new student having trouble adjusting

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:17 pm

I have a first grader (girl, very nice, friendly) who has at least gotten sick from not being able to understand what is going on in class. The first few days, I was with her most of the time, but I later had to start helping other students. The others have been here at least one semenster, so the first days things were understandable/ things they already knew, so I could focus on settling her in. Now, even though she has started understanding some English, can repeat a few numbers and common phrases, she is having a problem. We have a bilingual student next to her to help out, but we know we can't rely soley on him most of the day. Another problem is that in her old school in Mexico, she didn't learn the alphabet and letter sounds, so she's that much farther behind the others. Any suggestions?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:01 pm

Get someone to explain the process of learning to her in her own language. Unless there is something wrong, she will probably fit in by the time she is in grade two so everyone needs to relax and just let it happen. In meantime, she just has to absorb as much English as she can stand each day and then work on her Spanish the rest of the time. She can work with a tape recorder and a Spanish textbook to learn her alphabet, numbers and then read simple books. If you can get her a tutor - a grandmother, a retired teacher, etc. to work with her on the Spanish, she will go much faster in the English as well. If she doesn't learn her Spanish easily though, I would get her tested.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:21 am

The problem with getting a tutor is that I'm the tutor. The school just had a referendom pass, and I don't the board will get a second tutor. I've been sticking to the English names of letters in class, since that's what everyone else in her class knows them by. She has said a letter name or two in Spanish, and we don't mind that. She can count to 7 for sure, sometimes higher in Eng. The main teacher knows some numbers in Span., so this isn't a big problem. I guess that our main concern is that we don't have enough Spanish resources to teach any student in their native language. (700 or so students in the district.) The English- only kids talk to her in English, as if she knows it. I don't think that she has any learning disabilities, so that isn't going to be a problem. This will definately take a lot of time, but the two older kids will have WKCE tests later this year, which is a big reason why I'm away from this girl. This test's scores are the ones that are used for NCLB. The younger kids that I have didn't speak much English in 4 year old kindergarten, so I want to try and help them before they get into a higher grade.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:16 pm

I guess I meant a volunteer. Someone who won't cost the board any money. Can you tell what the name of the tests are? I don't recognize those initials. You just need to go to your local library to get resources in Spanish. Dora the Explorer stuff is partly in Spanish and there are books and videos. You can encourage your local library to build up their Spanish book, tapes and video section too as they can get money from different sources than the school board. Ask parents for old books and get the kids to make books with a digatel camera and lots of imagination. The books can have Spanish and English writing underneath the pictures. Make out a wish list and pass it to any school board official you see and tell them you need these things to do your job better. Bring it up at parent meetings and go to board budget meetings. There are people all over the world in the same situation and you can join organizations that support people like you who really care beyond the classroom. They share their successful strategies in getting programs established for kids who need extra help. Don't elect a conservative government though - they cut these programs it seems. We just had 17 billion dollars taken out of our adult literacy programs by the Conservative government - if the parents don't read, it is pretty sure that many of their kids won't either.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:31 pm

WKCE is Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Enamination. It is required by the state, and the federal government uses the results of this to see if we're living up to the standards of NCLB. Other states may use other tests for NCLB. She has started to pick up some words. She can write her parent's first names without prompting or copying. She also knows a few more words in English than before. I plan on buying some more easy readers in Spanish. We already have some, but it's a small amount and we could start with that before seeing if our public library can borrow some books from Appleton's. (they probably have some books in Spanish)

My main concern for posting here is her self esteem and adjusting to a new school in a new country. She feels alone at times because she doesn't understand everything in class, and this is her main problem. She's a wonderful girl, very smart and sweet, but it has been a rough adjustment for her.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:21 pm

We can all sympathize. It is hard when you go to a new place for any reason and when it probably wasn't her choice, it is even harder. I would let her draw as much as possible to tell you how she feels about her situation and then try to write down a word or two under the picture that tells about the picture to build up her own book. I would also take pictures of her in every situation in the school from sitting quietly at her desk, to writing on the board, to taking out a book at the library and write underneath what she is doing in Spanish and English. I would try to be careful and think of the steps that she would need to do that she might not be familiar with - for example, in the library, what aisle does she have to go to to get the Spanish picture books, how does she line up to check her book out, what does the librarian say to her, what does she have to fill out, where is she going to put te book and how she going to take care of it until she returns it, if she takes it home how will she carry it carefully, where will she put it at home so it is safe and who will read it with her (for this you would have to lend her a cheap camera or go with her after school one day with the parent's permission) and so on. All these actions for taking out a book or doing anything else in school that she is not used to doing are called Social Practices and must be learned. She has to learn to watch others and figure out what is acceptable and valued in your situation and the more you can break it down to tiny steps for her, the better she will get at it and then feel more in control. Allowing her not to like her situation will really help her though in however you can do that.

Senorita Daniels · Post by **Senorita Daniels** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:13 pm

She has plenty of classmates willing to help her too. One day, I had to snatch a pencil out of a boy's hand so he wouldn't write the answer for her.