Re: Ideas for Russian speaking students learning English in middle school.

Hi Budda, Thanks for the great advice with the Russian student. I was not able to read your response until now, but she was able to get a tutor within the classroom twice a week and that was the key. She enjoyed the computer tremendously and their were plenty of programs to keep her happy and busy also. She will be attending summer school soon with me and we will see how it goes. She relies on phrase dictionaries which is helpful for her and it shows she in engaged. I was able to get her to write a letter about her dog just before school started and we did match her up with a another student from Russia! We did show videos within the classroom and she did seem enthralled with the movies. Her parents want her to repeat the 6th grade over again, so she won't suffer? She is very hard working and intelligent and I know she will speaking English soon.

Any ideas on Marshallese? We have a boy from the Marshall Islands and he refuses to work with his tutor?

Re: Ideas for Russian speaking students learning English in middle school.

Lori
You sound like a caring teacher. To help this child get the cooperation of the parents and then paper her bedroom with pictures and words to help build her vocabulary. She will need to watch English videos, as many as she can for her age group, things like Lion King. Maybe she can do this in school too.
If the parents can afford it she can go to an enrichment play group after school or on the weekend. In Korea and Japan these after-school classes (hogwan schools) are standard practice, piano, computer, math, Taikwondo, English, Chinese writing. The children can absorb it all when they are young. If the parents can't afford it then they can start a small home group themselves and share the effort with other parents.