Another story about ESL teachers struggling to help their students. These teachers are heroes and hopefully will get the thanks they deserve, even if they never get enough money for all their work. DP
Refugees - Some of the students brought to Beaverton have never held books before
AMY HSUAN
The Oregonian: BEAVERTON -- Teacher Kim Miller opens the picture book showing elephants grazing on a dry savanna.
The English-as-a-Second-Language teacher hopes a lesson on African animals will resonate with the five students seated before her, recent arrivals from Somalia.
For Miller, making classroom connections to the children's distant homeland doesn't always meet success. The students, brought to Beaverton by humanitarian groups, are refugees of a civil war that's lasted more than a decade and belong to a group that has been persecuted for generations in Africa.
It's not just that they don't read English; they come from a people who have no tradition of reading at all.
"It's been hard to communicate," says Miller, who's taught for five years at Fir Grove Elementary School. "But, we're learning a lot."
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment