Hi :) I am a fifth grade teacher in a small private school. I was just told that I have a Russian student that barely speaks English starting in my class this year. I am ESOL certified, but have not had to use it in my first 3 years of teaching. Any ideas or comments on how I can make this a successful year for both the student and myself?
lbp1. Label everything in your room 2. Find out if he is going to be living with English speaking parents or with Russian parents? If it is Russian, find out if anyone in the family speaks, reads, and writes English, how well and will that person be home to help junior with his homework? 3. Do you have a ESL budget? If so, invest in a good English/Rus...See More1. Label everything in your room 2. Find out if he is going to be living with English speaking parents or with Russian parents? If it is Russian, find out if anyone in the family speaks, reads, and writes English, how well and will that person be home to help junior with his homework? 3. Do you have a ESL budget? If so, invest in a good English/Russian picture dictionary. Oxford Picture dictionary has some. Actually I would invest in two, one for you and one for him. They also have work books. If you have contact with the parents, you might want to find out if he has a dictionary and if so which one. I'm guessing you probably aren't going to have alot of funds and the student may already have this dictionary. I've had several show up with one, especially since he arrived this early in the summer. 4. If your school has a ton of money, invest in Rosetta Stone computer program. Since this is in English, it can be used again if next year you get a student from Mexico. 5. Remember unless he has had an Enlgish class in Russian, he will not know the English alphabet. Don't worry about it the first couple of days except to make sure he can write his name and can tell the boys and girls bathrooms apart. If you can find comparison of the sounds going from Russian to English this is even better. This is assuming he can already read. If he is coming with his Russian family, he will most probably know how and be pretty close to reading level. If he was in a Russian orphanage all of his life, it is really hit or miss as far as his educational level. 6. Teach the alphabet, using the first letters of words, also begin with the letters in his name and the names of his family, town, friends ect. Also teach the alphabet song. Even my high school students use it. 7. Find out if the Russian number system is the same as ours. (sorry don't know) if it isn't teach this immediately 8. colors, numbers, things i n the classroom, things in the school, alphabet, basic verbs these are your first things to teach 9. DOes your school have parent volunteers or students from the JH or HS that come over and help? If so, make use of them. GO and claim them even before the teachers report back. This is especially true if he is from an orphanage. In our state, these kids are not even eligible to be tested for spec ed. so in most public school you won't beable to make use of that resource. 10. Everyday, review the language that you worked on the day before and the week before. You will end up doing alot of review worksheet for this since you will still have the other 20 kids in your class to teach. 11. Does you school work in partnership with any of the local public schools? If so check in with their ESL departments for both advice and possble resources. The reason I say this is one of the local private school does this with ours. 12. SInce he arrived in the summertime, find out if he has already made any friends that go to your school (and are int he right grade) if so try to put the two in the same classroom. This will make the child more comfortable, and when they are comfortable, the soak in alot more language. Plus if he has a firend i n your classroom, he will probably talk more, something you want from this level of an ESL student. Also he is more likely to whisper something to his friend for his friend to ask for him. This is OK at this stage of development.You'll know when they've out grown it. 13. Remember there is going to be a period of time when he will say little or nothing. This is OK, it doesn't mean he isn't learning. 14. If you go on a field trip or leave the school, make sure he has a piece of paper in his pocket, with his name, school's name and some phone numbers. If he gets lost, he will probably forget everybit of Enlgish you have taught him. 15 I take that back, the very first thing you need to teach him is how to say his telephone number and address. This is usually the first "test" I give. I also teach 9-11 while I am at it.
> 5. Remember unless he has had an Enlgish class in Russian, he > will not know the English alphabet.
The Russian alphabet is called Cyrillic and some of the letters both look and sound similar to English; some look similar to English but have very different sounds (Ð = r; Í = n; Â = v; Ó = u; Õ = kh; È = i; ß = ya; 3 = z); and some are completely different from English. Most Russian students I've had did know the English alphabet, at least when typed, but not cursive. Those students also knew some basic English vocabulary.
> 7. Find out if the Russian number system is the same as ours. > (sorry don't know) if it isn't teach this immediately
Yes - the Russian number system is the same as ours.