This magnet school is a different approach to teaching English to Denver's immigrant children. They can all go to this school, learn English in the newcomer program and eventually work their way into their neighborhood schools. DP
By Jeremy P. Meyer, The Denver Post
denverpost.com: One refugee student at Fallis Elementary had been living in a tent in the African desert, another had almost been kidnapped in war-torn Liberia and many never had seen a light switch - let alone a traditional school.
Teachers at the southeast Denver school say the challenge to educate non-English-speaking children who recently immigrated to the United States has been daunting.
"It's not an easy job," said Zoya Master, who has used pantomime and any other technique she can think of to teach the struggling English learners. "But when you see these kids start talking, you forget how hard it is."
Denver Public Schools has proposed to close Fallis and Whiteman elementaries after this year and create a magnet program for immigrants who cannot speak English or Spanish, drawing students from throughout the district to one school in southeast Denver.
That program would be in what is now Place Middle School and would be for preschoolers through eighth-graders.
The district now offers programs for newcomers in a dozen schools. The plan would centralize the resources for immigrants to allow the state and other agencies to better assist them, said Brad Jupp, DPS senior adviser.
"Historically these populations are hard to serve because they are so dispersed," he said.
The school would offer a three-tiered approach to teaching English depending on a student's fluency, said Brenda Kazin, the principal at Fallis who would lead the new school.
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