ESOL at SAS

Editor's Notes

• #2: Merhaba, geldiyinic icin tesekkurler. Benim adim Sharon Dent. Ben ana okuluna, birinci ve ikinci sinifa ingilizce ogretiyourum. Su anda Turkce konusuyorum cunku size bilmediyiniz bir dili ogrenmenin nasil hissedildiyini ogrenmenizi istiyorum. Sizin cocuklarinizin butungun ingilizce honusup, ingilizce dinlegip, ingilizce ogreniyo. Cok yorucu dabilir! Hello, I’m Sharon Dent. I teach English in kindergarten, first grade and second grade to children who qualify for ESOL support. I was speaking Turkish to help you understand how your children feel every day at school. They spend their whole day speaking English, listening to English and learning in English. It can be exhausting!
• #4: ESOL: English for Speakers of Other Languages EVERY kid at SAS elementary is learning a language: either Chinese or English. Yay! We should all be impressed at what these kids accomplish.
• #5: Language learning is developmental, and all kids learn at different rates: You can’t force it to go faster. It’s like learning to walk. You can pick a child up and try to make him stand, but if he’s not ready to walk, he won’t do it and you can’t make him do it! It doesn’t mean he’s not as smart as another student, it just means he’s at a different developmental stage. Getting an English tutor and sending a child to weekend English lessons will not help him learn the language any faster. In fact, it may slow down the process if he is getting too much information for his brain to process. Learning to read is a good example: Many parents say to us, “My child is bringing home books that are too easy.” And that may seem true when your child can read all the words very easily. But we want your child to not only read all the words but also understand the story, be able to retell the story in his own words, talk about the characters and the main events in the story, make connections between the story and his own life and otherwise think critically about literature.
• #6: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) are language skills needed in social situations. It is the day-to-day language needed to interact socially with other people. English language learners use these skills when they are on the playground, in the lunch room, on the school bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone. Social interactions are usually context embedded. They occur in a meaningful social context. They are not very demanding cognitively. The language required is not specialized. These language skills usually develop within six months to two years after arrival in the U.S. Problems arise when teachers and administrators think that a child is proficient in a language when they demonstrate good social English.
• #7: CALP refers to formal academic learning. This includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing about subject area content material. This level of language learning is essential for students to succeed in school. Students need time and support to become proficient in academic areas. This usually takes from five to seven years. Recent research (Thomas & Collier, 1995) has shown that if a child has no prior schooling or has no support in native language development, it may take seven to ten years for ELLs to catch up to their peers. Academic language acquisition isn't just the understanding of content area vocabulary. It includes skills such as comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating, and inferring. These tasks are context reduced. The language also becomes more cognitively demanding. New ideas, concepts and language are presented to the students at the same time. Experts also believe that there is a common underlying proficiency. Skills, ideas and concepts students learn in their first language will be transferred to the second language.
• #9: Point out the tip of the iceberg. Kids can trick us when they are strong in these areas: they sound fluent. BUT they don’t yet have the skills to succeed in school without additional language support. Our goal is to develop students who are both fluent (able to express their message) and accurate (express the message using correct structure and syntax). The CALP language is not something that can be developed with rote memorization and copying sentences off the board. This involves critical thinking skills that call on students to analyze information, find connections between literature and their own lives, understand not just how to do math equations but also how to use math to solve real-world problems. These are skills for the 21st-century workforce. The language is difficult, and it gets even more challenging with each grade level.
• #11: Just read the slide
• #12: Read slide. Many kids are very nervous about making mistakes. I often hear them say they’ll get in trouble at home if they miss any questions on a test. A couple years ago, a student told me his mother would beat him with a stick for every answer he got wrong on a pre-test on verbs. It’s essential that these children hear the same message at school and at home: TRY! Even if you’re not sure of the exact words or grammar to use, try to communicate in English! Even if you are nervous about your pronunciation, try your best to say what’s on your mind! Then SOMETIMES – not every time – offer gentle corrections or feedback to help the child correct his mistakes. I JUST CAN’T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH!! The kids who are most successful in English are those who take risks and learn from their mistakes. Talk about Alex.
• #13: Have them form into grade level groups (if not done already). Explain that we have taken note of some common concerns that have come up in the parent/teacher conference. While we have ideas, we are aware that they as well have tactics at home that have been successful. Take a few minutes to chart down some things that have worked in response to those concerns. Explain that we will collect these charts and type up their ideas to post on our blogs. Give them a few minutes to discuss. Then mention just a few or our points/ideas: 1. Can’t change character – is your child shy in his/her native language? 2. Engage them in activities where there is high interest – they will tend to speak more about the subject they are passionate about. 3. Set them up with after school play dates with children whose only common language is English.
• #14: 1. Camps 2. Summer school programs 3. Play dates
• #15: 1. While reading in English should be a party of their daily activities at home, keep in mind that a base in their native language is crucial to language acquisition. 2. Even if they are able to read and reluctant to read in their NL, you the parent continue to read to your child in their NL. 3. Provide them with books in their native language. 4. Check out books, that are in your native language, together from the library. Then lead the presentation into Rosemary’s part.
• #17: Read slide.