Ex-teacher seeks allies in boosting English-learning students

MCALLEN – Employees at the McAllen Convention Center quietly walked past the empty Boardroom 1, where Dotti Shelton had arranged books, notepads and candy on four vacant tables.

Shelton patiently waited to see how many, if any, Rio Grande Valley teachers would attend her Wednesday seminar, “Closing the Achievement Gap for English Language Learners.”

“Obviously this remains a huge issue for the Valley, but sadly, I don’t think many are interested,” she said.

There are more than 146,000 English-limited students in the education region comprising the Rio Grande Valley and three other South Texas counties.

Shelton, a former Sharyland teacher, hoped her seminar would draw educators dedicated to tackling that large number. Only five teachers attended a similar session in May.

“The schools here, I don’t believe they’re engaging in professional staff development that will sustain students,” Shelton said. “When teachers teach a class only in Spanish, and present content that’s too broad and not too deep, students are not prepared to succeed anywhere outside the Valley.”

Her seminars focus on knowledge and language acquisition skills reinforced by new cognitive neuroscience research into the emotional states of ELL students. In other cities, Shelton’s workshops have lured audiences as large as 300.

“These strategies don’t just work extraordinarily well for English language learners but for all students who deserve the education we too often fail to give them,” she said.

Most school districts did send out notices of Wednesday’s seminar, but many school boards just put the finishing touches on their budgets. Soon, schools will receive funds to send teachers to workshops like Shelton’s.

Shelton said she hopes that will boost attendance at her next session Oct. 13.

“Our students deserve the very best,” Shelton said. “I imagine word will spread, somehow.”

Eventually, one teacher, Celina Alvarez of Mercedes, walked into the boardroom.

The sixth-grade reading teacher said she was fine adapting to the one-on-one seminar.

“This year my number of ELL students increased,” Alvarez said. “I don’t have the exact (English as a Second Language) certification but I can still increase my skills to teach the kids who need my help.

“That’s the joy of teaching,” she said, “though it’s leaving our schools fast.”

----

Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956)683-4472.