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Bilingual Approach
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"Serving the community for 38 years"
A
n immigrant herself,
Elana Izraeli appreciates
the challenges facing
young people others call
foreigners.
As director and testing coor-
dinator of the English as a Sec-
ond Language/Bilingual program
for the West Bloomfield School
District and teacher at West
Bloomfield High School, Ms.
Izraeli, who migrated to the Unit-
ed States from Israel in 1978,
makes it her business to under-
stand.
Her sensitivity, along with in-
novative programming, recently
landed Ms. Izraeli a
Newsweek/WDIV TV Outstand-
ing Teacher of the Year award.
Her days are spent in room D-
304 at the high school, helping
improve reading and compre-
hension skills of teens.
First days of class are devoted
to explaining purpose and meth-
ods of the curriculum. Ms. Izraeli
administers standardized tests
to gauge students' varying levels
of understanding. Students are
re-tested at the end of the se- Newsweek/WDIV Outstanding Teacher Elana Izraeli
mester. Ninety-seven percent These are no longer just theoret- Oakland University. She ran a
show "tremendous gain."
clinic out of her Rochester home
ical concepts," Ms. Izraeli said.
The program targets incoming
The main goal of the class is and conducted workshops for
freshman and is run separately language acquisition. However, school districts before accepting
from other English classes. The Ms. Izraeli strives to guarantee the job with West Bloomfield
classroom is a mix of faces orig- students get content "to stimu- High School five years ago.
inating from Russia, Korea, Iraq, late cognitive development."
"My methods are different. My
Detroit and West Bloomfield.
Many lessons in subjects oth- students know I work hard and
"It's such a challenging class er than reading are taught with I expect the same from them. I
to teach. These children have a hands-on approach. Research research, interview parents, de-
been disappointed with the edu- has shown, Ms. Izraeli said, that velop organizational patterns. I
cation system for various reasons learning occurs best in situations use every method I can to pro-
and have tasted academic fail- where content is easily accessi- mote literacy," Ms. Izraeli said.
ure," Ms. Izraeli said. "I enforce ble and stress is lessened.
Ms. Izraeli does not depend
On a broader scale, the dis- upon one text with questions fol-
self-esteem and motivation.
"It's also an opportunity to go trict's ESL/Bilingual programs lowing each chapter. She never
beyond reading skills and expe- include support services for new- gives multiple-choice tests. Stu-
rience an open window to differ- comers and their families with dents evaluate themselves. The
para-professionals speaking the final grade is up to Ms. Izraeli,
ent cultures."
Of the 1505 students at West native language of immigrants. but 90 percent of the time stu-
"My interest in this area was dents are accurate in their own
Bloomfield High School (as of No-
vember 1993), 22.7 percent are piqued when we moved to the assessments.
bilingual. Thirty-five different United States. My children didn't
"This is a real priority here,"
languages are represented with- speak the language (English is Ms. Izraeli said. "We're prepar-
taught in Israel beginning in the ing our students for the chal-
in the school's walls.
Those numbers are rising third grade). It was a struggle," lenges of the next century by
Ms. Izraeli said.
quickly.
giving them the ability to seek in-
She wrote her dissertation on formation, extract main ideas
"This fact has forced us to take
a deep look at our curriculum the impact of bilingualism on cog- and use information in effective
and attempt to promote tolerance nitive thinking and learning. Ms. ways."
and cultural understanding. Izraeli received a doctorate from
-
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