by Jamie Cardwell
During the summer of 2016, the students at the Ritenour International Welcome Center (IWC) in Ritenour, Missouri, read Sonia Nazario’s novel, Enrique’s Journey, in both English and Spanish. Through the use of Google classroom, the students met four days a week for three hours a day to read, write, listen, and speak about their experiences. Being newcomers themselves and from Central America, the students shared a common bond with Enrique and experienced some of the same adversities on their journeys.
While reading the novel, some students remembered the trauma they lived through during their journeys to the United States. In order to create a classroom community of trust and confidentiality, students participated in various team-building activities during the first class period. Each day, students read a portion of the novel with a partner and answered questions together. After partner time, students participated in a bilingual whole class discussion guided by the IWC staff.
After class discussions, students often wrote about their feelings and watched movies or videos to further expose them to other people on the same journey from Central America to the United States. In addition, therapy was available during summer school hours, and in some cases, family therapy was also offered after hours as needed.
Some students reported feeling less alone after reading the book because they were able to talk through their experiences and know that others have been through the same thing. They also expressed feelings of being validated and appreciated spending so much time talking about their own personal stories.
In addition to reading the novel, the students took public transportation to visit some of the famous sites in St. Louis including the zoo, art museum, and history museum. The students also visited the local library down the street from the center to learn about the library system and services offered. All of the students completed the summer reading program at the library and were rewarded with various prizes to acknowledge them for their accomplishments.
The IWC was started in August 2015 in response to the needs of newcomer students (unaccompanied minors) in grades 9-12 to learn more about the American school systems and receive intensive academic English instruction before integrating into regular high school classes.
Editor’s Note: Sonia Nazario is one of the featured speakers at the #MIDTESOL16 conference. Her books are available for pre-order (even if you already registered for the conference) and can be picked up at the conference where she will be signing books after her presentation.
After graduating from Teacher Education Program in consortium with Lincoln Christian University and Illinois State University, Jamie moved to Puerto Rico to work at Christian Day School. She later moved back to her home town of Alton, IL, went back to school to pursue a Master’s of Art in English with emphasis in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESL), then moved to St. Louis where she currently teaches at Hoech Middle School. Jamie also teaches writing classes at St. Louis University in the ESL department and is pursuing her doctorate of education in curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Walden University.
