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Summer program gives students English language cornerstone
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North Georgia College & State University student Whitley Grizzle plays a word game with Lyman Hall Elementary students in the summer immersion program at Chicopee Woods Elementary School in Gainesville. - photo by Tom Reed | The Times
For some students, learning doesn’t stop for the summer.In fact, that’s integral for more than 100 students from Lyman Hall Elementary School working on their literacy development.For the third year, Lyman Hall, with the help of the North Georgia College & State University education program, is giving kindergarten through second-grade English language learners a bit of extra help.“They are second-language learners, meaning English is their second language, so a lot of their barriers to reading is the language,” said Katherine Williams, a rising senior at North Georgia and intern with Lyman Hall. “We’re trying to find out what problems they’re having with reading and how to intervene and get them back on track before school starts.”Williams has been working in the school for the past year and was picked to help with the summer immersion project.She joins five other interns and a number of Lyman Hall classroom teachers for the three-week program, which wraps up Friday at Chicopee Woods Elementary School. The Lyman Hall building is getting roof repairs.The teachers seek to provide the students with a literacy “concept base” in their own language, giving them a solid cornerstone on which to build their English skills.“We have long known from our years of work with second-language learners that the stronger the concept base is in the native language, the more quickly the child will learn the second language,” said Veronica Grizzle, Lyman Hall vice principal.