Kaahumanu School’s English as a Second Language (ESL) Program: Creative Solutions to Some Nagging Problems

by Stan Koki

Kaahumanu Elementary School is located in perhaps one of the most dangerous locales for a school in Honolulu, Hawaii. The campus is bordered on all sides by heavily traveled streets. Piikoi Street is especially congested, because one lane serves as an on-ramp onto the H-1 freeway, while the other lanes allow entry into the parking lot of a post office and the very densely populated community of Makiki. Visitors walking through the campus in any direction are constantly exposed to the blare of traffic and the blur of fast-moving automobiles, trucks, buses, and other means of noisy transportation.

Aside from traffic, the school is surrounded by a dense complex of low, moderate and high-rise buildings; numerous stores, shops, restaurants, and other business establishments; a bank; a supermarket; a church; and a few lingering single-dwelling houses, a reminder of bygone days when the community consisted primarily of families. Today, Kaahumanu School seems to be caught in the tentacles of an urban ghetto—and, technically, it is.

Within this urban elementary school setting is an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom that gives an initial impression of disarray. A huge box of books—mostly worn out by heavy use—creates a mountain of reading materials virtually in the middle of the room. Red and purple plastic baskets near the box of books are overflowing with large picture books. Partitioned around the side of the room are tables and chairs arranged into learning stations. Each station is heavily laden with gadgets, study sheets, reading materials, and realia from the kitchen, the farm, and the community. Children observe, feed, and play with a guinea pig, a rabbit, and a mouse. Plants are strewn around the classroom sink. Student writings and artwork line virtually every inch of the walls. The student writings are the result of the Students of Limited English (SLEP) Production Company doing business in a corner of the room, next to the SLEP Mailbox attached to the top of a portable bulletin board on which are stapled large envelopes bearing each student’s name so that each of the students can receive mail from the teacher and classmates. Tables are bunched together in a corner to serve as a conference or meeting area. Nearby is a wall display of children’s photographs organized under the banner, SUPERSTARS. An overhead projector, television set and VCR with an assortment of about 40 videotapes are housed nearby. The items contained in this room would normally require a facility twice or three times the size. But despite its space limitation, the ESL program that takes place daily in this classroom has been recognized at the state and national levels and was a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching English Award by the English Speaking Union in 1992-93. Since then, it has expanded and refined to become one of the best ESL programs in the Pacific region.

Kaahumanu’s ESL Program
Kaahumanu School’s ESL program provides services to students whose primary language is not English. Its goal is to raise the communication competence of students in the English language to a level where students can function successfully on a peer group level academically, socially, and culturally. The program was developed because the school’s student enrollment reflects extensive ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity. Increasing numbers of immigrant students from Korea, Japan, the Philippines, China, Samoa, Vietnam and other remote corners of the globe are being admitted.

Kaahumanu School has a student population diversity that would challenge any school, public or private. It is this diversity that stimulates teaching staff to give the best of themselves in meeting such a wide range of student needs. Especially successful have been the teachers working with SLEP students.

Kaahumanu School’s SLEP program emphasizes the application of whole language concepts and approaches with added emphasis on literature-based thematic units within the context of a second language learning environment. The students and their needs are at the heart of the curriculum. Students are encouraged to participate in the design and direction of the curriculum. They are also encouraged to take risks. Ongoing conferences involving teacher and students are held regularly to reflect upon the goals that have been collaboratively established, student progress, and future directions of the program. In this program, nothing is done to, or for students. Students are key partners, and they thoroughly enjoy being at school.

Challenging Curriculum
The curriculum incorporates the use of thematic units with an emphasis on survival skill areas, such as the school, home, community, and multicultural education. Thematic units studied in depth include Self, Family, School, Community, Hawaii, Colors, Holidays, Local Events, and World Events. A pressing problem in any classroom, especially one as diverse in student composition as this one, is meeting the wide range of instructional needs that must be accommodated. The learning stations developed within the classroom represent ESL staff’s creative response to this nagging problem. As different thematic units are studied throughout the school year, different stations are set up. The stations enable students to apply what they have learned. For example, in the School’s thematic unit, a mini-classroom is created with a chalkboard, desk, and chair; a mini-cafeteria in which the students can purchase replicas of school lunches; and even a library where students may read different books, including student-made books. Students go to the different stations and assume appropriate roles at each station in which they work.

At the learning stations, students apply their oral and aural, reading, and writing skills in authentic situations that promote acquisition of the English language. Also, through continual application of these survival skills, the students are better able to use what they have learned in the SLEP classrooms, not only in their regular classrooms and in the school, but the home and community as well.

