STATEN ISLAND, NY – English Language Learners, or English Language Leaders, as they are referred to at Future Leaders Elementary, are a special kind of hardworking scholars. In their ENL class, they have recently finished reading and analyzing Those Shoes, a book by Maribeth Boelts.

To celebrate the hard work our Multilingual Leaders put into reading this book, they went to the sister school, P.S. 16 John J. Driscoll just up the block. There, a local artist painted the characters of the book on one of the doors of the main lobby. Out Leaders were very excited to see the characters they grew to care about pop up as a wall (or rather, a door) art.

Simon, a student from class 4-306, said that it was a lot of fun to explore the themes of generosity, friendship, and the difference between needs and wants while analyzing the book.

Another student, Aharon from class 3-307 said that he could really connect with the plot. He said that he gained another perspective on things we need versus things we want.

All Multilingual leaders in Mr. Grin’s ENL class agree that Those Shoes does a wonderful job explaining complex ideas in a way that students from 3rd and 4th grade can connect to.

Scholars are excited to study the next text in the unit, Guardian Angel by Francisco X. Alarcón, and how it fits into the bigger “Happy to Help” unit that students are working on this month ■

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