The UNM/APS English as a Secondary Language summer program had a record 70 students attend its six-week program this year.
Holbrook Mahn, associate professor in Literacy, Language, and Sociocultural Studies at UNM, said the 17-year-old institute condenses three of the five ESL courses into a six-week program for current and future teachers who want to receive English as a Secondary Language endorsement.
“It’s a high-stress six weeks because you’re cramming in nine hours of student credit,” Mahn said. “We try to maintain the rigor of it because we know that we’re preparing teachers to go into the classroom. We want to make sure they get the best education to help English language learners.”
The Institute is held at La Mesa Elementary, Monday through Friday over the summer, he said. UNM students are taught by experienced APS teachers and district leaders, he said.
Mahn said he started the program in the late nineties after the Office of Civil Rights said APS was out of compliance because it didn’t have enough teachers to handle learners of the English language, and APS was mandated to get teachers endorsed.
This was easier said than done, as the ESL program — a total of five courses — could take several years to complete if its students happened to be teaching full-time. To solve that problem, Mahn established the Summer Institute, he said.
Before La Mesa, the Institute was held at Dolores Gonzalez Elementary, East San Jose Elementary and Longfellow Elementary, he said. “We wanted to provide different services to different communities.”
The institute also offers classes to English-learning parents or adults as well, he said. This semester, English language learners included refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Ghana and the Congo.
“I think that’s something, in the future, we’ll do more of, because there is a tremendous need for that,” Mahn said.
Bernadette Vishaway, principal at La Mesa Elementary School who has a master’s degree in ESL, is in her first semester of actively teaching for the institute. She said the focus for teaching adults is not only oral language proficiency, but also for enhancing writing skills so they are better equipped to enter the workforce.
For the elementary students themselves, Vishaway said, it’s a huge advantage because they’re not busy over the summer anyway.
“I am thrilled to keep this tradition going for my community,” Vishaway said. “It’s a huge benefit for elementary students and their parents, to be able to increase their English language proficiency, and for teachers who go out and spread it throughout the district and other districts around the state.”
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Vishaway said the symbiotic relationship between UNM and La Mesa has been seamless in this past decade.
“It’s as though this program is just part of the community,” she said. “It is loved by the community and has become an expectation. I plan to always foster and support as long as I’m here.”
Since Mahn started the ESL Summer Institute, approximately 800 students have gone through, he said. While around 85 percent of those students are taking the course for endorsement on a teaching license, some take the course in hopes of traveling abroad and being able to teach English in another country.
“Every year is a little different; we take the feedback, there are suggestions, we make adjustments to it, but it’s a pretty solid program,” Mahn said. “It’s worked very well for everybody involved. One of the most common responses is that this is the best educational experience they’ve had at UNM.”
Matthew Reisen is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
