Ideas for new EAL children joining in Year 6, please!

[KingscoteStaff]

I've posted this on TES - but thought I might find some good ideas here, too!

So, there I was, thinking that I would have a tiny Year 6 class of 25! No, by Friday I was back to 30, and all 5 of the new children have only a few words of English.

1 speaks French, 1 Bulgarian, 1 Italian, 1 Urdu and 1 Spanish.

This is my 4th Year in Year 6, and until now the only new children coming into my class have been fluent English speakers.

I have 1 TA in the morning. The 25 original children range from L5A to 2A, so I had planned to have either my TA or me focusing on the LA group.

So, suggestions, please. Any resources you have found useful, organisational strategies that you think might work? Our target for this year was meant to be 82% L4+......

[QueenofLouisiana]

No real ideas, but was about to post something similar. I have managed to pinch acquire a Polish/English dictionary. We spend a lot of time pointing to words.

I found bilingual resources and printed them, I hold up the word (classroom commands) and say the English. Not ideal, but can't get the advisor in until next week...

Planning to locate Google Translate and use that.

[joanofarchitrave]

Any chance that any of the children speak more than one language? - any common ground?

Are there any children further up the school withsimilar languages who can buddy them?

Give each of the children a laminated flip book(credit card sized?) of key English words and phrases illustrated with pictures (maybe they could laminate these and put them together themselves with the TA (I'm sure others will think of more - I need the toilet, I am hungry/thirsty, I need to ask you..., I need to tell you..., I have a pain, I am feeling sick, Can I play, I am from... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)

Ring your local library and ask what children's books they have in the languages you need, see if you can borrow them?

Standardise your own language and routine - always use the same phrase to start a new activity etc, and get those phrases translated and up on the wall so that you can point to them?

[joanofarchitrave]

oops sorry about the buddies furhter up, it's yera 6 - how about buddies further down???

[UniS]

2nding the idea of " school stuff phase book".Do any of your new starters have siblings in other classes, print stuff twice and both teachers can use same resource. Are their parents able to help translate basic school stuff for a print resource?
I'm aware of a school that have such a regular intake of Korean children that a parent created a K- E- K school phrase book, its become a standard bit of classroom kit.

Agree that library service are likely to have some bi-lingual books or first language reading books for 4 out of 5.

[joanofarchitrave]

More key words: before, after, now, later, wait, minute, hour (I'm sure

When thinking of standardising your language, maybe try to keep sentences ++ short and use SVO sentence frames a lot with gestures to support them.

This seems like a good page?

[gallicgirl]

You don't need to know the other languages and please don't attempt translation as you may slow down their language acquisition.
Use lots of pictures and body language. Short sentences and simple construction without dropping into pigeon English. Lots of concept check questions.
Check out resources for tefl for ideas on working with kids. I'll see if I can find some suitable material for you.
I suspect the Western Europeans will pick it up quickly as they use same alphabet and similar grammar.

[gallicgirl]

teachers.theguardian.com/teacher-resources/5419/EAL-Toolkit-by-Mike-Gershon

www.esl-kids. com

Will the LEA have resources?

[cricketballs]

I have found that if you use worksheets etc to have the english sentence then below the sentence in their home language (use google translate to copy and paste)

Have they been assessed as to their current English speaking, listening, writing and reading levels? The school needs to ensure that you have LA support to ensure their needs are met asap