Half of K class is ESOL
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Anonymous
| It depends. Do the kids speak English, but it's not their first language, or are they just learning English? |
Anonymous
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I think it depends. Are the ESOL kids pulled out for instruction, or does ESOL come to the class? Do you get the sense that most ESOL kids are close to fluent?
My son was in a K class with a very high ESOL percentage, so the entire class had 2 hours of ESOL each day. Everything outside of ESOL and reading was put to the side for most of the year. The school was open about this. I was surprised by this, but even more surprised by how limited the English level was for many kids. I volunteered and chaperoned throughout the year and found many of the kids almost completely unable to communicate in English. I guess I expected most would be verbally fluent, just needing help with written language. Not so at all. This led to other issues. For one, my son found it hard to make friends because outside of the formal instruction, there was little English spoken. Also, non-ESOL instruction was very limited because so few kids could understand the lessons. Bottom line was we definitely found downsides to a large ESOL population. |
Anonymous
I would be very concerned, precisely for these reasons. |
Anonymous
If you go by name alone (not saying OP is), you may be way off in your assumption. For several months, everything we received from our elementary school was in spanish - we have a spanish last name because of my FIL who was born in Spain but raised in the US. Even though I marked that we spoke english at home, they sent us the spanish copies of everything... had to correct that because I can't read a lick. 
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Anonymous
This has been our experience also. DS found it tough to make friends - though, he did comment that he wanted to take Spanish! And, he did learn some Spanish. And, DH and I found it difficult to build relationships with the other parents. Unfortunately we don't speak Spanish, and the other parents don't speak English, so we can only have a very superficial, polite relationship. Tough to build relationships when you can't communicate! I found this to be a big downside. Talking to parents at other schools, there seemed to be more of a sense of community than what we had. |
Anonymous
OP Here, We are new to the school, so I'm not quite sure how it works in terms of how they get their ESOL instruction. That must have been tough to have the entire class do 2 hours a day of ESOL, that seems like a long time. I realize how amazing kids are with learning language and I would guess that within a few months most kids who don't speak any or limited english will greatly improve their language skills. I guess my main concern was that if half of his class leaves for a good chunk of the day won't that cause a disconnect between the class dynamic as a whole? Again, I am new to K and elementary school so I appreciate your insights! |
Anonymous
| My kids are in a school with a high ESOL rate. The ESOL teacher does both push in and pull out. I agree with the other posters about the social concerns - DS talks about a lot of friends in school, but there isn't a lot of socializing outside. |
Anonymous
| No, it's not a big deal. Sometimes, schools will even have an ESOL teacher as a co-teacher in the higher elementary grades. |
Anonymous
I am an ESOL teacher in MCPS and find this very surprising--two hours of actual ESOL instruction, or 2 hours of instruction by an ESOL teacher? With the start of Curriculum 2.0, there is no more ESOL curriculum. ESOL teachers work to scaffold content material for ESOL students. I find it extremely hard to believe that "everything outside of ESOL and reading" was put to the side. No math? Really? OP, I really don't know what to tell you because it's going to depend on the school and the model. Most schools with high ESOL populations like you describe are moving to a co-teach model, which means the ESOL teacher works with the classroom teacher teaching content, not specific language. Curriculum 2.0 means there is essentially no more ESOL curriculum, so ESOL teachers work with the same content that classroom teachers do. In the early grades especially, an environment rich in oral language benefits ALL students. At my school, every K class has an assigned ESOL teacher, and 10 out of my 14 K students are in ESOL. Most are higher may only be in for 1-2 years, but there are a few beginners. I'm in the classroom for 40 minutes every day, and the classroom teacher and I work together during a whole group lesson, small group oral language and independent work at tables. The content is scaffolded, not dumbed down, for ESOL students. For example, today we did a lesson with the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." We previewed vocabulary, read the book, discussed the descriptive words, acted it out, sang a song, and then focused on verbs. Typical K stuff, ESOL or not. As an ESOL teacher, I really try to emphasize vocabulary and oral language, which is developmentally appropriate for all children in this age group. In upper grades, our model is similar, and most of the kids don't even know whether or not they are in ESOL. A school that uses a pull-out model is going to be different, but it generally means that for part of the day, your child will be in a class with fewer students. Really, most kids are out of ESOL by 3rd grade, and those that are still in either came to this country as children (versus being born here and speaking another language at home) or have other learning issues that interfere with their ability to acquire new language. In K, we might have 8-12 ESOL students per class (of 14-18 total). By 2nd grade, it's more like 6-8 per class, and in 5th grade this year, we have I think 6 in the whole grade. If you're really being sincere about your concerns (which it sounds like you are), go ahead and ask the teacher about the model and how it works in your school. I have a four-year-old, and if we get our way, she will be attending my 60% ESOL elementary school next year. A K class with a high ESOL population DOES have a different dynamic than one that's primarily English-only speakers, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Your child may very well be one that benefits from strategies aimed at reaching diverse learners. |
Anonymous
| If you have 22 kids, it's not a title I school. My experience is that ESOL kids catch up very quickly. The advanced reading group goes from 1-2 kids in K-1, to nearly about 40% in 4-5th. |
Anonymous
| Thank you, PP at 23:06! (I'm not the OP.) |
Anonymous
This is exactly what we found to be true at our school where more than half the kids are ESOL. (Some classes only had a handful of English speakers and the teacher said she had to repeat basic content ad nauseum so that no one would fail.) |
Anonymous
| Gen ed. teachers are not given enough training in ESOL strategies to handle a class with that composition. As a certified teacher, I received little training in in how to help those students and, in reality, the ESOL students are not pulled out for much time at all. |
Anonymous
| what school is this? |
Anonymous
As an ESOL teacher, do you speak Spanish I'm asking because IMO, it makes a huge difference if you are able to speak Spanish. I'm a PP who mentioned that it's been tougher for DS (and DH and I) to build friendships in the same way we would if DS' classmates/families spoke English. If you are able to speak Spanish, that is a tremendous help! |