Yesterdays assignment: Back to Kindergarten (20 kids).
This job was pretty easy even though a good half of the kids did not speak English as a first language. I was subbing ½ of a K-team with Mr. H. This class even has a long term aid and an ESL language aid to help out.
Four people for 20 kids really does lighten the work day.
The difference in language and reading skills in different schools in the same district was demonstrated in this class.
Mr. H. explained that most if not all of these kids in this class did not have the benefit of the pre-school experience.
I would say that at least 25% of these kids did not speak English. Fortunately, Mr. H is bilingual in Spanish and at least one of the kids can translate for the newest immigrant from Vietnam.
This was their first experience with the “school routine” and it was definitely evident compared to the “country club” Kindergarten.
Mr. H said the Vietnamese boy is picking up Spanish AND English pretty fast from his classmates.
1 comment:
This diversity of language in the classroom, not to mention economic and intellectual diversities, makes public education a real challenge ... and one BIG difference from private schools. Sounds like the district is doing its' job with these kids with so much classroom support. A while back, the statistics was a quarter million increase in school population with EL kids over 5 years. Definitely, a real need here.
Post a Comment