Translating in Class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's rather Illuminating how everyone assumes it just because the child speaks Spanish that she is undocumented.

never mind that the majority of people who are entering the country from Spanish-speaking countries are legally immigrating as asylum-seekers and were treated terribly by ICE

MoCo has a huge unskilled, uneducated illegal immigrant population from Central America. Much larger than any corporate families or foreign service delegates' children in the U.S. for 2-3 years with a stable, educated, literate set of parents.

+100

[Anonymous]

The children of your landscapers, nannies, cleaning people, etc have to go to school somewhere. But as long as they go somewhere else, you don't need to think about it, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ES has had several students from upper middle class, professional families immigrate over the summer in the past and arrive speaking nothing but Chinese, Russian, or Korean. There are some other students that speak these languages and sometimes yes, the teacher will ask them to translate important directions or questions for the student so they aren't totally lost. This usually lasts about a third of the school year, then they stop needing it, and by a year later they are on or above grade level and you can't tell they ever didn't speak English. So no, this phenomenon is not just an "illegal immigrant" (code: poor Hispanic) thing. Children's brains have an amazing capacity for language.

This is true. I taught English as a foreign language abroad and the younger the kids were, the quicker they picked it up.

Well the OP said the girl is in 5th. She could be as old as 12 and held back depending on her education history. If she is an illegal alien from a poor country in Central America or Mexico, they are usually in ESOL for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is DC, OP. Kids at our elementary school speak 22 different languages. Alice Deal has students speak in 15 different languages for the 8th grade International Baccalaureate promotion ceremony. It was wonderful and the experience enhances learning for everyone. No one is held back by being exposed to children who speak other languages. This is a major international city for crying out loud. This is one pf the best things about living here.

The schools have pull outs for ESL, and the preK teachers say within 30 days the new students can follow in class and at 90 days they are more fluent than their parents.

The kid isn’t in PreK and the rich IB schools are not the same as poor Spanish speaking kids coming in on FARMS with zero parent involvement. How can you not see that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is DC, OP. Kids at our elementary school speak 22 different languages. Alice Deal has students speak in 15 different languages for the 8th grade International Baccalaureate promotion ceremony. It was wonderful and the experience enhances learning for everyone. No one is held back by being exposed to children who speak other languages. This is a major international city for crying out loud. This is one pf the best things about living here.

The schools have pull outs for ESL, and the preK teachers say within 30 days the new students can follow in class and at 90 days they are more fluent than their parents.

The kid isn’t in PreK and the rich IB schools are not the same as poor Spanish speaking kids coming in on FARMS with zero parent involvement. How can you not see that?

Literally all we know about this child is that she doesn't speak English. We don't know if she's on FARMS. We don't know what kind of parent involvement she has. We don't know her family income or history or immigration status.

Literally all we know is that a 10 year-old says that the girl doesn't speak English well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is DC, OP. Kids at our elementary school speak 22 different languages. Alice Deal has students speak in 15 different languages for the 8th grade International Baccalaureate promotion ceremony. It was wonderful and the experience enhances learning for everyone. No one is held back by being exposed to children who speak other languages. This is a major international city for crying out loud. This is one pf the best things about living here.

The schools have pull outs for ESL, and the preK teachers say within 30 days the new students can follow in class and at 90 days they are more fluent than their parents.

Well PP, try coming to Rockville, Derwood, Gaithersburg, Silver Spring. We don’t have your “rich wonderful cultural” experience of DC. We have teen refugees coming in and turning to MS13 for family. Families and kids being bussed in from El Salvador. I wouldn’t call it a wonderful enhancement. They eat up a ton of the education funding in ESOL, FARMS, family and PTA resources, only to drop out by 10th grade.

But cool story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is DC, OP. Kids at our elementary school speak 22 different languages. Alice Deal has students speak in 15 different languages for the 8th grade International Baccalaureate promotion ceremony. It was wonderful and the experience enhances learning for everyone. No one is held back by being exposed to children who speak other languages. This is a major international city for crying out loud. This is one pf the best things about living here.

The schools have pull outs for ESL, and the preK teachers say within 30 days the new students can follow in class and at 90 days they are more fluent than their parents.

The kid isn’t in PreK and the rich IB schools are not the same as poor Spanish speaking kids coming in on FARMS with zero parent involvement. How can you not see that?

Parent involvement is not a function of household income. Low-income parents love their children just as much as affluent parents love their children. I can't believe I have to say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Well PP, try coming to Rockville, Derwood, Gaithersburg, Silver Spring. We don’t have your “rich wonderful cultural” experience of DC. We have teen refugees coming in and turning to MS13 for family. Families and kids being bussed in from El Salvador. I wouldn’t call it a wonderful enhancement. They eat up a ton of the education funding in ESOL, FARMS, family and PTA resources, only to drop out by 10th grade.

