Shuttling between classrooms at Anne Sullivan school in Minneapolis, teacher James Kindle noticed that classroom teachers were stretched mightily to serve the wide range of abilities in a school with many immigrants.
A teacher might be showing one group of students how to measure the angles in a triangle, while other students in the same class were just learning that "triangle" is the word for a three-sided polygon.
Kindle did some research, talked to other teachers and together they went to school district officials. The result is a pair of "newcomer classrooms" and a concentrated effort to jump-start the adjustment of Somali students in American schools.
The timing is good for Sullivan and other schools receiving a surge of Somali refugees.
"This is a heroic effort on Sullivan's part," said Lynn Harper, a district K-8 multicultural specialist.
The newcomer program is aimed at Somalis, but the concept could be adapted to any immigrant group, she said.
Students new to the country are steered into a classroom with other newcomers, so they can learn things like "triangle" before heading into classes with other students.
The district is ramping up the effort even before knowing results. The school board last month approved an expansion from Sullivan's two classrooms to eight newcomer classrooms, split between Sullivan and Andersen United school. Together the two schools account for one of every six K-8 students in the district from a Somali-speaking family. The expanded program starts next fall.