NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

How do you teach TC when more than half your students dont speak english? Someone please explain this to me... Im trying to follow the curriculum but I find myself not being able to move anywhere with these mini lessons especially when they are so low. Ive never done TC either so Im still learning as well.... 7 minutes for a mini lesson?! What am I supposed to teach in 7 minutes? I have to repeat myself twenty times in different ways to make sure they understand it...am i missing something?

Re: NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

we dont do TC anymore (thankfully) but i did have an ESL class when we did do TC (now im CTT always taught 1st grade)

the low non readers/speakers sat through mini lesson (partner them up with other students who can speak/read for Turn and talks i would say make a group of three putting non english speaker with 2 that are)

also Guided reading books. pull a group aside work with maybe 4-5 students teach them the book (memorization/ pointing to words) and send them off to their seats.

Re: NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

We are sharing the same world!! I am English 7 /12 certified. I have an ESL class this year.

I am at a loss. It took me 90 minutes to explain what important meant! I didn't even get past vocabulary!!!!

But, yes, I am supposed to follow the curriculum with these kids.

Re: NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

Re: NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

Re: NYC teachers who teach an ESL class....

we don't teach TC anymore but I have a class of ELLs (3rd grade) i try to accomplish much less in 1 minilesson than i used to. I am also using much lower level books during my minilessons. for the real beginners who aren't speaking english i don't worry too much about reaching them at that time. it sounds bad but really 10 minutes of sitting there lost isn't going to hurt them as long as you reach them during guided reading. i also do centers during guided reading time so they are engaged in something at their level. some ideas: starfall.com on the computer, leaptrack books if you have them available to you, listening center, activity cards where they match words to pictures, alphabet magnets where they spell out words on picture/word cards, matching capital letter magnets with lowercase letter magnets. HTH - it's challenging but give it a chance. it can actually be really rewarding at the end of the year.