Parents, if you are going to your home country during the holidays next week, please consider picking up some new books, magazines, or comics for your child in his/her home language. Having a high level of literacy in the home language is one of the biggest factors in achieving high levels of literacy in additional languages. Students are encouraged to read in their home language daily. Students are also encouraged to bring home language books to school to read during free reading times throughout the day. In our 5th grade class, we have Home Language Reading time every Wednesday during our extended class time/snack time. Students are expected to bring a book in their home language to read during that time. Please support your child's language development by ensuring that your child has access to reading material (books, magazines, comics, etc.) in your home language(s) and that he/she brings home language books to read at school. For more suggestions on helping to build your child's home language literacy, see our Links for Parents page. In 5th grade EAL we have been talking a lot about the importance of thinking about what we are reading. We have been making our thinking clearer to ourselves and to others by making annotations (notes) of our thinking as we read. We are noting what is interesting, what is new information, what questions we have, and what connections we are making while reading. Through this practice, we are focusing our attention on thinking about what we are reading, instead of just looking at the words on the page.
We are reading books related to our Ecosystems unit and asking ourselves the question, "How is what I am reading in this book connected to our Ecosystems unit?" Our 4th grade EAL class has been working on inquiry skills. We have been 'wandering and wondering' with books related to our Human Body unit, thinking and asking ourselves questions as we read. We have been talking about how to get from question to answer by researching. We have been making a list of resources that we have available to us to help us research, discussing how those resources are different and how each is best used. And, of course, we have been practicing using those resources to answer some of our own questions! We have been reflecting on our learning and setting goals for ourselves; thinking and talking about where we are now in our English language development, and where we want to be; setting up plans for how we are going to get ourselves there. In our goal-setting conferences, we took a look at the WIDA EAL framework - the basis of our EAL program - to help us to think about where we are now, and where we need to get to. In class we are having discussions about this question: What do successful language learners do? Ask your child to tell you about our 'Chalk Talk', below. Here is a useful resource for adults: The Keys to Good Language Learning. Here is a kid-friendly version: The Keys to Good Language Learning - Kids |
Learning Links
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