ESL students who arrive without literacy in first language - Classroom 2.02024-03-29T12:41:34Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/649749:Topic:85336?feed=yes&xn_auth=noThis is a problem at the high…tag:www.classroom20.com,2010-02-25:649749:Comment:4392472010-02-25T04:46:34.210ZDenise Stewarthttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/DeniseStewart
This is a problem at the high school level as well. Students come with major gaps in their L1 educational backgrounds. Typically their parents take them out of school once they have finished upper elementary or middle school because they can't afford to buy the uniforms. So they arrive in my class as 9th, 10th, or 11th graders based on AGE alone. Presently I have 3 kids who only have 3 years of formal education and they are 16 years old. With such deficiencies, they still have to take the…
This is a problem at the high school level as well. Students come with major gaps in their L1 educational backgrounds. Typically their parents take them out of school once they have finished upper elementary or middle school because they can't afford to buy the uniforms. So they arrive in my class as 9th, 10th, or 11th graders based on AGE alone. Presently I have 3 kids who only have 3 years of formal education and they are 16 years old. With such deficiencies, they still have to take the various state mandated assessments which they do very poorly on. Of course the prospects of graduating from an American high school are slim especially since the money for Newcomer centers has dried up. There is not time to adjust or catch up in credits. My heart goes out to them.<br />
<br />
Denise<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ellteacherpros.com" target="_blank">www.ellteacherpros.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com" target="_blank">www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com</a> I do have concerns about our…tag:www.classroom20.com,2009-06-29:649749:Comment:3584892009-06-29T22:29:42.397ZMark Penningtonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MarkPennington
I do have concerns about our testing-mania, especially with regard to early primary children and ELLs. Your cogent comment/diagnosis re: lack of literacy in L1 is the first step toward helping these students. These students certainly can be taught phonemic awareness. There is no reason to wait until, and if, it is "caught." I have a nice set of simple whole class phonemic awareness assessments that I think will benefit your kids and help you fill their literacy gaps. Find these free diagnostic…
I do have concerns about our testing-mania, especially with regard to early primary children and ELLs. Your cogent comment/diagnosis re: lack of literacy in L1 is the first step toward helping these students. These students certainly can be taught phonemic awareness. There is no reason to wait until, and if, it is "caught." I have a nice set of simple whole class phonemic awareness assessments that I think will benefit your kids and help you fill their literacy gaps. Find these free diagnostic assessments at <a href="http://penningtonpublishing.com/assessments/Phonemic%20Awareness%20Assessments.pdf">http://penningtonpublishing.com/assessments/Phonemic%20Awareness%20Assessments.pdf</a> Hi Nancy,
This is not really…tag:www.classroom20.com,2009-04-07:649749:Comment:3224682009-04-07T03:06:10.317Zdarren elliotthttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/darrenelliott
Hi Nancy,<br />
<br />
This is not really my area at all, but I did hear this excellent program on Australian Public Radio. The transcript is here<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2008/2350003.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2008/2350003.htm</a><br />
<br />
and if you look on itunes you may be able to track down the audio.<br />
<br />
Catherine Walter is writing a lot of interesting stuff about it too. I`ve attached an article of hers I found.<br />
<br />
Doesn`t really help you day to day, but it…
Hi Nancy,<br />
<br />
This is not really my area at all, but I did hear this excellent program on Australian Public Radio. The transcript is here<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2008/2350003.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2008/2350003.htm</a><br />
<br />
and if you look on itunes you may be able to track down the audio.<br />
<br />
Catherine Walter is writing a lot of interesting stuff about it too. I`ve attached an article of hers I found.<br />
<br />
Doesn`t really help you day to day, but it might spark something. Good luck, I admire teachers in your situation a great deal ; ) You've identified a real prob…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-06-19:649749:Comment:1519762008-06-19T17:51:37.280ZEric Rothhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/EricRoth
You've identified a real problem, especially when these students are expected to perform at the same levels as the offspring of English-speaking, middle-class professional parents on standardized exams.<br />
<br />
Hopefully, the children and parents will recognize the meaningful, significant progress made in your classes even if the official standardized exams fail to recognize the obvious.
