Student Letter

Dear Gerardo,

It has been such an honor to have been your math teacher for the 4^th quarter of your 6^th grade year. While you were in my class, you were respectful, attentive, and did absolutely everything I asked of you. You completed your classwork as well as your homework, which I cannot say about the majority of your classmates. In fact, you held steadier than I did amongst the blurting of comments, tossing of paper, and gang pressures of your peers. Among the 26 members of your class, my last class of the day, I tried to reward the handful of you who were there to learn by… well… sitting you in the front of the room. Yes. That is all I had to offer. Still, you were patient with me, and remained respectful, attentive, and compliant through the last day of school. One of the hardest moments of that year, for me, was having had to tell you, not for the first, but the second time that you did not “pass” the EOG. I felt so guilty about your performance, that I wrote your parents a letter, even though I knew they couldn’t read it. You were going to have to translate it for them. So I wrote, in very simply language, that they should be proud of you. Only later did I realize that I didn’t need to tell them that, by your actions I should have known that they already were.

It is only now, after 5 weeks of summer school, that I realize something you already knew: Literacy in the content area is not just important, it is an absolute necessity. You already know the enormity of the literacy obstacles you face every day while coming to and English-speaking school. You knew that without meaning, all the mathematical information and formulas I was presenting to you and your classmates had nowhere in your brain to be filed, because I didn’t link it to your existing vocabulary. I knew you, as well as so many of my other English-language learning students, struggled with decoding, and I really tried (I hope you know I tried) to help you overcome those obstacles. But the truth is: I didn’t have the tools I have now. I now know that sitting you in the front of the room is not the answer. I need to get you involved in your learning. I need to give you tools such as word banks, graphic organizers, and reading partners in order for you gain mathematical fluency. It is not only the responsibility of the ESL teacher to educate you on the English language (thank you, Mr. Ford, for stepping into my classes to help our ELLs), but the responsibility of every teacher who is in connected to your education.

You were willing to be a passive learner, but I know if I had only asked more of you, you absolutely would have taken an active role in your learning. Many of your classmates would have enjoyed that type of class, as well. I have resources, strategies, and knowledge that I am eager to implement this year. I’m sorry that I didn’t have this information when you were respectfully, attentively, and compliantly sitting in my front row. I hope your 7^th grade teacher already knows what I didn’t.