Successful Strategies for Newcomers
It's been a very busy start to the school year. We are building community and laying a foundation for a good year in US History and Language Support-History. Today's post is about the success we are finding in LS History, specifically with listening, speaking, reading, and writing practice activities. My students in this class are very capable and strong learners, but they struggle with the English language. Striking the balance between finding and creating age-appropriate materials for newcomers that are challenging, yet language-appropriate, is always essential. Two activities my Historians have really enjoyed so far are playing Gimkit to review the concepts related to the 5 Themes of Geography, and, to my surprise, performing in front of their classmates! I created a short two-person skit related to ordering food in a restaurant (we are going out to breakfast as a Language Support team early next week). Students watched my co-teacher parapro and I perform the skit first, th