Students from five Anne Arundel County high schools created self-portraits and accordion books as part of an AACC summer course for bilingual students, who displayed their artwork at a showcase on campus on Aug. 8.
The 17 students were enrolled in two, five-week classes, ELL 319—a course for English language learners—and ACA 100, an orientation for new college students.
“I want them to take away the understanding that multilingual students learning English belong at AACC … and that they can produce both brilliant, creative work and also the more traditional writing assignments and academic work that they need to do,” Owen Silverman Andrews, an instructional specialist for AACC’s English Language Learning program, said. “And that we want to celebrate them and not just say, ‘Oh, yeah, good job, pat on the back, here’s your grade.’”
This is the third time Andrews has partnered with public schools by offering classes for students whose first language is not English.
He said few multilingual students were taking advantage of a state program that allows some high schoolers to take classes for free at AACC.
“We started this summer program specifically for them,” Andrews said. “They take an English language learning class that I teach, and a college success seminar class. But in addition to that, we’ve infused both these classes with the arts because it’s a way to learn language and learn about college.”