Be in My Shoes or Change is Needed ~

When I entered Catalina Magnet High School, I felt like I was in my dream land. Being an immigrant student and not having a proficient level of English, I was placed in E.S.L. class. I started to study two English classes, Honors Physics, mathematics, American History and fine arts. I enjoyed my sophomore year a lot, especially studying English and science.

Things changed when the AZELLA test came into my student life. If we fail it, we have to take hours of English class according to Arizona State law. My heart beat fast and I was scared. I thought, “It’s not a good idea. Damn; it will be distractive in our learning process.”

There were no model questions. I had no idea what kind of questions would come. I was here for only six months and my pronunciation was different. With a group of immigrant students, I started to do the AZELLA test. It was easy, but the listening test proved difficult because I couldn’t understand clearly. I love to write, and I wrote paragraphs using six traits, but a single page was not enough for me to express all of my feelings. My writing never stopped; it became messy, and I wrote two sentences in one row. I didn’t get time to edit my conventions, but I had organized my ideas. I had a hope I would pass it. Speaking was easy, but I was wondering about listening. Grammar was ok, but reading was much easier. Everybody looked bewildered. I was upset about the new rule. “What if I fail? Oh my god, I have to take four English classes!” I thought.

After three months, the results came. When I looked at my results, I found myself failing. “Oh my god! I failed writing conventions, listening, and oral and multiple choice questions.” I had passed Aims writing. How could I fail writing of AZELLA?. I couldn’t blame the person who checked my paper, but I had never imagined failing writing. Now I would have to take four English classes.

Having four hours of English class, I feel different from other students. I feel it’s racist because it’s not fair for refugee and immigrant students. I feel as if I have just come here to learn English only. I feel isolated and dumb. I smell the sound of teasing, because I have four hours of English. The taste is bitter; it just makes me feel down and decreases my confidence. It’s also affecting our graduation process and our dream. What if I want to be a mathematician? Do I need that much English like others who want to go into a literacy related field.

I can learn English when I am learning other subjects too. I can learn English by reading books and studying the dictionary. I can understand it by watching television and listening to the radio. That is also a way of learning. I can improve my speaking by talking with people in day to day life.

I want to go into engineering, but four hours of English doesn’t allow me to focus on what I want to be. If I am just in E.S.L classes, I will not even get a chance to enroll in the university and if I get a chance to go college, I might have to start again from E.S.L.
Furthermore, many of us may not get sufficient credits of math and science to go to college. We may have to start from pre-algebra in college. We feel like we will be too old to succeed in our dream. This four hours model is significantly affecting me and thousands of other students. How can this single test judge my talent and creativity? Why isn’t this rule in other states? Why only here? I don’t even like to come to school, and I want to transfer to another state, but I can’t do that due to certain family circumstances.

On the other hand, I love the E.S.L. program, but we do need a change from 4 hours of English to two hours. I am learning reading comprehension, grammar, speaking and writing. My writing class, Finding My Voice, is good. It is good because we can develop our literacy and second language skills by researching, photographing, writing, and speaking out about serious social issues in our community. It is really interesting and we can build our computer knowledge also. It is phenomenal because we have only one period. I recommend that we keep this period; it covers speaking, listening and writing. We might need one more period for grammar and reading, but others are just useless.

We don’t need more English classes; we need some effective classes like Find My Voice class. Last year, there were two hours only, and as per my experience, it was really nice. I feel I improved greatly in my speaking, listening, writing, and conventions in two hours. It helped me to pass AIMS.

Being an advanced level E.S.L. student, I currently have three English classes, even though it’s boring, and I sleep daily in class. I feel I am not learning anything. Four hours of English is like four times 0. It will not help to learn English, but it will decrease our motivation. Actually four hours of English is like four years for me. I just feel like vomiting when I think about it. It’s not helping us. It is too much! Four hours will not help us. It is just like eating too much sugar. It’s like prison. It might be good if Arizona created some different effective idea currently. No one wants four hours of English class.

I feel people who make our laws for education are just trying to create something new to show improvement, but they don’t know whether it will help or not. People who are sitting on the chair have to think before they make the law. They are doing their job, but they don’t care. Those educated people should try to be in our shoes. Today TUSD spends many dollars for E.S.L students to improve our literacy level, but is it really improving and helping us? The Arizona legislature is not thinking about this; they came with some new ideas to show they are doing something for us. When we say it doesn’t help us, why is there disagreement? Arizona state legislature should change this law immediately. We need to have sufficient time and periods to learn every subject. We need to have a chance to focus on what we want to be.

I am a resilient person; I will not stop moving toward my goal, even though I know there are big obstacles to reach it. But, I will not sit quietly. It’s not only my problem; thousands of students are suffering from the same problem. If the Arizona state legislature is adamant and doesn’t understand us, we will not be silent; we will fight to make the difference.