non-english student

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Home : 2002 : August : 19

non-english student
By Joan

Does your school offer any support for non- or limited-English students in the upper grades? Have you had training that might help you to teach this child?

I teach in California (and teach many, many, many non-English
students), and we are required to have CLAD certification (CROSS-CULTURAL LANGUAGE & ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT). Here is one site that might be helpful:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/CLADCredential/CLADplus.htm
When navigating Dr. Mora's site, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the homepage and visit the links

on the table. You should get an idea of what this child needs. Please keep in mind that it takes many years to acquire a new language.

If he has already been in school here for a year, he probably understands quite a bit of English. If he doesn't feel comfortable speaking English, that's okay.

Your situation is different from mine in that you only have one non-English student. I am able to do some grouping and meet needs that way. However, having no classmates who speak Swahili, he will be forced to use what English he can. Your student will, of course need some individual attention, but that can come from classmates too. He must be exposed to the curriculum (it's the law), but he will need much more hands-on and modeling.

Find out how much education he already has? Was he a good student in his homeland? Does he read and write well? How much math has he had? This will factor in with how well he will learn in your class and will affect the work you put before him. Often, teachers just load non-English students with first grade dittos, but this will not allow him to use his talents.

Perhaps you can ocassionally post here about this student. I would love to hear about how well he is advancing. I know you are going to love teaching him and watching the enormous amount of growth he makes under your tutelage! ENJOY!