6th grader with K5 skills in his L1

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:06 pm

Thank God for basketball. This student wants to be on the team, and since the Spanish teacher, other bilingual aide and I aren't coaches or there to translate, he has to learn English to know when practice is and the games are. He also has to do well enough to participate. We realize that he can't be at the same standards academically as the others, but at least he's putting in more effort.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:14 pm

He wants to start participating more in class. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, if I can only get him to be confident enough with his pronunciation to raise his hand earlier, and not have other students around us steal my translated answers.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:29 pm

In science, we did some activities to see how the brain works, if you're left or right brained, etc. In one activity, we had to time each other doing four things. 1- say the alphabet, 2- write our whole name, 3- rewrite a sentence that was on the board, and 4- say the months in order. He doesn't know the months in order. He also said he only went to school for one year, which didn't surprise me so much, but not knowing the months? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:00 pm

I bet he knows the seasons though and where to get food in each season or where to sleep and who has the biggest and best trash barrel. He will have learned a lot on the streets but we never use this information in schools. If he survived for as long as you say he did, he knows a lot, somethings we probably wouldn't want a child to know. If you think about it, the alphabet and months of the year, even time is such an abstract concept and not really practical unless you are in a capitalistic world that needs things on time, on a certain date and so on. I bet he is "missing" a whole bunch of information that most kids have picked up from school or from parents reading and talking to him. He probably doesn't know fairy tales, or the lastest historical events or songs that little kids learn and all these are in our literature so he will have a hard time reading and understanding books. If you could value his street experience in some way, that would give him confidence to tackle what he missed and is easily learned.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed May 09, 2007 6:50 pm

He's doing homework at home!!!!!

I know that it's just posters about invertabrates for science, and recruitment for the Civil War in history and we did the rough drafts in class or I gave him what to copy because I was gone one day, but still this is a big improvement. He also recognized a classmate's name when an assignment was left on his desk!

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:44 am

Thanks for keeping us up to date, Senorita Daniels. It looks like he's made a lot of progress from where he started. He is lucky to have you.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Thu May 10, 2007 4:06 pm

Amen to that.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:15 pm

I was away for a year to get certified as an ESL teacher. UW Madison has a seven class program for that, even undergrads can recieve it. I wish I knew that when I was still in school. Anyway, as I posted in another thread recently, I'll be teaching him and another ninth grader who moved to the district while I was gone civics/ government for a semester, and math for a year. From what I've heard, he's been suspended for stealing, and still won't speak English, although his proficency test shows that he understands. I don't know how his reading/ writing skills are.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:08 pm

9th grade has been going well so far for him. Unfortunately, his little brother is in 6th grade and becoming a problem. He tells me to move when I'm writing something on the board for him and his 2 new classmates to copy so he can see it. I just keep writing. I know that if I stop, and he'll complain that he has to wait to see the rest. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, 'it'll pass. next year will be better, since it was with his brother.' But what should I do until then?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:22 pm

You could write what you have to get them to copy on an overhead if you have a machne and then it will be done beforehand so he can't complain. Or you could do like they do in Greenland and only the students write on the board usually from a dictation that the teacher orally says.

What are you writng on the board? Could it be coped from a paper instead? What do the students learn by copying? Do you say the words as you write them on the board? How much of the board do you use?

I used to have questions on the board for a reading passage done before the students were in the room. I always write key phrases on the board as I talk, especially names or words I anticipate they will have trouble spelling or distinguishing from words they already know. I draw things that might help them understand but I have rarely had them copy anything.

I did copy when I was in school (40 years ago) and had a notebook to study at home so I suppose it was useful but then our school got textbooks for almost every subject and we didn't need to copy. The main thing we copied from the board was answers for questions that students would be called up to put on the board.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:02 pm

They copy answers for the assignments in other classes. I feel like one is definately just waiting for the other two to answer, so he can copy the answers. Then he doesn't write them down. All of a sudden, he realizes that he's three or four questions behind then has to grab someone else's sheet to copy everything from the others. It frustrates me too, but I don't have the time to work one on one with each of them to get the work done.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:29 pm

The student I started this thread about is now skipping school. I called the fourth day he missed, and his grandma sent him a couple of hours later. The next day, he didn't come, and I had to call home again. His home phone is a cell, and grandma was at work. I asked where he was, and we could send someone to get him. He fell and hurt his leg at work, and that's the reason we got for him not coming to school. He does have a limp, but that's not a reason for not coming to school. We had a kid who needed a wheelchair for a couple of days and still came to school.
As to his little brother who's in 6th grade- some of his questions the other day make me feel like I need to explain statuatory rape to him. The kids in 6th grade know too much about sex. On the bright side, all of my 6th graders made honor roll last quarter.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:14 pm

Sounds like you have lost him to the working world. Unless you can convince him that he will make more money with an education, I imagine the lure of cash will win over struggling through his studies.

You could try to point him to other forms of education - night classes, an alternative school, a mentor.

He was lucky to have you in his life for as long as he has. It is rare that someone really cares.

Congratulations on helping your students to get on the honour role.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:35 pm

We don't have any night classes or an alternative school. I'm pretty sure we lost him too. I hope I haven't lost grandma's trust, especially since we still have the younger student for six more years. He's one of those on the honor roll list that I mentioned before. He's on the high honors list. I made sure that I got copies for each of the students when the list was printed in the school newsletter. THey were all happy about that, even the lazy one. My other high school student is more contientius about his work. We had a conversation last week about truancy and child labor laws. He asked about working in the summer, and that's fine. It's just during the school year that studnets need to be in school.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:46 pm

Bad news. Not long after my 9th grader came to second hour, the school liason officer came in to talk to him and wanted me to come to his office to translate. Another student saw him taking things from another student's locker. He came late to school, which isn't a reason to get the officer in the room, but that's a good cover if someone who doesn't know which locker is his goes past. He's being taken to a group home. Hopefully he can get straightened out. Grandma came in later to talk to me about what is going on. She must have heard a rumor about him being taken away, because if someone had called her, they probably would have given her some more information.