QUESTION: What would you do the first days of school with your ESL students?

[Kimberly Hawks]

So I am starting at a brand new school this year--teaching 7th grade English--when I have been doing high school Social Studies and English. So a bit of an adjustment as it is.  Then I found out on Friday that I have a period of ESL. I haven't taught ESL before, and I don't have any collegiate background with it either.  School starts Wednesday and I'm like--what the heck do I do the first day? Especially when the guidance counselor says that there are a few students who don't speak any English. So, I turn to you guys for any help/guidance/ideas/commiseration that I will survive this.  Anything would be great!

[Joan Axthelm]

Dear Lord! This does not sound fair to any of you.  However, we soldier on...

So the first key to teaching ESL is comprehensible input, i.e. making meaning with things other than simply words. So pictures, gestures, activities, routines.

I don't know what kind of data you have on your ESL students, but that might be worth looking into.  What standardized assessment does your district use to measure English proficiency? Knowing this might help you understand what kinds of input would be understandable.  Also, it is important to keep in mind that language is learned through four modalities: Listening first, then speaking, then reading, then writing. So you will probably notice that the more seasoned students have higher scores in listening and speaking than in reading and writing.  The most proficient students will likely have the highest scores in all four modalities.

Once you have a sense of your students' proficiencies, you can think about what kind of input would be most helpful. 

One way to get a sense of proficiencies is to have an instruction following activity.  A classic one is making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Give a direction verbally and see who responds, then give it again while doing the instruction as a visual clue. See who can follow that. Finally, for those who have still have confusion, give face to face directions while showing them the action, undo it, and ask them to do it again.

Once you have a sense of listening proficiency, ask students to give the directions again themselves either in pairs or a small group and listen for speaking proficiency.

Next, ask students to read a recipe for the sandwich and compare to the process you created. You can ask for the comparison in writing or verbally.  Either way, ask for the students to write their own version of the recipe to get a sense of their writing skills.

Notice that I included an emphasis on all four modalities in this activity - this is important in ESL instruction as students need practice in all four.

Here is a copy of WIDA's Can Do descriptors for middle school. These aren't standards, but examples of what to expect from different language proficiencies.  WIDA also has Speaking and Writing Rubrics and a set of Standards that you might find helpful (if not a bit overwhelming!).  There are a bunch of other resources to guide instruction on the WIDA webpage, as well.  Most states in the U.S. have adopted this model.

I hope this gets you started. Feel free to ask any other questions!

Yours,

Joan