I think the school acted poorly in this situation..and caused an innocent child to miss out on her education..

Question

What do you think.....comments? whatever???
OK. There was a girl who was adopted from Colombia a few months before school started. She barely knew English. On the first day of class..the 4th grade teacher got a big surprise..challenge! How could she teach this girl math, science, etc. ? The school did not offer an assistant/translator and did not seem to care that this girl would be getting so far behind in other course work while she mean while learned her new language. My mother worked at the same school and immediately called me...the Spanish major...to help when she heard about it. I went in to translate a few days a week for a couple of hours when I did not have class. The principal saw me in there helping a few times and never said anything. After a couple of months my job kept me from helping the teacher out. The girl was fully capable:after I explained in Spanish she could do it. The school never offered me a position and never got the girl help.

she must be so behind in math, science...because she had to learn English first. Do you think the school should have hired someone for her?

ok for some people that have thick heads...SHE WAS ADOPTED AND IS LEARNING ENGLISH BUT YOU DON'T LEARN OVER NIGHT!!!

Answer 1

It really depends on the school district and its policies. Many people do truly believe that by getting a translater for a child who does not know english it will hold that child back from learning english quickly. It is an ongoing battle and many people feel strongly on both sides of the issue.

Answer 2

With all due respect... its too ******* expensive to pay for a ******* interpretor for every ******* immigrant. Perhaps if their original countries (or in this case the adopted parents) pick up the tab it is reasonable.

She will learn english rapidly. She will fall behind a bit but with hard work catch up.

I have met people from certain countries (usually china) that have a grade 2 english and exceed in math (asides from word problems) more so than the regular students.

This may not be the answer you wanted.... but its reality which you are out of touch with.

And yes... i am a teacher.

ADDED

In Ontario the students get ESL help for 3 years after joining.... but it DOES NOT include a translator. HOWEVER one is provided if they cant have one for teacher interviews, i.e.p meetings etc.

Answer 3

Here in Arizona it is illegal to have pull out ESL classes anymore. In this state if we hired a person for every child that came in not knowing English that would be about 15 assistant per class AT LEAST. School funds are just too limited.
Our alternative at our school is to offer a "Welcome Room" the kids are in one classroom for 4 hours a day receiving instruction in English with emphasis on survival English and vocabulary. This class is only for students who have been in the country for less than a year and do not speak any English at all.
And by the way, not speaking English is not a disability!

Answer 4

Its not really clear where in the US you are from, but if that student were in a school in southern california, this is what would happen:
She could be part of a new comers program for students that don't know any English (Varies from district to district and even school to school). Funding has made it harder for those kinds of programs.

She would be with a teacher that has special certification that she can teach and English Language Learner (ELL) and receive 30 minutes daily of pure English Language Development (ELD)

The state of california now mandates that teachers have this certification as part of their credential program.

Most bilingual aides that could help kids like this one on one are not being rehired because of No Child Left Behind...reason why is because they are requiring an AA. That's not a bad thing but in our district they are only offering 3 hour positions sometimes...who in their right mind will take that job if you have an AA?

The principal in a sense COULD have hired you...if that school has funding for it or the district does. The principal maybe never even consider it if this school is not one with many ELL students. Sadly, the schools that do the most for ELL students are the ones that have a lot of them. If ELL students go to school with few ELL's, it becomes harder to teach them (which seems like what this students is going through).

Depending on how proficient she is in Spanish. If she is proficient, she will fine. If we had a bilingual program running like back in the day, 4th grade is where most students transfer over to English anyways...but they will be going into a transition program.

If she is not very proficient in her native language...that's where the problem will arise.

All students learning a new language go through phases.
Phase 1 students will be quiet for the first couple of months...doesn't mean they are just sitting there... they are learning! At this phase, they are like a sponge, soaking all this confusing language in. Don't expect kids at this stage to say much

Phase 2 kids: Begin to talk in more complete, simple sentences. They say many gramatically incorrect sentences, but they are over the quiet stage. They begin to use their home language to sound out words. Kids at this level will spell the, da and will have a lot of short vowel confusion

Phase 3 kids: can have a conversation with you and is beginning to understand academic lessons, but may need many visuals (all phases will, but at this phase, visuals make the big difference in instruction). Need a lot of vocabulary instruction

Phase 4: On the outside, appear to be ready for english instruction. But when looking at them academically, they are still lacking oral language development and just academic language.

Try to preteach the student as much as possible. Before reading a story, do a picture walk and go over as much vocabulary as possible. At first she will just be listening...being quiet doesn't mean she is not learning.

I know that the teacher is concerned about other core subjects...you will be surprised how much they pick up, particularly in math. Use a lot of manipulatives, which helps all other students anyways.

Don't expect her to learn everything at once...remember that learning English takes a good 3-4 years...the older the student the harder it will be.

My cousins came to the US when they were about that age...they learned English in no time :)

The best way to teach her if you will be translating is to tell her about the lesson in her native language before the lesson. If she knows what's coming up, she will pay more attention. If she waits until you will translate for her, she may not pay attention because she will wait for you. This may be harder to do because you need to plan more carefully with teacher, but its food for thought.
Phase 5: Ready for an all english classroom.

Answer 5

There is something wrong with that. You should try and search some information in the "No Child Left Behind Act", which explains inclusion (of special ed kids, or kids with learning disabilies, or english as a second language etc..) of kids into the regular classroom. It should say something about that. If not, go to the school district and state your case because she may not be the only one with that "problem".

Answer 6

That's a tough one, school's are on a budget, and I can't see them hiring someone special just for one girl. HOWEVER, they do have to accomodate someone who has a disability. At the very least they should have offered some kind of resource for the girl to take an ESL class somewhere. Kind of sad they just threw her into classes with her not understanding, kinda setting her up for failure.

Answer 7

If this is in the United States then what they were doing was illegal. They have to provide for her and a translator for her. It is not fair and sounds like someone was trying to save money. All you need to do is contact the school board about it. Or you can even try calling the state and reporting them.

Answer 8

They should have ESL classes, if not sue the school district.

Yes, I'm correct because of all the bleeding heart liberals we have to teach every child in their own language, they don't have to learn ours.

Answer 9

I would suggest advising the mother to look into the 'reasonable accomodations' laws..

Answer 10

How about going back to her country to learn?