Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2006 : December : 6

By Margaret916

Have you considered modifying her assignments? She's just learning ENglish...have her read a book that's smaller and simple ENglish and learn to read and comprehend that before moving to a novel.

One of my best
ESOL classes started witht he prof walking into our room speaking all greek -- modern greek. She illustrated 3 kinds of lessons. first she did a short lecture. We understood none and could answer NONE of her questions in greek. Then she did a lesson that was slightly interactive and we learned a few basic words from gestures and pointing to things in the room. Third she did a lesson

teaching us to count and using hard manipulatives, then switched to the arabic numbers and by the end we were all counting in greek.

The first part was so scary and intimidating for a room of ADULTS. let alone a single child hearing it all by herself. What guidance does yoru district offer you? Our ESOL children are expected to progress -- but definitely not be on level with the others immediately. That's a huge leap for them to make -- learning letters to reading a novel to answering questions... They are graded on the progress rather than "in comparison with the others in the class." Illustrate the directions, shorten assignments, simplify the language, these are all modifications for an ESOL student that will help the learning to be less stressful for her and for you! :)

Also -- know, that even if she's not answering aloud, she's learning a lot. Kids take 2-4 years to learn CONVERSATIONAL english and 5-7 years to learn ACADEMIC english -- so just work at her speed! :) Does this help at all?