Ocracoke ESL students host family Thanksgiving
Flavia
Burton, English as a Second Language teacher at Ocracoke School, and
her students in Kindergarten through second grade, hosted a
Thanksgiving dinner for their families, attended by 22 members of
Ocracoke’s Hispanic community.
“A big part of the ESL curriculum is to incorporate cultural
traditions,” Burton said. “My goal was to have these
families understand why we have Thanksgiving ¬– which they
don’t celebrate in Mexico – and what we do.”
The ESL students did a unit on Thanksgiving, learning about the history
and tradition of the holiday. Burton also taught the children about
table manners and how to set the table. During the feast of turkey,
cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, the children shared a Thanksgiving
poem with their friends and families.
“The gratitude was strong,” Burton said. “They were all happy to have been invited.”
The older ESL students were thankful, too. They came in after the dinner and polished off the leftovers.
Ocracoke School currently has 30 Hispanic students enrolled, and 18 of
them are placed in the ESL program. The ESL program is designed to help
non-English speaking students learn English and assimilate into the
community. Every spring (or within 30 days of a new student entering
school), Burton gives the students an English proficiency test with
four components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Once the
students have achieved a “superior” grade in all four
components, they can exit the program. Writing is usually the most
difficult for the students to master, Burton says, because that’s
the hardest skill to develop, even in your native language.
With her younger students, Burton focuses on phonics, pronunciation,
and beginning reading and writing skills. For the older students, she
offers class and subject support, helping them with their assignments.
This is Burton’s fourth year at Ocracoke School. She taught
fourth grade for two years before taking the ESL teaching position.
Burton started her career teaching second and third grade in Texas, and
then she taught overseas, first in Brazil and then in Spain. During her
time in Brazil and Spain, Burton got lots of experience teaching in
English as a second language. In Barcelona, Spain, she taught third
grade (in English) in an international school.
“About a third of my class were native English speakers, though
not necessarily American. About a third were native Spanish speakers,
and another third spoke some other foreign language,” Burton
said.
As ESL teacher on Ocracoke, Burton sees her role as being supportive to the Hispanic community on the island.
“I want to make them feel comfortable in school and help the kids
and families be the assets they can be to the school and the
community,” Burton said.
She uses the first half-hour of the school day as parent support time.
Her door is open for Hispanic parents with questions or needing
translations.
“The parents want to do the right thing, and follow the school
rules, but they don’t always know how to,” she said.
Burton has a bulletin board outside her room with the school and
community calendar, announcements, and news in both English and
Spanish. Last year, she helped her students understand American
Halloween by teaching a unit comparing it to the Mexican Day of the
Dead, and having them teach their classmates about Mexican traditions.
She organized a Mexican food fundraiser during a recent home basketball
game. Bridging the language and cultural gap between Ocracoke’s
Spanish-speaking and English-speaking residents is important to her.
“My hope is to help both communities understand each other better,” Burton said.
