Gaining deeper insight on my ELL Partner

O is a young freshman student who currently attends Winooski High School.  He is Somalian and has moved recently with his family from Burlington back to the Winooski area.  O has shown that he is a competent student, yet he is not always confident in his knowledge or comprehension of academic English.  He is a friendly person, talkative to his friends, and seems to be well liked by his classmates.  When O is confident in himself or his answers, he is loud and eager for the class to hear his responses.  In contrast, when it comes to what he deems to be his weaknesses, he becomes quieter and tries to remain unnoticed.

O has not spoken of or shared details about his family or friends, but he has shared his passion for basketball.  O enjoys and participates in basketball and plays the Forward position. He was quick to discuss his favorite NBA team and players after he had worked on his essay in class.  While working on his essay together, O’s work demonstrated firsthand how adept he was at understanding academic English.  He also displayed areas in his grammar and sentence structures where he needed further guidance and improvement.  O has demonstrated himself be a hard worker who is able to adjust to his situation accordingly and is enthusiastic to progress in his work.

O is from Somalia, which is a turbulent nation that has experienced unrest, famine, and conflicts throughout its history.  Somalia has a population of an estimated 10.8 million and is the world’s third largest source of refugees, behind Syria and Afghanistan.  The driving factors for many of the refugees to leave Somalia are drought, famine, floods, and a lack of economic opportunities for themselves.  O has not shared the reason for his family’s exit from Somalia, but it is logical to assume that any of these horrific factors could be the cause.  O has not informed me if he personally experienced life in a refugee camp, but given his age, it is reasonable that he must have endured some amount of time there.