I was curious to see how the No Child Left Behind Act can be taken into affect with the English Language Learners. I found a site that explains how the act will help these children and how it is important for parents of ELL to become more involved in their child's school work. However I wonder how those parents are able to read and understand what their child is doing in school when they probably don't understand the language or material themselves. Parents are unable to help their children if they themselves don't understand what it is they are learning or how important it is to be involved in their child's school life.
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2003/12/12022003.html
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I completely agree with what you are trying to say about the No Child Left Behind Act. I work with a woman who has moved here about 6 years ago from Mexico and her daughter, who is the only child has trouble with school work. Because she doesn't speak great English herself, let alone understand what her nine year old daughter is doing in school, she is having problems helping her daughter with homework at night. She is a single parent so I try to help her daughter as much as I can with homework and other work she finds difficult to understand. It is so important for her to be a part of her child's school life but she finds it difficult because she doesn't speak English. This was a great site and topic to read about.
-Angela
Great link, Maria--thanks!
There are ESL programs for the parents & other family members in some communities. The classes are given right in the child's school, and teachers emphasize vocabulary and content that will help families learn to communicate in English, understand their children's progress and become a part of the community in positive ways.
I can only imagine how difficult learning a new language must be for students. Especially when they cannot rely on the family at home. Parents who do not understand the language will definitely become frustrated especially when they cannot communicate with others around them. They cannot attend board meetings or teacher conferences because they do not understand what is going on. However, I remember when I was in elementary school. News letters and other documents were written in both Spanish and English to assist English learners. Even though this was done when I was growing up, parents were still inactive in their children's school work because they still didn't understand the language. Interesting blog idea Maria!!
I completed a portion of my sophomore field at Harrison Elementary School in Roselle. Many of the students in the school were in ESL. One of the teachers I observed spoke with me about how she made herself available to the students in her class before and after school to help them do their homework and study for tests. She felt this was necessary because so many of her students were not getting any reinforcement at home because their parents/guardians were unable to help them due to the fact that they themselves did not speak English. I thought this showed great dedication on her part, but how many other teachers do this? Probably not a whole lot which means that ELL students are at a severe disadvantage. I browsed around online and came across these two articles that addressed this issue. I found them quite interesting.
www.colorincolorado.org/educators/reachingout/empowering
www.bridges4kids.org/articles/11-02/Globe11-3-02.html
http://www.bridges4kids.org/articles/11-02/Globe11-3-02.html
Sometimes I blame parents for not helping their children, but is because they don't speak the language and/or they are afraid to learn or/are are too busy working 3 shifts.
My mother was always busy working but she would make sure I did my HW
she would asked anybody to help me even paid for services. Thats how tough my mother was with my sister's and I education.Plus, we always wnated to learn English.
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