MARSHALL — The student body at Marshall Public Schools is a lot more multilingual than you might think, Beth Ritter said. There are 29 different languages spoken by students in the school district, with English, Spanish, Karen, Somali and Hmong among the most commonly-spoken languages.

It means that instruction for students learning English is important. Ritter, the director of teaching and learning at MPS, said there are “lots of exciting things” going on with English Language Learners in the district.

In a presentation to the Marshall School Board this week, Ritter said EL teachers are using new approaches to work with elementary school students, and helping high school students develop job skills.

Ritter said MPS started the school year with 366 multilingual students, although the exact number can fluctuate through the school year.

“The other interesting thing is, when we think of an EL student, we think of them speaking English and another language,” Ritter said. “But many of our students, they speak more than two languages.”

Ritter said the school district had a total of 15 EL staff, spread out at Park Side and Southview Elementary, Marshall Middle School and Marshall High School.

“We usually try to keep the ratio at one (staff member) to 30 students, approximately,” Ritter said.

Teachers at different grade levels are taking different approaches to work with students who are learning English, Ritter said.

“This year they are trying something new at Park Side, they are calling it the EL Pods,” she said. In the Pods, EL teachers are pulling all of their students together at the same time. Ritter said it was less disruptive for classrooms, and allowed teachers to better meet students’ needs, whether the kids were beginning English speakers or more advanced.

“We’re seeing great gains,” Ritter said. She said the Park Side team said students were speaking and interacting more this year.

EL students at Southview and MMS also have instruction based on their skill level and needs, Ritter said. At Southview, EL students are part of a Language Group, and students who need additional support for reading are also pulled for a phonics group.

At MMS, students who are newcomers to the U.S. or are beginning English learners receive a full 90-minute block of instruction in literacy and English language development, Ritter said. Students with more advanced English skills get a half-block of instruction, and services specific to their needs.

At the high school level, there were seven new EL students this year, Ritter said. They included students who were newcomers, and some who had not had formal schooling before coming to the U.S.

“Our high school teachers have their job cut out for them, and they do a great job with it,” she said.

EL students who were newcomers received a full 90 minutes of instruction time during the school day, Ritter said.

For some EL students at MHS who might be close to aging out of the education system before meeting graduation requirements, MPS teachers were also offering chances to develop job skills. Students have worked on the hands-on modules at the middle school PAES lab, and they also help run the Tiger Cafe at MHS, she said.

“They’re learning and meeting their teachers,” building job skills, and working as a team, Ritter said.

This spring, EL teachers at MHS will be working together with other teachers to help students with metal fabrication and automotive classes.

“The hard part is those classes are so high in academic language and they’re just very demanding,” Ritter said. “We feel if we can co-teach those classes – our EL teachers will co-teach it with the regular classroom teachers – our kids can be successful in it.”

Ritter said there were more than 20 EL students registered for those classes. It’s hoped that the students will be able to go on to the Marshall Career and Technical Institute in the future, she said.