Focus of the organization/service:
The location at which I did my literacy center study was at the school at which I teach. My school provides ESOL services for students whose home language is not English, or those who have recently moved to the country. Students who receive services is from Kindergarten to CET (Continuing Education). At my school, students receive pull-out services. At the elementary level, students are pulled during recess, sot that they do not miss any time in the classroom. Since I teach in elementary, I attended the sessions during which elementary ESOL students were receiving services.
What I saw:
Each time I attended the pull-out sessions different kids, with different native languages were being serviced. During most of the sessions, children who were receiving services had a home language of Spanish. One child's home language was Chinese. He was recently adopted from China and is learning both ASL and English (Two languages at the same time I imagine is very difficult!)
During these sessions, the focus is English vocabulary and comprehension. Students are asked to identify what they see in pictures. Students also sign or have reading passages signed to them and then asked to answer "wh" questions (who, what, when, where). Students also work on sentence construction.
Small group instruction is provided during these sessions. Two students are put together at one time.
Resources Used:
In the ESOL classroom, there are visuals posted around the room. Graphics are posted about question words. Items are labeled such as cardinal directions of the room, the door, the clock, etc. Reading passages are provided through cold reads that come with the curriculum, Houghton Mifflins, Journeys. Vocabulary cards are also provided through this curriculum, There is one teacher in the classroom. She currently as has intern so students have more than one teacher this year.
