A big part of teaching middle school students is preparing them for the new challenges of high school, but in Jennifer Dines’s class at Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, students are already navigating something new and unknown: life in the United States.
Dines teaches English as a second language, or ESL, to newcomers in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. These kids aren’t just new to her class or the Dorchester school, but to the country, having come from places like Portugal, Cape Verde and Somalia.