You've identified a real problem, especially when these students are expected to perform at the same levels as the offspring of English-speaking, middle-class professional parents on standardized exams.<br />
<br />
Hopefully, the children and parents will recognize the meaningful, significant progress made in your classes even if the official standardized exams fail to recognize the obvious. Good point. Millions of peopl…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-06-19:649749:Comment:1519702008-06-19T17:41:03.582ZEric Rothhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/EricRoth
Good point. Millions of people remain illiterate in our world today.<br />
<br />
Sometimes in the United States, by preferring tact to truth, we overlook the reality that millions of people have never received a formal education and millions more were held back by inadequate schools and very low standards. As a result, education officials feel compelled to give press conferences and submit absurd testimony expressing "bafflement" at why children from low-income household score so much lower on…
Good point. Millions of people remain illiterate in our world today.<br />
<br />
Sometimes in the United States, by preferring tact to truth, we overlook the reality that millions of people have never received a formal education and millions more were held back by inadequate schools and very low standards. As a result, education officials feel compelled to give press conferences and submit absurd testimony expressing "bafflement" at why children from low-income household score so much lower on standardized exams. Historical consciousness is almost verboten.<br />
<br />
A secondary effect of this false "bafflement", again partly caused by surplus tact, is the pretense that literacy has no cultural consequences. People with limited reading and even more limited writing skills in a predominantly literate culture face many practical obstacles. Secondary orality, the fancy academic term for being unable to read and write in a print culture, hurts individuals and the larger society.<br />
<br />
Of course, education opens doors and opens minds, but recognizing that education actually improves lives would also raise questions about the relative merits of various subcultures in the United States. Education is partly about development and transformation. Yet our multicultural mantras raise many objections. Who is to say that life in Beverly Hills is superior to life in South Central Los Angeles? What's the criteria? Are people happier? Blah, blah, and more eloquent nonsense.<br />
<br />
Acknowledging the reality that far too many immigrants and citizens lack basic literacy and focusing on approaches to solving that terrible legacy of oppression would be a starting point. Unfortunately, because our rhetorical embrace of cultural equality, we end up denying millions of underclass citizens and residents access to a quality public education.<br />
<br />
Or so it seems to me. Yes Nancy,
I face the same pr…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-06-09:649749:Comment:1486402008-06-09T15:35:41.135ZDr.Tamishra Swainhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/TamishraSwain
Yes Nancy,<br />
I face the same problem, with my students. I am from India and I am assigned to teach english to the beginners who generally comes to school without any prior knowledge of the language and get less support from their parents and the environment(as they are from vernacular background).I am looking forward for your valuable discussions, so that I can learn from your experiences.<br />
ThankYou
Yes Nancy,<br />
I face the same problem, with my students. I am from India and I am assigned to teach english to the beginners who generally comes to school without any prior knowledge of the language and get less support from their parents and the environment(as they are from vernacular background).I am looking forward for your valuable discussions, so that I can learn from your experiences.<br />
ThankYou Thanks to everyone for your w…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-02-10:649749:Comment:1082002008-02-10T23:09:27.674ZNancy Healyhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/NancyHealy
Thanks to everyone for your wonderful responses. We in Minnesota are trying hard to find ways to make sure the LEP students are successful. I think it's the fear of not making AYP or AMAO that creates some tension.<br />
<br />
Keep up the good work, everyone!
