Fidel's Story

Student Success Stories

Fidel's Story: Kindness and Accomplishment Bring Recognition

by Vicki Burlingame, ESL Teacher/Literacy Coach, Prairie Lincoln Elementary, Columbus, Ohio

Fidel Campuzano entered Prairie Lincoln Elementary as a kindergartner and was enrolled in Reading Recovery as a first grader in the fall of 2002. As a limited English speaker, Fidel needed to learn to understand, speak, read, and write in English. His language level was Beginner and he was reading at Level 3. I was both his Reading Recovery and English as a second language (ESL) teacher.

Fidel learned quickly how to speak English and made consistent progress in reading and writing as well. He especially loved reading all the little books and putting together the cut-up sentences. He was reading at Level 12 when his Reading Recovery lessons were discontinued in February 2003, and at Level 20 by the end of the year. Fidel continued receiving ESL instruction for 3 years and exited the ESL program as a proficient English speaker, based on the Ohio Test of English Language Acquisition. In fourth grade, he passed the reading and writing assessments of the Ohio Achievement Test.

As a fifth and sixth grader, Fidel was a model student. His teachers could depend on him not only to complete his own assignments and perform well academically, but also to assist other ESL students to do so. He was a very responsible, kind and compassionate student, often translating and talking with new Spanish-speaking classmates.

“Fidel is definitely a success story in the ESL program,” said ESL teacher Nancy Florence.

Fidel’s sixth-grade math and science teacher said “he has a wonderful attitude about school and life in general. He is mature beyond his years.”

His thoughtfulness was recognized when Fidel received the Citizenship of the Year Award at Galloway Ridge Intermediate School.

Now as a seventh grader at Pleasant View Middle School, Fidel has made steady progress in his school career. Although he says that school is more difficult this year, he is working hard and doing his best. He remembers working hard as a first grader to learn English and to learn how to read. He will continue to learn all that he can in a language that is not his first language.

Fidel knows that what he learned in Reading Recovery about reading and writing will always be with him no matter where he goes or what he encounters. It is this gift of literacy that we, as teachers of reading and writing, can give to our students. It is a gift that cannot be taken away and one for which I’m sure Fidel, and others, are very grateful.

About Vicki Burlingame
As a devoted teacher and learner, Vicki Burlingame’s focus is on language learning. She has been an ESL teacher for 20 years. In 1992, she trained as a Reading Recovery teacher and taught combined Reading Recovery and ESL students for 7 years. She knows sign language and has a background in speech and language learning. Vicki has a master’s degree in special education. She continues as an ESL teacher at Prairie Lincoln Elementary School, and is the Literacy Collaborative coordinator and coach for the South-Western City Schools ESL department.

This article first appeared in The Journal of Reading Recovery, vol. 3, no.2 (Spring 2004)

This article first appeared in The Journal of Reading Recovery, vol. 4, no.2 (February 2005)