Newcomers esl program

And while I am still working on it, I wanted to share the process of creating a newcomer curriculum guide and the steps that I am taking in case you would like to try it yourself. It is nothing more and nothing less than a plan on how you will teach a particular course. It also allows for planning out the units to come. A curriculum map is just that — a map. It is not a full and rigid curriculum but rather a live document that follows the students and gives flexibility to the teacher.

Having it, however, provides the much-needed clarity in teaching newcomers. It outlines the essential questions, objectives, and standards you want your students to meet. Moreover, it will give you an idea of what activities you can incorporate and what vocabulary to use as well as the grammar and phonics points to cover.

Creating a consistent curriculum guide has been on my mind for some time. But I did not know where to start or how to proceed… Can you relate? After some research, which I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, I decided to ask myself three questions:. There are several steps involved in creating a curriculum guide and I will outline them below. Ask yourself the following questions:. These are good anchors for your teaching. Your curriculum guide should be a document that you can refer to any time and be able to tell what you need to do next.

You should also be able to tweak it as you go. You can start by creating a spreadsheet or a table in a document and decide how many fields you will need. I use Google Docs for that. Here is an example of how you can format it:. Unit topic, timeline how long do you think it will take you to teach this? Now that you have a rough plan on what you need to cover, it is time to collect the materials.

There are tons of great resources out there. I am not going to go over all of them here, but if you are interested, check out my recommendations page. That is my process for helping both my newcomers and myself…. I have created a template that you can download and follow when you are creating your own curriculum map. I am also in the process of creating a full curriculum guide that would help walk you through the first year of teaching newcomers.

Subscribe below to download the template and the first unit for grades Creating the roadmap So yes, I have begun creating one myself. The purpose of the Elementary Newcomer ESL program is to provide a specially designed curriculum that helps acculturate recent immigrant English learners to their new country, new school, and new language within a safe, supportive environment.

Newcomer courses are offered at all comprehensive middle schools. Students will be enrolled in core courses that support the academic and the learning of the English language.

All content area teachers have been highly trained with second language acquisition best practice. It is the goal of the year-long ELD course to provide target linguist instruction in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing so that ELs are equipped to use English as a means of learning content in mainstream courses and ongoing support so that ELs internalize and practice the second language in a safe learning environment.

Students will be enrolled in core courses that support their learning of the English language.