Included in the thematic units are different activities, such as reading, watching videotapes and films for information, discussions on similarities and differences among the cultures, and final activities or products for students to develop. These activities or products may be the publication of books, newspapers, making of dioramas, or putting on puppet shows. Students are taken on field trips to validate study sheets, reading materials, information that they receive electronically.

Approach to Writing and Other Problematic Concerns
A critical problem in Hawaii and nationally is the challenge of teaching students to write effectively. The ESL staff resolved this problem by getting deeply involved. Teacher and students read and write daily. Journals are kept by the students and the teacher. The students and teacher respond to each others’ journals. The ESL teachers motivate students to become effective writers by becoming role models for whom writing has functional meaning.

Another pressing problem for immigrant children is finding someone they can talk to and who listens to them. Adults in the school setting have busy work schedules that frequently preclude them from chatting with students. For this reason, the SLEP program has developed and implemented a bilingual counseling component. Throughout the school year, the students have regularly scheduled conferences with the teachers, parents, and bilingual school home assistants from the Honolulu District Office. The purposes of these conferences are to: 1) provide needed counseling services to the newcomer students; 2) listen to and elicit the positive accomplishments of students; and 3) contribute to the creation of a more positive learning environment filled with successful celebrations and constructive assistance.

Getting Parents Involved
Developing strategies for parent involvement has always been a challenge for schools. At Kaahumanu, the need to create an inviting niche for parents is essential because many of the students come from single-parent homes, where parents are either divorced or separated. Mothers tend to move into this area with their children during the adjustment period following a divorce or separation. Many students are “latchkey” because both parents, or single parent, must work long hours to meet the high cost of living in “paradise.” On a typical day, Kaahumanu School copes with urban problems of high transiency, domestic instability, cultural and ethnic differences and conflicts, social and emotional complexities, and other stresses.

Kaahumanu’s ESL program responds in various ways to the challenges of parental involvement. Parents are encouraged to become involved in the SLEP program through the counseling component, as well as through active participation in parent meetings throughout the school year. An orientation meeting is held at the beginning of each school year. At this time, the parents, teachers, and the school home assistants plan the year’s activities based on the expressed needs of the parents. Activities that parents have requested include how to: 1) assist their children with homework; 2) read to their children; and 3) become more active at the school. A year-end meeting is held in May to celebrate the accomplishments of the school year. A calendar of summer activities is discussed and shared with parents, so that they can provide guidance to their children during the summer months.

During the 1995 school year, the ESL program began developing a very innovative way of involving parents in the program. The strategy was to develop a growing cadre of parents to be trained as leaders in parental involvement. The program started by training four parents. Each of these four parents, in turn, identified and trained another parent until the number of parents who were involved in the program expanded exponentially. The strategy of giving parents the responsibility for recruiting other parents and training them to become parent trainers is a source of empowerment. It allows the parents to learn and demonstrate valuable leadership skills. And more parents receive personalized orientation and training.

Computer Literacy for SLEP Students
Students need to grow in the area of computer technology, and schools are hard pressed to find the resources to develop computer literacy skills. Since 1990, all students in Grades K-5 at Kaahumanu School have received instructional services from the school’s computer literacy program. The SLEP staff works closely with the computer teacher in integrating technology into the academic program. Students in K-1 classes receive 25 minutes of instruction and students in grades 2-5 receive 40 minutes of instruction weekly.

As a means to further promote the use of technology in the school, a Distance Learning Technology communication system was installed in the computer laboratory. Equipment, such as the Lumaphone and Telex, enable students to communicate with students in other parts of the nation and the world. The telephone modem also permits students equal access to other resource and information centers. SLEP students respond especially well to instructional applications of technology at Kaahumanu School.

A Very Special Treat for Parents
A special treat for parents annually is the Culture Day sponsored by the SLEP program. Its purpose is to provide parents and students with the opportunity to experience another culture. This is achieved through a rich array of cultural displays: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Samoan, Laotian, Filipino, Marshallese, and others. Also, cultural presentations involving parents and other community resources complement the displays and enrich the day’s activities. Parents are entranced by demonstrations of Korean sushi making, the sight of a multicultural supermarket, abundant Hawaiian flora, and even Karaoke singing. Parental involvement and participation in the planning of Culture Days has been steadily growing, and on the day of the event, as parents stream to the school from 8:30 a.m. to the close of the school day, there is an awareness of the seamless connection between the school and community.

