Students Learn From Naturalization Ceremony

Young ELL students witnessed an immigration ceremony after studying civics and history and learning what it takes to pass the immigration test. DP

By Kelli Grant
Keloland.com: This morning 40 immigrants became US citizens in a Sioux Falls Courtroom. And as families celebrated... students witnessed a piece of history.

It's one of the happiest days of an immigrant's life - finally becoming a US citizen, finally having the same rights as someone who was born here.

For Hawthorne Elementary's 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade English Language Learners today was a real life lesson, outside the classroom.

Teacher Cheryl Bennett says, "We want to be innovators and we want to teach in a way that's really going to engage our learners and give them something that will be cemented in their memory."

For three weeks, these students have been studying civics. Their teachers say witnessing this morning's naturalization ceremony incorporates a lesson that meets state standards

Bennett says, "We had them prepared with the curriculum and the things that we wanted them to know ahead of time."

Those standards require students be able to describe the way the government provides for the needs of its citizens, and be able to describe key events related to South Dakota's entry into statehood.

ELL student Edin Cardona says he learned, "They have to learn English and they have to take a test to be a citizen."

"They have to be good and that 's why they come here cause they wanna learn english," says ELL student Jonathan Coronado.

Many of the students in the program are not naturalized citizens. Their teachers hope witnessing this ceremony will inspire them to become active citizens and one day take that oath of allegiance.

"I think a lot of these kids have that hope for their parents as well," says Bennett.

Those students who were not born in the United States must be 18 years old to become US citizens. They also must know how to speak, read, and write the English language, and among other requirements they must pass a naturalization test on US history.