I was heartened to read this article from the Associated Press - ROME, Ga. It is something I have been advocating for years:-
It used to be that schools taught English to non-native students by pulling them out of classes an hour or so each day for language study, then putting them back in a regular classroom to struggle through lessons in a language they didn't speak.
Now, schools in Georgia have a growing number of non-English speakers, and they're starting to weave language instruction through all disciplines. It's a change that brought a half-dozen teachers to Berry College in Rome this summer for an intensive camp on new ways to teach English.
The camp pairs the teachers with some non-native students for five weeks to show educators how to nurture language skills even if they aren't full-time ESOL teachers, or English for Speakers of Other Languages.
"You can't just train ESOL teachers who are with the students 45 minutes a day," said Berry professor Mae Wlazlinski. "Teachers who have the kids the rest of the day have to be able to understand how to integrate language learners into their lessons."
At one recent session, rising first-grader Gustavo Garcia dropped a dollop of paint on a sheet of paper and folded it in half, then described what he thought the paint blob looked like.
"It's a monkey monster Spider-Man," Gustavo declared after a quick glance, as his dozen or so classmates identified their own splotches as resembling everything from skeleton bones to butterflies.
"They like making the art, but it's also a way to get them to practice their vocabulary," teacher Twyla Reece told the Rome News-Tribune. "A lot of what we're doing is merging language lessons into the regular curriculum."
The teachers in the camp practice this philosophy by teaching about 40 students of varying ages and language abilities from three local elementary schools every morning.
Instead of drilling students on English pronunciations or vocabulary, the teachers use a lesson on dinosaurs or the dissection of an owl pellet as a vehicle to language learning. The camp serves as a teaching lab as well as a diverting summer camp for the mostly Hispanic group of campers.
"It's really fun because we get to do a lot of activities and learn a lot of things, like about fossils, with all of my friends," said Allie Guzman, a rising fourth-grader.
And unlike regular school, it's the teachers who are being graded at this camp, as Wlazlinski observes them during classes or critiques videotapes of their lessons.
For Rebecca Richardson, who will be teaching ESOL students this fall, the camp has helped her prepare.
"It's really important to try and make your lessons really experiential," she said. "Instead of just having them read from the textbook about different climates, show them pictures and have them make models. That is what engages them."