Over the past ten years, our national education system has been dealing with a lot of adversity. From intense school assessments/gradings which are tied to funding, to the pandemic, the ongoing food insecurity of our student population, the legacy of underdeveloped social skills thanks to lockdowns, to now an array of student levels and a large number of newcomers of all ages that are yet to learn English.
Schools across the country are enrolling newcomer students at a very fast pace. Teachers are going through newcomer language assessment training and schools are receiving funding for accommodating this new population.
Meetings have been held to discuss the new name change of English Second Language students from ESL students to Emerging Bilinguals (EB).
So much fuss to accomplish nothing that would actually support teachers and newcomer students in the classroom. Our classrooms have no curriculum to support emerging bilingual ESL students. Teachers are left to figure this another majorly important element by themselves.
To add to this frustration, current bilingual youth dictionaries are not very useful when it comes to day-to-day school life.
I have been creating Visual ESL Dictionary games with voice-over and visuals to assist my primary-grade newcomer students with ways to communicate and gain essential school vocabulary. Of course, there are many newcomers with similar needs in upper grades.
I would love to hear from teachers about their experiences and needed resources. Hopefully, we can pull together and be better prepared for the upcoming year.
Happy Teaching!
Mrs. Lena, M.Ed.
Kids Read 