Just a couple of weeks after the last day of school, 13 students assembled at the WinCo Foods in Kennewick to continue their learning. Though they spoke different languages, all had one thing in common: they had lived in the United States for less than two years.
The Kennewick School District launched its first Newcomers class this summer, an Independent Living Career and Technical Education, or CTE, course taught at the Tri-Tech Skills Center.
The intensive, 12-day summer class was free and aimed to teach essential skills to high school students who were new to the country. Or, as co-teacher Kristina Hocking put it, teach them “how to ‘do America.’”
Hocking, a multilingual learner and English teacher at Southridge High School, co-taught the course along with Stephanie Zerba, a CTE teacher at Southridge.
She had seen one student throwing away gift cards because he thought they were advertisements, and others struggling with writing addresses.
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