New student from a Russian orphanage

[esldreamer]

I teach ESL in a 3rd-6th grade school. I'm finishing my first year right now. Most of my students have Spanish as their first language and I speak Spanish which has proven very helpful, especially for my beginners.
I found out that I will be getting a new student from a Russian orphanage who was adopted by a family in my district. He is 10 going on 11. I don't know what grade level they are going to put him in. He has no English and we were told that he already started drinking and smoking in the orphanage.
My main questions are: What can I expect from him behaviorally and academically when he arrives? I don' know much about Russian orphanages, but from what I've heard, they are not very nices places to grow up. Also, does anyone know any good resources for students whose L1 is Russian? I don't know anything about the language, like what parts of English will be hard for him?
I will appreciate any information you think would be useful to help me help him. Thanks so much, in advance.

[Sally Olsen]

I know this particular student and he has registered in the genius range in intelligence tests. He is bright, sensitive, creative, warm and loving. He has bonded closely with orphanage staff and they were very reluctant to see him go because he was a real help with other children, particularly those coming from very deprived backgrounds. The staff were happy to see that he had a chance with a family though and know that the family they picked are ideally suited to promote his talents and abilities and will love him like their own son. For the first time he has the chance to participate in a school with other children and they are confident that he will learn English quickly as he is excellent is his own language. He has learned certain behaviours from others in the orphanage in order to fit in and create a community but will equally adapt to your school as he a natural leader and will be a fine example to the students of his age group. He seeks out others who want excellence and it will be tremendously rewarding for you to teach him as you will see him grow and progress quickly. Just explain to him how things work in this school and he will catch on quickly. You can do this through pictures, get someone to translate initially and for the rest smile and show him what "good" students are doing. Get him to teach you something of his language as he is a patient teacher. Get to know him as a person and he will be a friend for life.

[esldreamer]

Sally,
Thank you for your reply but I do not believe that we are talking about the same student. My student is moving from Russia to New York to learn English. Regarding the Spanish, I was just mentioning that most of the ESL population in my district have a first language of Spanish, but I am teaching them all English.
I will be meeting this student tomorrow and I am excited and anxious at the same time. I would still love to hear from other people regarding what to expect and advice about how to help him. He will be entering a class of beginner ESL students who have been in NY for the whole school year and have learned to read and have learned a lot of vocabulary. I don't even know if this boy knows the English alphabet.

Thanks again to all, in advance.

[massesl]

Hi,
A number of years ago I taught a child who was adopted from Russian orphanages. The first one had already been here a year by the tie I started working here. She spoke English "fluently" (I put that in quotes b/c it was the typical case of superficially sounding like a native speaker, but when you go deeper, no higher level, cognitive type language). She had already lost all of her Russian, as she was living with an American family that spoke no Russian. So, she was in a situation of having no true proficiency in any language. Her previous education was poor in the orphanage and we'd heard she'd been a little wild. Unfortunately the parents were too laid back, and so just acted wild at home. but at school she was well behaved. anyway, her first year of school here, she did well, and everyone was so impressed as she was learning so quickly(being immersed in English) but as you know this is just BICS. The following year she just totally fell backwards in reading and writing and made little progress. Apparently, this is typical when these kids are adopted. It's a wonderful thing these adoptive parents do, but I have found the adoption agencies don't prepare them for all the issues that can come up, especially the academic issues when they lose their first language (which probaly wasn't good to begin with) before fully acquiring the 2nd langauge. also, with Russian children, they have such a restrictive educational environment, that they can be totally confused by what seems like "no rules" in the American classroom.
Also, be forewarned when dealing with American parents, if you are used to just dealing with immigrant parents. They think they know more about teaching than you do and won't be afraid to tell you and they can be very demanding. Oh, and look out for other issues - attachment issues, sensory issues - I had these issues with a child adopted from a different eastern european country.

[esldreamer]

Thanks massesl for your insight. Any information anyone can give me is helpful. The boy arrived to school yesterday. He seems interested in making friends, and the other children are very interested in learning about him. They all want to be his friend and see what he's doing and the teachers have to ask the other students to back-off a little because they're always crowding him.
I found out that they changed his name when he came here, so today I'm helping him learn to write his first name. He has joined my class of beginners (who all speak Spanish, but are slowly learning English). Today we labeled the classroom in English and Russian to teach him some words of the things around him. (I used an online translator to get the translations - he seemed to agree with all of them - I know the translators are not very reliable) There are only 2 more weeks left of school. I don't know what exactly I should do with him. I feel like he can't just jump into what the other beginners are doing because they have already advanced. Anyone have any suggestions? I think he knows the English alphabet, but I don't know if he can use it to read. Help!

Thank you all, in advance.

[Lorikeet]

It sounds like you got a great start. I think in two weeks you can't expect to achieve a lot in terms of testable language learning, but giving him a good experience, showing him the school cares, having the other students respect him, etc., will do a lot to help him want to return to school the following semester. Remember, he'll be getting a lot of English practice at home too. Just do your best and keep the atmosphere friendly and inviting, is my advice.

[esldreamer]

Thanks Lorikeet. I know that I can't really accomplish everything that I want to with him in the last two weeks of school, I guess I'm just in denial. I wish I could spend more time with him during the day to work with him. He's pretty independent though. He's participating in class, especially with math.
Today we made "Fruit Salad" in my class. I put the ingredients and recipe on chart paper and the other students were reading it and following the directions. The new student, "John," learned the names of some fruits and "fork" and "knife" etc. On Monday I'm going to have the other kids do a shared writing about what we did to prepare the fruit salad. I don't know if I should have him copy what we write, or maybe just draw and label a picture of what we made. Any advice?
Thanks to all for your input. I appreciate all of it and please keep it coming! This is my first year teaching ESL and I love it, but I'm definitely open to any ideas and suggestions.

[Lorikeet]

Maybe you can see if he wants to draw a picture of what you did, so he will illustrate the story that the others are putting together?

[esldreamer]

Thanks for the idea, Lorikeet. I did that and it worked well, but he finished much before the others were finished writing what we did. Any ideas for what he can do after illustrating, for the next time we do something like that?

I was also wondering if anyone can tell me what I should expect to be able to accomplish with him in the last week and a half of school. His adopted parents told me that they hope he will be able to communicate much better in English by September, and I think they're hoping for a little too much. The boy just arrived to this country about 2 weeks ago, and he is definitely in his "silent period." I don't know if I should explain the process of second language acquisition to them, or just let them find out for themselves.

Thanks!

[Lorikeet]

If you have time to give him a little extra practice while the others are working, you could try some elementary things that the other student might get bored with. Numbers, Colors, Clothes, Following directions, etc.

[EH]

I love Lorikeet's suggestions.

I was also thinking--usually your job is to prepare the kids to access the curriculum in their regular education classrooms, right? But there won't be class for the next few months. So probably it's best to prepare the boy to access his environment this summer. Maybe you could talk to the parents and see what activities are planned for the summer, if any. What will he have to do, talk about, ask about, and understand?

Also, other Survival English basics are always useful. Things like:
-I want/please give me
-please/thank you/excuse me
-don't do that/stop it/cut it out
-I'm hungry/sleepy/thirsty/tired/angry/homesick
-I like it/don't like it
-help me
-what/where/who/when/why

Good luck!
-EH

[esldreamer]

Thanks EH and Lorikeet. You both have been very helpful. Your latest suggestion, EH, is a very good idea. I will see this boy once a week for two hours over the summer in "summer school," so hopefully I'll be able to help him a little more there too.