Oak Forest High School is home to one of the two English learner (EL) programs in District 228, and its students speak a variety of languages. In Ms. Shaikh’s English Skills Lab, a class for EL newcomers, there are 16 students, who come from five countries and speak four different first languages. They’re all relatively new to the United States, many having arrived just before this school year. Most of the students speak Spanish or Gujarati, but the class has an Arabic speaker and a Vietnamese speaker as well. It’s a fun group, filled with teenagers who had never met before but have quickly become friends. The students are eager to improve their English. As an English teacher and as the EL interventionist who works with Ms. Shaikh’s newcomers every day, I can attest that they have already come a long way.
The weather cooled off in recent weeks, and I asked all of the students about their experience with winter. I soon realized that, with the exception of two students who were in the area last winter, most of them had never encountered snow. These 16 students all happen to come from warm climates. Of course, in the winter months, the weather cools off in their countries of origin, but they made it clear to me that it doesn’t typically reach the freezing point, except perhaps in some remote mountain range. They don’t experience snow, let alone the occasional blizzard, as we often do in Chicago.
On Wednesday, November 20, the forecast for the following day called for snow—possibly during English Skills Lab. If it snowed, should we go outside and see it? Every single student said yes. When they walked in on Thursday, we didn’t even have to say anything. Almost everyone came in carrying a winter jacket. Some students were already wearing theirs and saying, “Let’s go! Let’s go!”
When I held the door, and the students went outside, the effect was immediate. They laughed, sighed, shivered, and chatted enthusiastically in both English and their first languages. “I was surprised. . . I liked it a lot. I was happy to see the snow,” Juan Cordero Escalona, a student from Mexico, said later. Some of the students picked up the snow with their bare hands, eager to experience the sensation. One or two quickly went back indoors, almost shocked at the 29-degree temperature.
It was never our plan to stay out there for long. We had to warm up and return to our English-language conversation topics (including the weather) back in the classroom. One of the frequent comments was that the students didn’t realize that the snow would stick to their hair and make it wet afterwards.
We weren’t out there for more than five minutes, but it was a memorable five minutes. Quynh Le, an English learner from Vietnam, said, “It’s not what I imagined, but I like it.” By contrast, Riddhi Patel, originally from India, had already experienced snow: “I saw snow before in Chicago last winter. . . I liked it. I still like it.” Iker Perez Castillo, a student from Venezuela, hadn’t experienced the Chicago winter yet: “[It’s] the real first time I see snow and well. [I was] very happy because whoever thought I was going to see [it]? Snow in Venezuela doesn’t fall.” The students had a great time, but after the initial shock of snow, they began to take the weather at face value—like the veterans of many winters. In the end, I’m pretty sure that I, looking at the snow with new eyes, was the only one who seemed to find it astonishing.
