Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This week my 3rd grade DC got a reading buddy.
He speaks little English and is very shy.
Luckily there is another 3rd grader, Spanish speaking, that is is his other reading buddy .
My DC describes being concerned about the K kid learning to read, getting to know her and not being nervous.
She described being patient and considerate with him.
I am so proud of her.
I love that she is having this experience and this education.
All of any one thing in an educational environment is not necessarily a good idea, so I love the diversity where we are and glad we did not go running for the hills in fear.
By the way we are AA and believe WE are our kids' primary educators.
Especially since we loathe the traditional teaching of history.
Yea Columbus discovered a nation that was ready occupied... I digresss

That's awesome, your child can spend time in school teaching the other child!! Let us know when the "group work" starts!

Anonymous wrote:This week my 3rd grade DC got a reading buddy.
He speaks little English and is very shy.
Luckily there is another 3rd grader, Spanish speaking, that is is his other reading buddy .
My DC describes being concerned about the K kid learning to read, getting to know her and not being nervous.
She described being patient and considerate with him.
I am so proud of her.
I love that she is having this experience and this education.
All of any one thing in an educational environment is not necessarily a good idea, so I love the diversity where we are and glad we did not go running for the hills in fear.
By the way we are AA and believe WE are our kids' primary educators.
Especially since we loathe the traditional teaching of history.
Yea Columbus discovered a nation that was ready occupied... I digresss

Anonymous wrote:A lot of research is now showing that a major predictor of how ESOL students do in school (grades, grad rates) is the literacy level of their parents IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE. What really matters is the parent's reading level - not whether they can read English.

Someone who crunches the numbers for a local school system explained to me that MANY of the ESOL students in NOVA come from countries with very low literacy rates and that has a big impact on teaching and learning.

Anonymous wrote:I know people who have had good experiences at high Farms/ high ESOL schools, and others who have had horrible experiences. First I think it's worth noting that 50-60% is different than 90% on both scores. If there's a sizable middle class population participating with mastery of the english language, I think things go much better, and the diversity of it can actually benefit all of the kids. If the school is almost entirely poor and non-english speaking (we're talking >90% in some cases), it really does present a barrier to learning for kids who come prepared to learn and who can, in some cases, already read in english above grade level. Our school is almost entirely all FARMS and ESOL, and we've decided not to send our kid because it's just too much work trying to figure out how to compensate for the basic social and learning opportunities that he won't have but that would be available to him at a more balanced/diverse school where the majority of kids arrive already fluent in the language of instruction, have a preschool background that has taught them how to behave in a classroom setting, and are already well on their way to mastering the concepts that will be introduced in the first years of school because their parents have been fostering learning at home from day one. I'm not talking Bethesda, but I am talking about a school that doesn't go much above the 50% mark on the FARMS or ESOL scale. Every school is different and every kid is different, I get it. But to pretend that an exceptionally high poverty rate and high ESOL rate won't impact the learning environment your child is in is probably wishful thinking. Numbers aren't everything, but they're not meaningless.

Anonymous wrote:This week my 3rd grade DC got a reading buddy.
He speaks little English and is very shy.
Luckily there is another 3rd grader, Spanish speaking, that is is his other reading buddy .
My DC describes being concerned about the K kid learning to read, getting to know her and not being nervous.
She described being patient and considerate with him.
I am so proud of her.
I love that she is having this experience and this education.
All of any one thing in an educational environment is not necessarily a good idea, so I love the diversity where we are and glad we did not go running for the hills in fear.
By the way we are AA and believe WE are our kids' primary educators.
Especially since we loathe the traditional teaching of history.
Yea Columbus discovered a nation that was ready occupied... I digress