OTTUMWA — At Ottumwa High School, Latino students on the first floor were learning English one sentence at a time.

“Don’t change words,” says teacher Barbara Murray, speaking English.

Her students, all English language learners, are doing an exercise where they put together a sentence about changing weather: It is starting to rain.

Not every student who goes to Murray’s class speaks Spanish. Some ELL students have been from Asia or Eastern Europe.

That doesn’t matter. The class is taught in English, and students are coming and going all day long.

“In the beginning, we didn’t have an English as a Second Language class,” said OHS Principal Steve Hanson. “Seven years ago, before the influx of English language learners, we didn’t have need for the class.”

To get children to graduate, especially if they came to the United States as older teens, the school system needed to get them speaking, reading and writing in English.

“The younger they are, the faster they tend to learn the new language,” said Ottumwa Superintendent Jon Sheldahl. “When they are older, they struggle a bit more. But that’s not unusual.”

In Murray’s class, a couple of students said the best way to get better in English is to practice.

Even just “hanging out with friends,” said Spanish-speaking student Austin Kelly, can result in better English.

“Out of seven periods in the day, they can take two periods of English Language Learner classes,” said Hanson.

“We’ve added a number of associates in ELL because we’ve needed that,” said Sheldahl.

But placing a student in a more technical class, like math, requires a curriculum adapted for people who are just starting to learn English.

“There is a special math class for them to learn the language of math, [as well as] a history class and a science class that is adapted for the needs of English Language Learners,” said Hanson. “And P.E. (physical education) is a class that is not language heavy. Then depending on their level of skill, maybe they can go to a music class, or auto mechanics or [other] hands-on class, [plus] maybe a study hall.”

Hanson said the district has come a long way in meeting the needs of new students.