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I need your HELP, WISDOM, etc...VERY IMPORTANT

Heather in Neverland
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Heather in Neverland

Heather in Neverland

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OK, to read the WHOLE story you'll have to go to my blog BUT...

 

I am working with a group of refugees from Myanmar who have set up their own underground school for refugee children from Myanmar here in Malaysia (since they cannot go to school here or they will be caught).

 

I need to find two things:

 

1. a phonics curriculum

 

2. a language arts curriculum

 

Both need to be "just the facts ma'am"...you know? Not all the bells and whistles. These people ARE trained teachers but they were trained in Myanmar before they fled from the persecution and English is NOT their first language although they do speak it.

 

So they need something that is laid out completely for the teacher, easy to follow, gets the job done, etc. Get it? I have some people who are willing to donate some money towards buying a curriculum for them once I pick it out. And then I will train them in how to teach it.

 

They are focusing on Math and Language Arts to get these kids ready to assimilate into the American or Australian school system when (if) their asylum is approved. We already got them some math textbooks.

 

So what do you think? Suggestions?

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CalicoKat

CalicoKat

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Posted
How about Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, First Language Lessons (grammar), and Writing With Ease (writing)? I think these might be just what you're looking for.

 

Saxon Math with the DVD's (older kids) and MUS with the DVD's (elementary school).

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sleepymommy

sleepymommy

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I would think an ESL based program would probably be best, as far as just the facts please would go.

 

http://www.rong-chang.com/lsnplan.htm

http://www.eslkidslab.com/

 

The above to webpages have different activities, but I'm not familiar with much ESL curriculum.

 

Here some webpages for LA

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/biling/resource/ESL/standards.html

http://www.cln.org/subjects/esl_cur.html

 

 

As much as I like FLL 1, I think that the 30 lessons on nouns would be too drawn out for this type of situation.

 

 

But if you want traditional homeschool or school curricula, I think Phonics Pathways and Blend Phonics are great. Or a scripted, boxed LA seems like the way to go since they are usually have the lessons plans, etc already laid out for you. I'm sorry, I've never had any experience with boxed curricula so I don't know which would be the best to recommend.

 

For math (if your interested), I would go with Math Mammoth. It's very self explanatory, easy to implement, and thorough.

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Rosie_0801

Rosie_0801

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Posted (edited)

Karen refugees?

 

Do they actually speak English? Tesol materials might be best if they don't.

 

If you can do anything to promote English language learning in the women, please do! They have the most limited opportunities when they get here.

 

Rosie

Edited by Rosie_0801
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Heather in Neverland

Heather in Neverland

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Karen refugees?

 

Do they actually speak English? Tesol materials might be best if they don't.

 

If you can do anything to promote English language learning in the women, please do! They have the most limited opportunities when they get here.

 

Rosie

 

Yes, Karen and Kachin refugees mostly. The adults I am not sure about but the kids either know some or are learning some English. But ESL materials are probably their best bet.

 

I didn't know that Voyages in English was designed for that. I will have to look into that.

 

Great suggestions ladies!

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Teachaheart

Teachaheart

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Posted

Heather,

 

I am so excited to hear that there will be a school for the Burmese refugee children! I am currently working with a 16-year-old boy who is a refugee from the Chin State. He is nearing one year in the States after spending at least a year in Malaysia where he and his younger brother didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. I can hardly wait until Monday to share with the boys and their foster parents that other refugee kids will have that opportunity. I think they will both be so pleased! I know we will all be praying for God’s blessing on this underground school and everyone involved with it.

 

I had typed out a very long reply and then thought it was just too much information that you might not need, so I am just going to give you my short list of recommendations based on my work with "my" refugee boy. If you want to read the very long reply at some point, please let me know.

 

We are using WRTR and Webster's Syllabary with great success. I know those might be too teacher intensive as far as preparation goes for your group of teachers, so I highly recommend a good systematic phonics program that is more open-and-go (OPGTR or SWR maybe) to use with all the children.

 

We are also using McGuffey's Eclectic Readers--the edition that is more phonics-based. Here is a link to the First Reader available for download at Project Gutenberg http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/6/4/14640/14640.htm

 

FLL would be good for grammar instruction. We are taking a more haphazard approach right now though.

 

While I would love to recommend WWE for writing, I think it would be too difficult for a teacher to do well with a group of ELL kids, especially when they are very new at learning English. Right now I am having my student write sentences and paragraphs about daily life (e.g. what he ate for breakfast) in more of a shared writing fashion in which I write on the whiteboard while he writes the same thing on his paper. We discuss spelling, grammar, and punctuation as we go.

 

For vocabulary development, I recommend starting with http://www.amazon.com/First-Thousand-Words-English-Heather/dp/0794502822 and http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Picture-Dictionary-Monolingual-English/dp/0194369765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278726011&sr=1-1. There are also some free and inexpensive vocabulary and grammar materials at this website http://www.montessorimaterials.org/lang.htm that we have been using.

 

I really hope some of this is helpful for you!

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Heather in Neverland

Heather in Neverland

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Heather,

 

I am so excited to hear that there will be a school for the Burmese refugee children! I am currently working with a 16-year-old boy who is a refugee from the Chin State. He is nearing one year in the States after spending at least a year in Malaysia where he and his younger brother didn’t have the opportunity to go to school. I can hardly wait until Monday to share with the boys and their foster parents that other refugee kids will have that opportunity. I think they will both be so pleased! I know we will all be praying for God’s blessing on this underground school and everyone involved with it.

 

I had typed out a very long reply and then thought it was just too much information that you might not need, so I am just going to give you my short list of recommendations based on my work with "my" refugee boy. If you want to read the very long reply at some point, please let me know.

 

We are using WRTR and Webster's Syllabary with great success. I know those might be too teacher intensive as far as preparation goes for your group of teachers, so I highly recommend a good systematic phonics program that is more open-and-go (OPGTR or SWR maybe) to use with all the children.

 

We are also using McGuffey's Eclectic Readers--the edition that is more phonics-based. Here is a link to the First Reader available for download at Project Gutenberg http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/6/4/14640/14640.htm

 

FLL would be good for grammar instruction. We are taking a more haphazard approach right now though.

 

While I would love to recommend WWE for writing, I think it would be too difficult for a teacher to do well with a group of ELL kids, especially when they are very new at learning English. Right now I am having my student write sentences and paragraphs about daily life (e.g. what he ate for breakfast) in more of a shared writing fashion in which I write on the whiteboard while he writes the same thing on his paper. We discuss spelling, grammar, and punctuation as we go.

 

For vocabulary development, I recommend starting with http://www.amazon.com/First-Thousand-Words-English-Heather/dp/0794502822 and http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Picture-Dictionary-Monolingual-English/dp/0194369765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278726011&sr=1-1. There are also some free and inexpensive vocabulary and grammar materials at this website http://www.montessorimaterials.org/lang.htm that we have been using.

 

I really hope some of this is helpful for you!

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for replying and all this information! I would LOVE the long reply as well. Will you email it to me? This situation has really tugged at my heart and I just feel drawn to help these kids.

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AuntieM

AuntieM

Posted
Posted (edited)

First--Wow! That is really exciting! You are in a neat position to be a part of it, even if it is in a peripheral way. Very cool.

 

You have certainly already received excellent advice, but one thing that did come to mind for basic phonics practice is those Explode the Code workbooks. I wonder if the pictographs would help with English being a second language. Just a thought.

 

PS I was glad to see that this post did not refer to any trouble with your Natalie's court date. Maybe there is another post I haven't gotten to yet, but if not I hope we can assume all went well?

Edited by AuntieM
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