SANTA ANA : Students Eased Into Life in U.S.

Eduardo Arellano, 12, smiled with embarrassment as he struggled to pronounce the names of several states during a recent geography lesson at Sierra Intermediate School.

“Alaska, Arizona, California,” he said in a thick accent, as teacher Delfina Briseno patiently pointed to the names printed on the chalkboard.

After he finished, the curly-haired seventh-grader was reassured by his teacher and classmates that he had done a fine job.

During the past eight weeks, this group of 26 students has grown particularly close and supportive of each other. Although they didn’t know each other before the beginning of the school year, these students all have one thing in common: they are recent immigrants trying to adjust to life in a new country.

To make their transition easier, the students have been placed in Project EASE, a program designed to help non-English-speaking students get used to their new environment before they are placed in regular classrooms.

“This is like an incubation period for them,” Briseno explained. “It is essential because otherwise they are thrust into a sink-or-swim situation and this does not produce success.”

Project EASE, which stands for English Acquisition Secondary Education, was started by the Santa Ana Unified School District in 1987 to give immigrant students an academic and social foundation during their first nine weeks of school.

The program begins with teaching simple skills, such as how to tell time, the days of the week, where to wait for the bus and how to buy lunch.

In subsequent weeks, they are taught about U.S.a culture and are brought up to speed academically so they will be ready to begin the district’s regular English-as-a-Second Language classes.

“A teacher in this situation has to be very patient, very loving and kind with these kids because they are already suffering from culture shock and need a real warm, positive environment to learn in,” said Shelli Vallandingham, who teaches EASE classes at Valley High School.

The teaching done in a typical EASE class is often different from instruction in a regular classroom. Although teachers in the program are given specific areas to cover, teaching approaches are left largely up to them.

“There’s a great deal of flexibility and creativity involved,” said Rose Marie Fontana, director of English-as-a-Second-Language and bilingual programs at the district.

An example of this creativity would be Briseno’s version of a final exam this week on a unit dealing with articles of clothing. Briseno raided her closets at home and brought to class every sweat shirt, cap, scarf and pair of stockings that she could find.

“It’s always fun to see how the students dress each other up,” Briseno said. “It is also a fun way for them to show what they have learned.”

On the average, 300 students are enrolled in EASE during each of the program’s nine-week cycles.

“This program really shows the district’s strong commitment to helping immigrant students and their teachers,” Fontana said.