kirsten
Senior Member
I found out on Friday that I'm getting a new student on Monday who speaks Chinese and very little English. Although I'm certified for ESL, most of my experience is in 8th grade English. I taught ESL for 3 years at a bigger district. There I taught a lesson each day and students came to me other periods to have tests read, extended time, help with projects, etc. At this school we have an ESL teacher who rotates between buildings, so she will see this girl each day and teaches her own lesson - no content support is provided, and she won't be available throughout the day if this little girl needs help with any classwork. The guidance counselor came to me and asked what classes she should be taking given her limited language abilities. She was already schedule for 80 min. with the ESL teacher, Math, Science, Read 180 for 80 minutes, English. They wondered if she should take English twice. I didn't see the point in that and suggested social studies as 8th grade social studies is American history. They said her esl teacher said no because she knows nothing about American history. I said "exactly - that's why she needs to take it because in highschool she will have one year of it and then have to pass a huge state assessment in order to graduate - tough for American kids much less a student who has no background knowledge. I hope I did the right thing. I did suggest they just let her audit the class or take it on a pass/fail so it doesn't bomb her grades. My real question for you is given the situation, do you have any advice for me to help this young lady be successful in our regular classes. She will be the only 8th grade esl student out of 260 kids. ANY advice would be appreciated.