Lynne, thank you for responding. The little boy from Thailand
is in Kindergarten -- he speaks some English.

One little girl from Puerto Rico is in first grade. Another
girl from Puerto Rico is in fourth grade. Their brother is in
fifth grade.

They all seem to have at least some grasp of the English
language. I've been working with the fourth grade girl in my
Title program for math. She's not solid in multiplication, but
I see progress. She is able to read more than I expected, but
of course the pronunciation is lacking. We've been working on
pronouncing math vocabulary.

She LOVES the Accelerated Math program and in just about three
weeks has already shown mastery of 7 objectives in the fourth
grade library of objectives.

I haven't assigned her any objectives that involve story
problems yet.

I haven't worked with the others as yet. I have spoken to the
father of the boy from Thailand. The parents are very
supportive, although their English is not strong. They are very
protective of their son, rightly so, of course and have come to
sit with him during breakfast every day.

I'm looking forward to this, the more I research on the types of
activities to utilize for best hope of success. There are so
many things I hadn't thought of -- even simple things like the
ways different cultures show emotions.

I'm nervous, naturally, but I think it will be fun and rewarding
(hopefully for the students as well as for me!!!)

The kindergartener has not been in school before.

We're not really sure about the ones from Puerto Rico. Their
records were incomplete and unclear. From what I'm seeing with
the fourth grade girl, she's had comparable to what we offer
through third grade in many areas, but is somewhat behind in
math skills.

She enjoys saying the words "Diagnostic Test". She has
completed several of those in Accelerated Math and wants to
pronounce it correctly. She has everything down pat except that
the i in the first syllable is a long i, not a short i.

She's very pleased and excited about how she is doing in the AM
program.

Oh, dear, I'm rambling. No, we don't have any materials
specific to ESL classes. A bilingual picture dictionary -- I'll
put that on the list.

I've been printing picture vocabulary cards out from the
Internet to laminate and use.

I look forward to ideas and suggestions.

On 10/07/09, lynne/ca wrote:
> Welcome!
>
> What grade levels?
> How much English do they know?
> How much education have they had in their first country?
>
> It's surprising to me that the 50 minutes of Spanish counts,
> as that's not ESL. Is the Spanish class designed for native
> Spanish speakers or is the Spanish instruction received by
> all students (including native English speakers)? Regardless,
> it will not be appropriate for the Thai student, certainly
> not as ESL time.
>
> Do you have any materials for ESL yet?
> Do you have bilingual dictionaries and/or picture
> dictionaries for the students to use?
>
> You will get many good suggestions on this board, but what's
> appropriate for your students will depend in large part on
> the answers to the three questions above - grade level, level
> of English, prior education level.
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/07/09, MT wrote:
>> I was just asked yesterday to add 30 minutes per day into
>> my schedule to work with our four ESL students. One is from
>> Thailand and three are from Puerto Rico.
>>
>> I've researched our state's requirements. If a school has
>> fewer than 20 ESL students, a certified ESL teacher is not
>> required.
>>
>> I'm actually looking forward to this, but not sure WHAT I'm
>> looking forward to.
>>
>> According to what the principal says the guidelines are --
>> we must offer at least 50 minutes per day/250 minutes per
>> week to this endeavor. Our Spanish class will count, which
>> is two 25 minute sessions per week.
>>
>> I'm not sure what plans they have yet beyond what I've
>> mentioned.
>>
>> We know this isn't the ideal situation, but with and
>> extremely tight budget and already tightly stretched
>> budget, this is our starting point.
>>
>> I'll be reading posts on this board over the next couple of
>> days and printing out or making notes on anything and
>> everything that sounds practical for my setting.
>>
>> If you have any suggestions directly related to my
>> situation, I would be extremely appreciative.
>>
>> I'm 1/2 day Title I Math and 1/2 day Elementary Computer
>> Lab.

Share This Post | Report This Post

Next Post >>

Posts on this thread, including this one