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Simply Ieva

Episode 45 – You asked – We answer! December 2022 Question and Answer

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In this episode, I do another ESL question and answer session with my dear friend Susan Patterson, aka My MLL Mentor.

Our first ESL question was from a teacher who was advised to work with elementary students more than older students in middle and high school. She doesn’t feel right about this recommendation and asked us to weigh in. We discuss how this does not sound like an equitable approach. The fact that language takes years to acquire, means that it is even more important to focus on older students who have limited time with us in schools.

ESL Question 2 was, “How do you create an inclusive holiday environment for your students?”

The choices seem to be to not celebrate any holidays or to celebrate all of them. We like to be able to let all students celebrate. We share ways that we learn about each other’s’ holidays and ways to look for connections between the different holidays across the world.

The next ESL question Susan and I discuss is around students struggling with motivation and ability to focus, post pandemic.  Susan and I share some ideas we have to tackle this issue. Susan shares some of the strategies she used to incorporate student interest and incentives into her lessons. I have been trying to kick lessons off with engaging Do Nows that will support students in their core classes.

Our final ESL questions were about newcomers: How do you ensure newcomer students understand you and you understand them? What are some practical tips for supporting newcomers in the mainstream classroom? There are many strategies we have tried. For example, to give directions, use tools like google translate conversation mode; visuals – graphs, maps, charts, gestures. Act things out if you can. Use scaffolds like sentence stems, graphic organizers, and word banks. Use short sentences and point. Pair down the information into the things they absolutely need to know.

What ESL Questions we answer in this episode:

  • Creating an inclusive holiday environment
  • Which age group teachers should work with more
  • Some of the ways and resources to motivate students
  • How to ensure newcomer students understand you and you them
  • Practical tips on how to help newcomers in the mainstream classroom

Resources

As mentioned in the episode, I am linking some useful resources!

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