The Remarkable SLEP Staff
The SLEP staff consists of two full-time teachers and two part-time temporary teachers (PTTs). Mrs. Diane Murakami serves as the lead teacher. She has been the driving force behind the SLEP program’s enormous success at the school. She has taught many second-language learners at the elementary, intermediate, high and adult school levels. She became interested in a career as an ESL teacher when she was asked to tutor some university students from Japan who were attending the University of Hawaii -Manoa. Her interest was further developed on a stint to Japan to teach English to elementary school students.

For the past four years, the SLEP staff have actively utilized multiple or multi-dimensional assessments with their students through case study records. The teachers pretest and posttest the students with the Basic Inventory of Natural Language (BINL) and Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) to determine their proficiency levels in oral language, reading comprehension, and language. Teachers have also used authentic performance-based assessment in the form of the SLEP Profile and Portfolio with their students. The Portfolio consists of writing folders, process folios, observation checklists, student reflections, products of the students’ literature study, oral telling/retelling responses, and a range of student product outcomes that document the students’ progress. A Profile Sheet that summarizes each student’s progress is also included in the Portfolio. The Student Profile and Portfolios are shared with the parents and regular classroom teachers to enable them to gain a better understanding of the students’ performance and progress.

The Bottom Line
The achievement of students in the SLEP program has been noteworthy. As measured by the students’ academic performance, the SLEP program has been very successful. The BINL test results for the 1989-90 school year showed a 100 percent significant gain. The Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) scores increased from 40.44 to 47.57 in school year 1991-92. The MAT results for 1989-90 and 1991-92 school years showed a positive gain score from a 71.4 percent to an 85.8 percent gain. The students’ NCE scores also increased from 4.32 to 5.69. Scores have been steadily increasing every year.

During the 1991-92 school year, 14 percent of the students progressed from Non-English Proficient (NEP) or Limited English Proficient (LEP) to Fully English Proficient (FEP). In addition, 26 percent of the students exited from the SLEP program into the mainstream program. This pattern of progress in English language proficiency has been evident each year of the program.

State English for Second Language Learners Program
Kaahumanu School’s ESL program is part of the state’s English for Second Language Learners Program. The state program provides support to students whose first, or native language is not English.

The mission of the program is to provide language minority students with equal, or better, educational opportunities and to maximize their potential as educated, productive, and contributing citizens of the state, country, and global societies. To accomplish this mission, the program uses instructional approaches and methods that address students’ specific language and cultural needs, while ensuring that students are taught the same challenging content and high level skills desired for all students. Instructional services are provided to ESL students in each of the Department’s 241 public schools. Approximately 11,000 national origin and language minority students are served through the statewide program. Thirty eight percent of the statewide ESL population is enrolled in the Honolulu District schools and Kaahumanu is within that district.

Hawaii’s ESL students differ in age, language abilities, literacy development, cultural knowledge, and attitudes about learning. Additionally, each student’s personality, prior experiences, and social and learning styles, contributes to the diversity found in Hawaii’s public schools.

Language support services provided to national origin minority or language minority students of limited English proficiency are mandated by federal statutes. These federal laws establish the rights of language minority students and define the responsibilities of school districts serving them. Schools are legally bound and obligated to comply with these laws and rulings. Collectively, the laws establish the rights of language minority students in schools and provide guidelines to guarantee equal access to quality educational opportunities for these students. In reality, the quality of educational opportunities provided for these students is determined primarily by the will, imagination, and creativity of the school staff.

Conclusion
Kaahumanu School’s SLEP program focuses on holistic education, whole language learning, and multicultural education for students of limited English proficiency. Like the statewide ESL program, Kaahumanu’s program is still evolving, as new techniques and activities are implemented by a diligent staff that is always open to new ways of doing the routine things. Students love the program and are learning remarkably well. Parents appreciate the special qualities of the program and SLEP staff, and demonstrate their appreciation in numerous ways. The program is not peripheral to the regular program at the school, but integral and essential.

Visitors are welcomed to visit the program, and SLEP staff is also willing to assist other schools in implementing or incorporating at their schools successful features of the program. The end result could be contagious—getting students to increase their English proficiency, and loving school and their teachers as well!

Bibliography
Excellence in English. A program of The English-Speaking Union of the United States. Summer 1994.

Murakami, Diane. “Reflection. Exploration. Discovery. Reflection. Celebration: Beginning the Year with a Primary Multi-Age Class.” (1993). Whole Language Umbrella, Orin Cochrane & Ethel Buchanan, editors. Winnipeg, Canada.

This publication was produced with funds from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, under contract number RJ96006601. The content does not necessarily reflect the views of OERI, the Department, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.