitalizing on the 2020Olympics – postponed last year due to the pandemic – our teachers brought the games into theclassroom and playground." Pincay said social and emotional learning also was addressed with daily yoga, friendlycompetition and collaborative activities. "We are happy that we have been able to offer our students an opportunity to learn throughplay, especially after such a challenging year," he said. Want updates on breaking news when it happens? You can sign up for occasional breaking news alerts in Westfield, or for a daily newsletter at 6 a.m. each morning with local news. Don't miss the stories your neighbors are talking about! Sign up with your preferences here. Got news? Email [email protected]. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.