ESL Updates
You are invited to attend the ESL Celebration on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at Chaparral High School. This is a FUN, INCREDIBLE evening. Please click on the following link to see invitation this invitation. Your son or daughter are working hard on creating a poem and art project to display at the celebration. We look forwarding to celebrating an amazing year of academic growth for your child. Hope to see you there!
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October 9th-13th is Fall Break. Please take the time to read with your children in any language you feel comfortable. Make sure you ask some WH questions. Who, what, when and where or how. See if your child can connect with the story or ask why they pick this story. Also, enjoy spending time with your child. Here is an idea of a conversation started jar. Sometimes I have trouble getting my kids to talk, to open up. I found if I start with "different" questions, than, "How was school." we can actually have a conversation. web.kidsactivitiesblog.com/4594/family-conversation-starters. For our students that are new to the English language, try to ask questions in both your native language and in English. (when possible) Remember that are beginning English speakers may not know the word for dog collar or sidewalk. Think of expanding their thinking when it comes to water: we have ponds, lakes, rivers, and creeks. Explain how they are different. We also spent some time on idioms and homophones this week. The students had a lot of fun learning about idioms and how silly they sound. They liked using homophones incorrectly (on purpose) and correcting each other. I've included a couple of fun web-sites for students to go to. www.vocabulary.co.il/idioms/ www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games/homophones-games.html. Enjoy your Fall Break and try to relax.
Here's an article that shows the benefits of speaking a second language. (or maybe a third) www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=0 After, talking with parents tonight at MRMS student led conferences, I wanted to give you an article that supports what I shared tonight. Thank you guys for coming to conferences and I can't wait to see the parents at SVE next week. It is hard to believe the first nine weeks is almost over, October 6th. Fall break starts on October 9th-13th. Time slow down. Enjoy the rest of your September . growingupbilingual.com/2011/latino-parenting/the-importance-of-keeping-your-culture-and-language-alive/
I can already feel Fall in the air with the cooler mornings and evenings. I can honestly say, "Fall is my favorite season."
Our ESL students are in a routine and working hard daily. We are working a lot on reading and focusing on comprehension. As one student stated, "Hearing what the book has to tell you." We have open discussions in the classroom that allows students to share their thoughts on what they have read or reading, any word/phrase they may not understand, and something they found interesting and may want to find more out about the subject. We are also doing a lot of writing. This looks differently between my elementary and middle school students. At the elementary school this early in the year we are focusing on sentence writing and the middle school is focusing on essay writing. We are still focusing in on the same writing mechanics across all levels. We still discuss capital letters at the beginning of the sentence(s) and ending punctuation. How we can expand our writing and use clear thoughts. In middle school we like to say how can we show our reader not just tell our reader. The attached link talks about what English Learners wish their teachers knew. Read and have your child talk to their teacher about what would make them feel more successful in their general education classroom. http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2016/06/17/what-english-language-learners-wish-teachers-knew.html. I work with a great group of students and educators and we are here to support your student and family in any way that we are able. I'm really excited to start a new school year with our students both at Mountain Ridge and Summit View. We have an exciting year studying reading, writing and expanding our knowledge of our community and what it takes to be good citizens.
It is very important for our students to expand their knowledge of the English language while retaining their home language. Our goal at ESL is not for our students to learn English and lose their home language. Being multilingual is a gift. www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/02/multilingual-benefits_n_5399980.html (Article related to benefits of being multilingual) My goal this year is to post weekly updates on my blog in order to provide ideas, articles and websites that are beneficial to you and your family. I will not post class and student's information on this site. If a student needs to make up work at elementary level I will give them the work during our meeting time. My middle school students have access to our Google Classroom account that will show their assignments. We will not have homework in this class. We will complete all assignments during class time. I'm here to support your child with their learning needs, not just in ESL, but in all their content areas. I look forward to getting to know your family this year and working with your child(ren). We have had an amazing start to our school year. I have enjoyed getting to know your child(ren) and look forward to working with them. |
AuthorMrs. Shives ESL Teacher K-8th grade MRMS & SVE Archives
March 2018
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