BECCA MOST | St. Cloud Times
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ST. CLOUD — Tech High School junior Zainab Hashi said her mother was shocked when she told her she’d be researching Kismayo, her home city in Somalia, as part of a class project.
“A lot of the time we’re learning about different countries in different places but we never take the time to learn about our own roots,” Hashi said.
The class, Somali for Native Speakers, is thought to be the first Somali language course taught in the state, and maybe even the nation.
Designed for students who grew up speaking Somali, the course was approved by the St. Cloud school board in December. An elective class focuses on proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and is taught five days a week at Tech, Apollo and North Junior High School.
Somali is the third most-spoken language in Minnesota after English and Spanish, so “it only made sense that the next language we implemented in our schools would be Somali,” said Kelly Frankenfield, the director of English language and cultural programs at St. Cloud public schools.
Experts say education about a student’s native language helps students learn English, and improve their reading, writing, communication and social skills overall.
Ekram Elmoge, the class teacher, says she’s seen students’ confidence grow even in just a month or two.
Connecting to Somalia
This fall students were tasked with researching and presenting on a Somali city tied to their familial roots. Students not only learned about significant people who lived there, but also about the area’s climate, geography, vegetation, foods, tribes and cultural practices.
“It’s really meant for them to dig into their past so they make more sense of their present right now,” said Mohamed Mohamud, the district’s educational equity coordinator who supervises Elmoge’s virtual class at Tech because the classes at Tech and Apollo were scheduled at the same time this trimester.
“Our students [have] very high levels of listening and speaking Somali, and yet have varying levels of literacy and reading and writing skills due to possible interruptions in their education prior to coming to the United States,” Mohamud said. “So this course helps students to build a stronger skill set in their native language that will help in learning and using English.”
Mohamud said the benefits of dual-language learning are many. Higher self-esteem, better attendance and strong parental engagement are some. But learning one’s native language is also crucial for students to understand their identity and what it means to be a Somali Minnesotan, he said.
Tech senior Hodan Noor said she wants to learn how to write and read Somali so she can text her parents instead of having to call them to communicate. In class she presented on the Somali city of Baidoa.
“This project got me closer to my mom because I did a project on where she was born,” Noor said. “She was excited to tell me all the stories that she had living there, and she told me that people loved it there and that people were close, and community there was amazing because they love to help one another. That kind of got me excited, and I want a community like that.”
Setting an example
For Elmoge, setting an example as an educator sets up her students for the future.
Although students learn about reading and writing and speaking, they also learn about themselves, where they came from “and where they’re going,” she said.
After graduating high school in Somalia at age 14, Elmoge came to the U.S. in 2013 and moved to St. Cloud from Minneapolis. Although she didn’t speak English at the time, she learned to translate for her family and fell in love with teaching. As an 18-year-old she worked in the district as a bilingual navigator, helping kindergartners learn English.
She graduated from St. Cloud State University last year, and Elmoge said she plans to earn her master’s in educational leadership and administration by 2022. She wants to become a school principal.
For many of her students, seeing her teach is the first time they’ve seen a Somali educator, Elmoge said. Sharing her own story with her students, and showing them that they, too, can go to college and pursue their dreams is important, she said.
“It’s all about that mindset,” Elmoge said. “I did it and you can do it too.”
Looking to the future
Next fall, district leaders hope to offer Somali as a world language class available to all students in St. Cloud School District 742, Frankenfield said.
There is also a proposal to offer a dual language class in Somali and English beginning in kindergarten, which would look similar to the Mandarin and Spanish immersion programs already in place, she said.
“That would definitely be first in the state, and most likely, first in the nation,” Frankenfield said. “Those are our goals.”
Source: St. Cloud Times