But cool story

Do what now? MCPS is busing in students from El Salvador? Or are you referring to students who live in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

When my daughter comes home and says she has helped others who are new and don’t speak English I am thrilled. Just as I want my children to learn reading, writing, and math, I also want them to learn to be compassionate, welcoming people who help others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter just told me that her 5th grade class has a new child that only speaks Spanish. There is another child in the class that is kinda bilingual. The teacher is using google translator to talk to her directly and she says after a few sentences when speaking to the whole class, she pauses so the other bilingual girl can translate to her the same few sentences, and then this continues every few sentences. Does this truly happen in other schools? Who just sends a 5th grader into a school, that doesn't know any English? Does the teacher have to continue this bilingual lessons. It must eat up so much time.

that sucks.

spanish girl needs to be sent home with a note: Don't come to school until you know English. like they did in the 1950s.

So we should have thousands of students roaming the streets all day while their parents are at work? That sounds like a good plan. I'm sure they will pick up English quickly that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Honestly OP, you have every reason to complain. That child’s time should not be taken up to be a translator for the teacher, your child’s time shouldn’t be spent in school going slower because of one kid, additionally if your child is not in a langaguge immersion class it’s a problem. I would email my concerns to the teacher and principal. The teacher can use other methods without slowing down class lessons for example: using picture vocabulary for the new student, referring the child for ESOL screening, use of manipulative or incorporating more hands on components in her lesson, use sentence stems to help the child, modifying that particular student’s work to make it a simpler version of what everyone else is doing. I’m a teacher and would be horrified if my colleague wasted the entire classes’s time to try to be bilingual without any formal training. This allows the pace of the class to go slower, all for one kid, that is why there is an ESOL teacher. Those teachers can slow things down. Finally, unfortunately, until the county deals with it’s illegal immigration problem this is what you can expect to happen from a small segment of teachers. The kid is obviously in school to learn English, so the teacher should be speaking in English but adapting lessons that make it easier to understand with pictures or fewer words.

OP may be doing everything you suggest, and there is zero chance this child isn't ALSO receiving ESOL services. But ESOL in 2018 isn't like ESOL when we were kids. The English Language Learners aren't segregated in a self-contained classroom away from everyone else. They are mainstreamed to the degree possible, which is better for them and better for society as a whole.

I'd also point out, as others have done, that OP is taking the word of a 10 year old about how much time is spent translating. It is also Week One of school. Maybe simmer down and wait a sec to see how this plays out?

Kids have the right to an appropriate education in a mainstream environment. That includes kids with special needs and kids who are learning English. OP's child isn't going to be harmed by the presence of an English language learner in their classroom, even if OP is so sheltered that it hasn't happened before now.

Obviously Op’s ten year old is competent enough to know that her education is being impacted in a major way. I’d expect my child to complain so that I can advocate or get together a group of parents to advocate. Additionally someone mentioned ESOL today is not the same as yesteryear, I am aware of that but SOL has changed from having those students in a separate room to the general ed room due to lack of funding. The powers that touted its better to mainstream those kids even though they speak a lick of English and then they backed it up with faux research to skew data in their favor. This is all about the dollars since many states around the country can’t afford the number of teachers to the ratio of ESOL learners it’s absorbing. In no other country, do they expect to teach you a second language in school for FREE along with so many additional resources that are FREE in the community.

+1

It is one thing to help a child at lunch or with a question here or there. But the fact so many think stopping every paragraph for a full class translation done by one other child, is the right compassionate way to run a classroom? I would be complaining. Those parents can teach their kid and get her some help. Until then, tough. She doesn’t understand. The class shouldn’t be a ping pong of 2 languages to appease 1 person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Just hope they have decent services? Is that what you would do to your child? Since when does the county have to be responsible for this? Did this kid move here yesterday and start school the following day? Did the parents decide they don’t need to learn? Who cares? . There are plenty of resources at a free public library. Online, books on tape, translating books, etc... So sick of people taking no effort or responsibility.

Since it became the school's responsibility to provide a free and adequate public education to all students, including students who are learning English. At least since 1968. That's 50 years, now.

[Anonymous]

I am just curious. Do all countries do this? Tax their citizens to teach illegal and legal immigrants their native language for free in school during school hours? Is there a form of ESOL in other countries to teach the immigrants a second language while their citizens only learn one language like ours? Honestly curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am just curious. Do all countries do this? Tax their citizens to teach illegal and legal immigrants their native language for free in school during school hours? Is there a form of ESOL in other countries to teach the immigrants a second language while their citizens only learn one language like ours? Honestly curious.

Not every country in the world, but certainly every developed country. Some have much better services than the US, actually, including language and job training for adult immigrants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am just curious. Do all countries do this? Tax their citizens to teach illegal and legal immigrants their native language for free in school during school hours? Is there a form of ESOL in other countries to teach the immigrants a second language while their citizens only learn one language like ours? Honestly curious.

?

ESOL is about teaching English.