English Language Learners

Vandenberg’s ELL Program Supports All Students
 

Learning Support

• Vandenberg administrators and staff respect, value, and understand cultural diversity and individual learning styles of English Language Learners.
• New comers have the opportunity to fast track their learning in the content areas and immediately interact with other children speaking the same language.
• All students are exposed to new cultures and languages at a young age as well as gaining a well rounded and thorough academic education.
• Our program consists of a certified and endorsed ESL teacher who oversees the department as well as Paraprofessionals that work to support and reinforce English language acquisition and content instruction. The bilingual staff shares the responsibility with the mainstream general education teachers for ensuring that our bilingual students receive content instruction while learning English.
• The following languages are spoken by our children and their families: Albanian, Spanish, Wolof, Mandinka, Ga-danbe, Twi, Yoruba, Fyu, Tagalog, Russian, Vietnamese, ASL language, Palauan, Haitian, Hindi, Panjabi, Sianhalese, Gujarati, Arabic, Chaldean, French, Japanese, Jamaican, Swahili, Nigerian, Igbo, Eflek, and Borabu.

Family Support

• The bilingual staff serves as liaisons with the parents/guardians of our ELL students, their community and the school.
• Bilingual staff contacts parents in writing or by phone to announce important school functions and events. Such as: parent –teacher conference or meetings, share students success stories, and supports the families in any way possible.
• Parents workshops after school covering different topics to help adjust in their new environment.
• School flyers, documents, letters, notes, individual assignments from the classroom teachers are translated into the three dominant languages that represent Vandenberg.
• We provide buses for all bilingual and ESL students that register through Southfield Public Schools

Community Relations
 

• Positive school community relations increase the number of volunteers and community resources to provide more opportunities for adult-student interaction.
• We receive support from the following organizations:

• Sam’s Club
• Arab Chaldean council
• Tim Horton
• Area restaurants
• Local churches
• Senegalese Association in America.

Many Languages...One Family

MEET OUR ELL STAFF

ELL Program: Mrs. Jessica Lenko, Teacher

Paraprofessionals: Mrs. Abduljebar, Mrs. Kozmi, Mrs. Movsisyan, Mr. Samb

Celebrating cultures, we all smile in the same language. Vandenberg is the Bi-Lingual magnet elementary school in Southfield Public Schools.

In the ESL department we have four wonderful bilingual paraprofessionals that work daily with students and families.  They are:   Mrs. Alaa Abduljebar, Mrs. Suha Kozmi, Mrs. Irina Movsisyan, and Mr. Momar Samb.

Mrs. Suha Kozmi was born in Iraq and taught English at a secondary school in Mosul, Iraq.  She has worked with Southfield Public Schools for 20 years.  She is fluent in English, Arabic, and Chaldean.

Mrs. Irina Movsisyan was born in Ukraine, and she taught math in the Ukraine for 15 years.  She has worked for Southfield Public Schools for 25 years. She is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Russian.

Mr. Momar Samb was born in Senegal and he taught English in Gabon. He taught has worked 7 years in Southfield Public Schools.  Mr. Samb is fluent in English, French, and Wolof.