Mainstreaming Program---HELP!
Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:09 am
Hi,
I may soon be the head of an ESL department at a school that is starting a mainstreaming program. I have a lot of experience teachign EFL, but this is my first time at mainstreaming.
The school is made up of children from various countries in Asia. Maybe 25% use English as their main language of communication. Class are held in English and Chinese. A lot of children speak English or Indonesian outside of class. The teachers would like to them to speak English or Mandarin whenever they are at school. The students range from early middle school to late high school.
My job would be to take Indonesian and Korean speaking students, and possibly some other speakers, and teach them English so that they leave my program in about 9 months and are able to function normally in the classroom. The idea is to make class materials out of texts they are using in their other classes.
I need any ideas you can throw at me. If you were in this situation, how would you teach these children? How would you divide up the grades?
I am thinking of making activities out of classroom texts, adding a grammar and vocab component and giving projects. One idea I am thinking of is something I heard at a fluency reading presentation, but never tried: have the students keep a notebook with English notes or pictures of words they have learned in their reading. You grade based on their finishing their assignments.
I am trying to think of fair ways to test them for midterms and finals. This is tough. I could test on grammar and vocab I have already taught. The problem with this, and a lot of ESL/EFL testing is that you aren't dealing with students on a level playing field, since some will no more English than others.
Has anyone ever done a mainstreaming program before? Could you share your ideas with me? If you haven't, and you have some ideas, please share those as well. Assume you ahve agreat deal of freedom to set up the program. What would you do?
I may soon be the head of an ESL department at a school that is starting a mainstreaming program. I have a lot of experience teachign EFL, but this is my first time at mainstreaming.
The school is made up of children from various countries in Asia. Maybe 25% use English as their main language of communication. Class are held in English and Chinese. A lot of children speak English or Indonesian outside of class. The teachers would like to them to speak English or Mandarin whenever they are at school. The students range from early middle school to late high school.
My job would be to take Indonesian and Korean speaking students, and possibly some other speakers, and teach them English so that they leave my program in about 9 months and are able to function normally in the classroom. The idea is to make class materials out of texts they are using in their other classes.
I need any ideas you can throw at me. If you were in this situation, how would you teach these children? How would you divide up the grades?
I am thinking of making activities out of classroom texts, adding a grammar and vocab component and giving projects. One idea I am thinking of is something I heard at a fluency reading presentation, but never tried: have the students keep a notebook with English notes or pictures of words they have learned in their reading. You grade based on their finishing their assignments.
I am trying to think of fair ways to test them for midterms and finals. This is tough. I could test on grammar and vocab I have already taught. The problem with this, and a lot of ESL/EFL testing is that you aren't dealing with students on a level playing field, since some will no more English than others.
Has anyone ever done a mainstreaming program before? Could you share your ideas with me? If you haven't, and you have some ideas, please share those as well. Assume you ahve agreat deal of freedom to set up the program. What would you do?