The readings in Gibbons this week really opened my eyes to what it would be like to be an ESL student. They talked a lot about the different types of information and the proper or appropriate writing in each genre. This seems like an immense amount of information for a young ESL student to handle. I mean, we grew up this way…seeing the news, reading magazine articles etc. We know what is expected, even if we don’t actually learn it in school. It’s one of those things which we take for granted and if you’re not in the ESL student’s shoes, I think it is very hard to understand what they go through.
When I really think about it, I feel like there should be a special school for students who are ESL students, even though I know that would be impossible. It just seems that the way our teaching system is set up doesn’t promote ESL learning in any way, shape or form. ESL students need a lot of specialized and one-on-one instruction in order to keep them up to pace with other students. So, we’re back to square one. I do enjoy how Gibbons gives examples about what to do with ESL learners. This book is a keeper for me.
I really enjoyed reading how Mrs. Firpo teaching phonics in her 1st grade classroom. That is one thing that I feel I haven’t been able to touch on in my CT’s classroom(1/2 split). I know that there are at least 3 students who are still having trouble with phonics and therefore are having trouble with reading and writing (obviously). I think that my CT takes more time working on site words because they have to be memorized (according to GLCE’s) rather than working on phonics, because the majority of students do understand phonics. But it’s not working for everyone and some students are still being left behind. I know these students go off to a “reading special” in the afternoon. I’m going to try to follow them this week so that I can see what they are working on.
Overall, I felt that this reading was significantly different than a lot of reading I’ve done for TE. It was insightful and helpful.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I definitely agree, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be an ESL student. There are so many little nuances in language that would be so difficult to learn or understand if you didn't grow up in the particular culture they came from. Learning the basics of a language can be hard enough without having to catch onto context clues or sayings in which you are not familiar with or cannot understand their purpose or meaning. I think it is so hard to teach/learn things that even children who learned English as a first language may have difficulty understanding as the things might be culturally embedded and taken for granted by an English language speaker. In the classroom, it must be so challenging for ESL students to keep up with the work when they are busy trying to figure out what is even being said. It also must be challenging to teachers with ESL students in the classroom to be able to cater to all of the students needs if they are at such different levels.
Post a Comment