Segerstrom instructors help English-learners build skills through art
Alejandro Cruz took the stage with a white chef’s hat atop his head. He was ready to act in his pizza shop scene Wednesday in front of his peers, about 20 students bound for eighth grade this fall.
“I’ve got small pizzas,” he said to his audience in a theater class.
“No no, mijo,” Rubén Garfias, the course’s teacher, interjected. Garfias then asked Alejandro to fill the room with his voice.
“I’ve got medium pizzas!” Alejandro hollered. “I’ve got large pizzas! ... Come to Pepito’s Pizza, where no pizza is impossible for me!”
“Yes!” Garfias said as he applauded loudly.
Garfias’ class, where students spend weeks writing their own plays, is one of many summer courses at Gates Elementary School in Lake Forest held in partnership between teaching artists from the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa and teachers in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District.
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For the past four weeks, the annual program, specifically for students whose first language is not English, has had around 350 children spend half their days learning art from a Segerstrom instructor and the other half exploring math, science and writing with the district’s teachers.
The goal is to have the young learners connect what they’ve learned from art forms such as dance and theater to the other subjects they typically study in school.
All children in the classes are from the Saddleback district and tested as “intermediate” on the California English Language Development Test, an exam for students whose home language is not English.
The students, who are entering first through eighth grade this fall, are divided into classes by grade level.
“Most kids, especially English-learners, are still converting everything. … They have to think in their native language first and then put it back out again,” said Mary Benton, a teacher on special assignment in the Saddleback district’s Services for English Learners.
But after going through the summer program, the students’ performance improves, according to Benton.
“We find that they obviously improve on the CELD Test, but what the teachers report to us is the confidence and the ability in them,” Benton said. “It shows up in a lot of places, not just the CELD Test.
Students in Garfias’ theater class spend the other half of their days in a personal narrative writing class led by Laguna Hills High School teacher Greg Roberts. The writing is meant to prepare them for college essays and job interviews.
Roberts had his class write Wednesday about times they have faced challenges, been in accidents and made mistakes.
“What they do with Ruben connects back to the stories they already have but they may not think are there,” Roberts said. “It’s setting them up for deeper conversations that will eventually take place.”
Charlie Dando, who teaches dance, had his soon-to-be-fourth-graders count while stepping to different beats Wednesday.
“Dance is a great tool to help teach kids in pretty much every subject,” Dando said. “We learn the ABCs through rhythm. Not just that, but with some of the more quiet kids, when they get to dance they get the chance to thrive.”
Yessenia Mendoza, 16, who went through the program when she was entering sixth grade, is a volunteer helping Gates Elementary teacher Barton Hickson with his math class this summer.
When she was in the summer classes five years ago, Yessenia took mathematics and drama.
“Doing the plays [in drama] helped bring my confidence out, and the teamwork needed in that class helped when we needed to build a pyramid [in the math class],” she said. “You have to know how to communicate. It’s a big deal to be able to speak clearly.”
The camp will end with a showcase Thursday at Gates Elementary, where the students will share their work from the past four weeks with their families.
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Alex Chan, alexandra.chan@latimes.com
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
