Background
OIHS is an alternative public high school within the Oakland Unified School District and a member of the Internationals Network of Public Schools, a non-profit organization that grew out of the work of a group of International high schools in New York City. All teachers at OIHS are language acquisition teachers serving 100% English Language Learners and recent arrivals to the United States. Students in my school come from 33 different countries and speak over 30 different languages combined. Many of our students are transnational, meaning they have lived in multiple countries and may therefore more closely identify with countries other than those of their parents. Approximately 30% of our students are undocumented, 15% of students are refugees, and 14% are asylees, individuals who have fled their country due to persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. 24% of our students are unaccompanied minors who crossed the border into the United States without parents and were apprehended by immigration authorities. Over 95% percent of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. Students at OIHS come from more that twelve Oakland zip codes and 40% of students have a daily commute to school longer than 45 minutes.1 2
While these statistics help paint a picture of who my students are, perhaps the most significant factor to consider when trying to meet their individual learning needs is that approximately 40% of OIHS students are considered a SIFE,2 students with interrupted formal education who have a gap of over two years in their formal educations. To meet the unique needs of recent immigrants, who have historically been underserved, teachers at my school follow the Internationals Approach Model and believe that English language acquisition is best fostered in an academic environment in which students participate in heterogeneous groupings, engage in project-based curriculum, and experience English development integrated into all content areas. To ensure that students begin with a strong foundation of support, for their first two years at OIHS they remain with the same team of five teachers.3 For this reason the ninth and tenth grade students are combined in classes together, and the curriculum for all their academic classes loops on a two-year cycle. Students have a Visual Arts class only during their tenth grade year.
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