Wheeling teacher plays key role in bilingual education

Children born to non-English speaking parents living in America have the added challenge of mastering a new language in addition to everything else they need to learn in elementary school. These are the children that Laurie Mason loves to teach.

Mason, an English language learner (ELL) teacher at Field Elementary School in Wheeling, works with these students from the time they enter kindergarten through fifth grade.

Mason has worked with English language learners in the Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 for 19 years. Throughout that time, she has helped prepare hundreds of students for an English-speaking life. And Mason has taught the parents of her students at night school.

She said her favorite moment as a teacher came last year.

Mason said she witnessed one of her ELL students blossom before her eyes — both in English language proficiency and in confidence.

Mason said the class happened to be reading about tornadoes the week before a twister devastated Washington, Illinois, on Sunday, Nov. 17.

The next day, she began a class discussion about the tragedy with her fourth-grade students and within a matter of minutes the students began, on their own and in English, the process of putting together a fundraising project to benefit the victims of the tornadoes.

Mason said one student in particular, a girl who'd only been in the program for about a year, stood out throughout the student-run project.

“She blossomed,” Mason said. “The confidence that these kids gain when they all of the sudden come out of their shell and they know their English and they know something they are passionate about … that's why I'm here. It's so rewarding to see kids like that.”

Mason said the project, which was not part of the regular curriculum, ended up being community involvement, science and history all rolled into one major fundraising project.

Tailoring class content to fit the students in her class is something that Mason and Jennifer Costa, her colleague in the ELL program at Field, have done every year.

“Every year Laurie and I change the curriculum to suit the kids,” Costa said. “We have never done the same curriculum twice.”

Costa said the program is a reflection of Mason's enthusiasm and desire to help their students improve.

“Laurie is very passionate, very enthusiastic, very organized,” Costa said. “It's been an honor to work with her, I've learned so much from her,”

“She just puts 110 percent into everything she does,” Costa added.

Mason has left a similar impression on her boss, Field Principal LaVonne Knapstein, who said Mason was the first person to come to mind when she thought of a top teacher.

“What she does, she always does well and she always puts all of her passion and her effort and all of her talents in to the students,” Knapstein said. “She could be anywhere: she could be the bilingual teacher, she could be the ELL teacher, she could be the regular third-grade teacher, she could go into kindergarten and I would have no worries that everything wouldn't be done to the best of her ability with the students always in mind.”

Mason is a product of her school district. She grew up in her parents' house about a mile away from Field Elementary. She attended the old Whitman Elementary from kindergarten through third grade, went to Riley from fourth through sixth, attended Cooper Junior High and graduated from Buffalo Grove High School.

Mason was hired to teach in her hometown district right after graduation from Bradley University. She was assigned to teach bilingual education at Frost Elementary, which meant speaking to her students completely in Spanish.

“I feel like I learned more than any of my students my first year teaching because although I had the background in Spanish, to teach about snails in Spanish and the American Revolution in Spanish and some of the math vocabulary, I had to learn before I was able to teach my students,” Mason said. “Now, I feel like I am truly bilingual.”

Mason played a central role in restructuring the bilingual and ELL program in the district nine years ago. She said under the old structure, English language learners would spend part of their day learning subjects in English with the general student population, which was less effective.

“They would just be thrown into this classroom with the general education students and teacher and ‘OK, learn math, here you go,'” Mason said.

Under the new system, English language learner students spend most of the day with their bilingual teacher, who teaches curriculum in their native language. Once per day an ELL teacher like Mason or Costa comes in to their classroom and teaches in English. Mason said the structure helps the students learn more effectively.

“So you see this new person and you know ‘Oh, it's English time — Mrs. Mason's here; we're doing English,'” Mason said.

Laurie Mason

Curriculum vitae

What: ELL (English language learner) teacher at Field Elementary School in Wheeling

How long: Since the 2006-2007 school year. Before that, Mason worked at Frost Elementary School, which is also in District 21, as a bilingual teacher who instructed with a mix of Spanish and English. She's worked in the district 19 years.

Education: She majored in education and minored in English at Bradley University and earned a bachelor's degree there. She earned her master's degree at National Louis University's Wheaton campus.

Tips from a great teacher

• Start strong! Teach expectations and routines explicitly for the first few weeks of school, and then the rest of the year will go much more smoothly.

• Be collaborative! Teammates have a lot to offer professionally and personally. They can even become some of your best friends.

• Be flexible! What you originally plan may not turn out the way you think. Be willing to adapt.

• Be organized! Have a system and a place for everything.

• Let students have a say! They are more invested in what they are doing when they are more interested.