Manuel

Manuel is 16 years old and in the 10th grade in a high school in a medium-sized Midwest town. He was born and raised in Mexico, and has only been in the U.S. for one year. He comes from a large family of eight children, and is the youngest child. Manuel attended school in Mexico since he was four years old, and thus reads and writes Spanish well.  Neither of his parents completed high school in Mexico. His father speaks some English because he worked in California for several years before returning to Mexico. His father currently crafts leather goods most commonly used for horses, and his mother takes care of the home. Manuel’s parents still live in Mexico. Manuel came to the U.S. to live with his oldest brother who is married and has two young children (ages 2 and 4). Spanish is the dominant language of the home.

Manuel’s official overall English language proficiency level is 1.7 (WIDA). He arrived in the U.S. last year a few months after the school year had already began. He receives two periods of ESL instruction a day, and attends regular content-area classrooms the rest of the day, though he has great difficulty understanding and completing the expected work.

Manuel works part time as a cook at Wendy’s after school to help his brother’s family, and also to send some money back home to his family. Manuel loves cars, and dreams of owning a Mercedes Benz someday. His brother is a mechanic and Manuel enjoys helping him on occasion. He wants to learn to be a mechanic after he graduates from high school.  In addition, Manuel enjoys playing soccer with his friends on the weekends.