Re: ESL Placement in Elementary Classroom

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I agree with NJ, a bilingual class would be ideal. However, it is
difficult to find qualified bilingual teachers particularly if the
language is something other than Spanish. 20% of my school's
population is Chinese and we can't find a single certified Chinese
bilingual teacher for our kids. Many schools in my state have
difficulty offering bilingual classes (even many school are
supposed to by law) because there are no qualified bilingual teachers.

On 1/09/10, NJTeacher wrote:
> If all of the ELL students share the same language (Russian),
> why arent't they placed in a bilingual classroom with a
> bilingual teacher? That's how it's done in my state. Once
> there's a large amount of ELL students who have the same
> native language they're placed in a self contained bilingual
> classroom where they receive ESL services and instruction in
> both English and their native language.
>
>
> On 11/20/09, jmak wrote:
>> I am looking for research about the best approach to use
>> when placing ESL (we call them ELL) students in elementary
>> school. My school has a large Russian population, and we
>> used to distribute the ELL students among all of the
>> classrooms (they also receive services from the ELL teacher
>> and a tutor).
>>
>> This year my principal and the ELL teacher decided that in
>> order to make scheduling ELL services easier they would
>> place ALL of the ELL students in one classroom. So, I have
>> all 8 of the 5th grade ELL students. They also decided,
>> simultaneously, that my room would be where the 4 intensive
>> special needs students would be placed (autism, behavior
>> disorder, severe cognitive impairment).
>>
>> It seems insane to do this to a teacher on purpose. I have
>> a 50/50 ratio of on-level students to far below grade level
>> students.
>>
>> Does any research show that bunching up all of the ELL
>> students in one classrom is beneficial for them? I would
>> like to give them extra support, but I just have too many
>> of them. I'd like to have groups with several non-ELL
>> students and one or two ELL students in them... but I don't
>> have enough on-level students to do that.
>>
>> Any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear!
>>
>> jmak
 

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