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Re: New to ESL, Pleeeeease help me.....
Posted by lynne/ca on 9/02/08
On 8/30/08, GAteacher wrote:
> Hi! I will be an ESOL teacher for the first time starting
> in a week, and I am so excited about it. I do not have a
> background in it and would love to hear about a typical
> day for ESOL teachers, and other things such as procedures
> for the first several weeks, working with K-5 students,
> things you wish you'de known when you began, and good
> resources. I am feeling a bit desperate, to be quite
> honest...I thought I'd be able to find a lot of
> information on teaching ESOL but I havn't been able to.
> I'm really looking forward to working with this population
> and know that I will love it, and I want to do my best for
> them. Please help me, any insight is GREATLY appreciated!!
It's difficult to describe a "typical day" because there are
so many different models for ESOL teaching and so many
different situations. Do you know whether you'll be doing
pull-out, a self-contained group, or push-in? How much time
will you have with the students? Will you have students of
varying English levels at the same time? etc. You may not
know the answers to these questions yet.
Teaching ELL students at any grade level can be very
rewarding. Typically students learn very quickly and you
really can see the progress they make. If you have newcomers
who speak little to no English and who are new to the
school, one of the first things you may want to do is give
the students some "survival school vocabulary" (names of
places around campus, words to describe items in the
classroom, how to ask to use the restroom, etc). You may
also have students who are much more fluent in English, and
at the beginning of the year you might ask them to write
about themselves (native country, hobbies and interests,
family members, etc). That will give you some information
about your students, and also serve as an informal
assessment to get a feel for how much English they know.
You'll also probably have the results of more formal
testing, but writing samples can be a very good place for a
new teacher to start - more meaningful at first than a score
on a test.
Have high expectations for your students from the beginning.
Do be aware that your newcomer students may be shy about
speaking and give them some adjustment time... but at the
same time hold them accountable for learning. If newcomer
students are reluctant to speak at first, find other ways
for them to demonstrate their learning - pointing to
responses, writing answers, etc. Teach LOTS of vocabulary;
for newcomers, use pictures and visuals to show what the
words mean. For more advanced students, definitions in
simpler words or even in the student's own words are good.
If you know what they are studying in other subjects, you
can use the topics from those other subjects as a source for
vocabulary themes that will be immediately relevant to
students.
Posts on this thread, including this one
- New to ESL, Pleeeeease help me....., 8/30/08, by GAteacher.
- Re: New to ESL, Pleeeeease help me....., 8/31/08, by Breezy.
- Re: New to ESL, Pleeeeease help me....., 9/02/08, by lynne/ca.
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