madteaparty Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Wondering if there is a consensus on best curriculum. Assume a 10 year old child that speaks very little English but will be immersed in English here in America :). I was planning to use the CAP Fable but I think it may be too much. I have starfall and the like, would also love a formal, paper curriculum for the school hours. Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 If the child hasn't studied much English, set aside all your homeschooling plans and work on increasing vocabulary and fluency. Use games appropriate for pre-readers (ie hi ho cherry oh, snakes and ladders), card games like war or backgammon for counting, twister for colors and body parts, educational bingo games for words or shapes or whatever... Use online activities like star fall and brainpop ESL. Read repetitive books aimed at preschoolers. (Dr. Seuss type) Listen to nursery rhymes and kids music with repetitive lyrics. Watch shows aimed at preschoolers - Sid the science kid, Curious George, little einsteins, yo Gabba Gabba or whatever strikes his/her fancy... You can start with some phonics and writing practice with ETC 1. If you want to work on math, focus on language of math first - numbers, signs, shapes, operations. I'd do a placement test to see where he/she is at, but cross off word problems. I'd stay away from content areas until the child is more fluent. If the child balks at babyish activities and is ready for learning English grammar in a more adult way, let me know... Otherwise think about what is appropriate for a preschooler and start with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 I agree with everything above. Language acquisition will happen best and happen fast if that is what is permitted. When math content begins, the student may need to count in his / her first language in spite of learning number words in English. This should be allowed, as some people never are able to do computations in a second language. At such a young age, however, they may eventually change, but I don't think a kid should be forced to compute in a second language, as long as they can understand the numbers and systems in English. As far as a formal curriculum is concerned I am not sure...I tried formal French curriculum with my kids, and they learned more from books like "goodnight moon" and "green eggs and ham" translated into French than by me trying to teach them French grammar. I took the organic approach like the poster above did, and if I had a child coming from another culture and language, it is the approach I would use to immerse them in English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Back when I was teaching in regular public school we did not use a separate curriculum for ESL kids. The major public school curriculums all came with supplements for ESL, I think most still do. One big question I would have is what is the child's literacy level in their native language? If they are close to age appropriate in their native language then you might be able to use a formal English as a foreign language curriculum if you can find one especially if you are fluent in the same language. If they have age appropriate math skills then working on math in English is doable with lots of visuals. If the child is coming from a situation where he/she has not had much education in the native language, trying to learn oral and written English at the same time is going to be very difficult. I once had to teach a totally blind child, who only spoke Spanish at home, to read and write English Braille, and I speak very little spanish. If you want an activity that looks school like, I would create experience books. For example, take the child to the grocery store to work on the names of foods and other things there. Take pictures while you are there. Later at home use the pictures to make a book where you have the picture and the name of the picture written in English and the native language if you can. Then you and the child can go back and reread the books over and over. As the chid's English improves, you can make the books with phrases and sentences. You can make books for any activity such as a "baking cookies" book or a "washing the dog" book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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