History

Barbara Vaille and Jennifer QuinnWilliams set out to teach English, and ended up with AIMS English, an approach to teaching English that helps English language students transform their lives.

In the spring of 1996 Barbara Vaille, a seasoned English as a Second Language teacher with many years of working with children and adults under her belt, was the PTSA president in an urban Denver school. She noticed that the parents of the many Spanish-speaking children in the school never came to the PTSA meetings, nor did they participate very much in the life of the school. To encourage their participation, she began Spanish-language PTSA meetings, and soon the parents asked her if the PTSA could sponsor English classes. Over the next two years, Barbara put together ideas, skills and grants to birth the first small AIMS English class.

Jennifer QuinnWilliams joined Barbara in 1998, and the two began the work of building the AIMS English systems. Through research and reading, trial and error, reflection and relearning, and the wonderful participation of hundreds of English language learners, Barbara and Jennifer created a comprehensive, communicative approach to English teaching that relies on a solid research-based framework that accommodates any content.

Taking an idea Barbara had in 1975, Attribute Cards evolved from hand-drawn, make-and-take materials into a professional set. Book Club began as an attempt to get students reading more, and to bring the Shared Inquiry of Junior Great Books into the class. It led Barbara and Jennifer to write a series of fiction for adult English Language Learners and a book club guide. Message Design was originally the Freshman English Composition class at a local community college. Barbara adapted the designs for children, and they now use them with English Language Learners of all ages.

Students in Barbara and Jennifer’s grant-funded AIMS English classes, which slowly expanded from one multilevel class twice a week to three classes scheduled throughout the week, showed impressive growth, both on standardized tests and in teacher-made assessments. When adult students were able to help their children with homework, felt comfortable going on field trips, or reported advancement at work because of improved English skills, Barbara and Jennifer had the satisfaction of knowing that the work in the classroom was being used in the community to transform lives.

By 2003 they realized that the systems they had developed would work in most English classes, and, with the help of a Colorado Statewide Leadership Grant from the Colorado Department of Education, offered a free teacher training in Denver to five program directors. Since then, they have continued to train teachers of both children and adults in Colorado and given countless workshops on the AIMS English systems. Currently, they are the teacher trainers and coaches for more than a dozen the Summer Scholars Family Literacy Program English classes for adults housed in Denver Public Schools. They are also consultants and teacher trainers for Summer Scholars Oral Language Development Program for school-aged children (an after school and summer program), and still teach two English classes at the original AIMS English site, Dora Moore K-8 School, in Denver.

History is in the making as they continue meeting the needs of their ELL students and teachers through the on-going adjustment and adaptation of AIMS English.