Minneapolis school tries new path to accelerate immigrant learning

Somali immigrants in this school are getting specialized help in "newcomer classrooms", which will get them ready for the regular classrooms.    - - Donna Poisl

Article by: STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune

Shuttling between classrooms at Anne Sullivan school in Minneapolis, teacher James Kindle noticed that classroom teachers were stretched mightily to serve the wide range of abilities in a school with many immigrants.

A teacher might be showing one group of students how to measure the angles in a triangle, while other students in the same class were just learning that “triangle” is the word for a three-sided polygon.

Kindle did some research, talked to other teachers and together they went to school district officials. The result is a pair of “newcomer classrooms” and a concentrated effort to jump-start the adjustment of Somali students in American schools.

The timing is good for Sullivan and other schools receiving a surge of Somali refugees.
Click on the HEADLINE above to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.