Thanks to everyone for your wonderful responses. We in Minnesota are trying hard to find ways to make sure the LEP students are successful. I think it's the fear of not making AYP or AMAO that creates some tension.<br />
<br />
Keep up the good work, everyone! Nancy,
You are not the only o…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-02-10:649749:Comment:1081862008-02-10T21:40:50.328ZManuelhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/Manuel93
Nancy,<br />
You are not the only one facing this problem. My community is mainly hispanic and we have in our school many children with the same problem. We have third, fourth, and fifth grades who cannot write in their first language.They dont know the basis of grammar and their spelling is atrocious. You're not going to find much or any support from their parents.They dont read and write either. They also have two jobs and two or three more kids to feed. Wrapping up, even though we are doing our…
Nancy,<br />
You are not the only one facing this problem. My community is mainly hispanic and we have in our school many children with the same problem. We have third, fourth, and fifth grades who cannot write in their first language.They dont know the basis of grammar and their spelling is atrocious. You're not going to find much or any support from their parents.They dont read and write either. They also have two jobs and two or three more kids to feed. Wrapping up, even though we are doing our best to teach English to these children, and they're also in bilingual classes we cannot expect proficiency on state tests. Just a few, the proud, we'll make you feel good about the job you are doing.The rest will be a 60% or 70% reader and writer for the rest of their lives. From my every day teaching, I had a kid in first grade who always was refusing to speak English during my class. One day, I asked him," why dont you speak English ( I know he could) during my class". He answered me, " My father doesn't want me to speak English,<br />
he cannot understand". I think is a concern in many…tag:www.classroom20.com,2008-01-01:649749:Comment:930612008-01-01T01:56:29.107ZAdina Sullivanhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/adinas
I think is a concern in many school communities. Approx 90% of the elementary students in my school teach speak English as a second language with Spanish being their first language. Students are not normally literate in their first language and parents may or may not be. We also came across the cultural issue of separation of home and school. All learning (language and otherwise) is considered a school responsibility. As far as instruction goes we are using Guided Language Aquisition Design (…
I think is a concern in many school communities. Approx 90% of the elementary students in my school teach speak English as a second language with Spanish being their first language. Students are not normally literate in their first language and parents may or may not be. We also came across the cultural issue of separation of home and school. All learning (language and otherwise) is considered a school responsibility. As far as instruction goes we are using Guided Language Aquisition Design (<a href="http://www.projectglad.com/">GLAD</a>) and <a href="http://www.nancyfetzer.com/">Nancy Fetzer</a> strategies which are working VERY WELL. They use frontloading and visuals (plus more) very effectively. We also began a few new projects this year and they seem to be helping.<br />
<br />
1) KinderCamp - an optional 2-3 weeks of pre-kinder to get new kindergartners ready for how school works.<br />
<br />
2) Kindergarten and 1st grade parent nights. These are separate from Back-to-School and Open House Nights. Parents learn about what their students are doing in school and specific small ways to help them at home (read/tell stories in Eng or home language, give students time/place to read at home, ask questions about what they read/learn in school, etc.)<br />
<br />
3) Family Friday - parents come in on one Friday morning a month and learn about a reading strategy they can use with their child. It's also modeled using a book they get to keep. We've been able to find enough books that are printed in English and Spanish...not sure what is available in Hmong. Parents then go to their child's class and read that book with their child. The teacher reads the book with students whose parents could not attend.<br />
<br />
4) Sight words/books on CD - We recorded all of our sight word lists and then can burn applicable ones onto CDs that students can use in class (on the computer or a portable CD player) or take home to practice with. Parents liked this idea because many were often unsure how to pronounce the words their child was supposed to be practicing. We are continuing to use recorded books and/or class stories this way also.<br />
<br />
Our students aren't as proficient as we like to be yet, but the numbers are getting better. We all need to find something that gives us (and them) a little hope :) Look at what Larry Ferlazzo h…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-11:649749:Comment:874042007-12-11T05:14:18.994ZAlice Mercerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/mizmercer
Look at what Larry Ferlazzo has done. He has done research on his work, and he is teaching the same population that you are teaching. I don't think this is either a new, and unusual problem. My great-grandfather was a translator during the Spanish American War. He spoke about 4 language and was illiterate in every last one of them. We've taken many elementary students who spoke their home language, but never read it, or learned it in an academic context, and taught them English. I'm concerned…
Look at what Larry Ferlazzo has done. He has done research on his work, and he is teaching the same population that you are teaching. I don't think this is either a new, and unusual problem. My great-grandfather was a translator during the Spanish American War. He spoke about 4 language and was illiterate in every last one of them. We've taken many elementary students who spoke their home language, but never read it, or learned it in an academic context, and taught them English. I'm concerned that you are focusing on how these students are not fitting the model, when the model is not always, well, the model. What grade level are you teaching?