Links
These are affiliate links to the bilingual Bibles I have used in my classroom. I have found that Korean and Vietnamese bilingual Bibles are much more difficult to find or afford. I have instead purchased single-language Bibles in both languages or OT and NT editions. At this point I have found the best prices on Amazon.
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I love the close relationships I have with my international students. I purposefully created an environment in which they felt safe, could ask vulnerable questions and occasionally freak out. For the last two days, however, those freak-outs have completely circumvented my teaching.
I have one student who is being bullied by other students from her native country, I have another student who is panicking about getting into an American university, another student thinks her host family is trying to make a buck off of her, another student who despises her host sister...it has come to the point that I dread hearing the desperate call of my students! I'm a classic co-dependent and NOT helping everyone is torture, but helping everyone is bleeding me dry! I feel so unprofessional!
Our first international student was plugged into a mainstream Bible class designed for his grade level. It was a disaster. The kid had no idea which end was up. The teacher, who understandably, taught the class for the experience level of the majority and this left our international student in a daze.
By second semester we had a second international student and I began designing an introduction to Christianity specifically for E.L.L.s. They were so relieved. They could understand the content, ask questions without feeling stupid, and were in a "safe" environment with other non-Christian kids. Our school has continued the class and added an introduction to world religions. The aim is to allow our international students 2 years of ELL Bible classes before we try plunking them into our mainstream classes (although one of my students asked if she could do Intro to Christianity a second time. For her it was a good choice.) I had a beautiful EFL lesson plan ready to go: vocabulary, reading samples, practice activities, conversational practice...
Somehow, I can't explain how, there was a coup. They refused to do the lesson. All they wanted to do was learn how to write in cursive! It looks so much more beautiful than print, they all argued. From a practical standpoint, I believe there is a lot of value in teaching ELLs cursive. Many teachers still write in cursive, or a half-breed of cursive and print. This can be almost impossible for my students to read. (All caps is also a great challenge.) So I threw out the lesson for the day and we learned cursive. (A moment of silence, please, for the death of my beautiful lesson plan.) My first day as an online blogger!
I have been teaching foreign language for 12 years. In the last three I have developed and International Student Program at my private school in St. Petersburg, FL. I hope to share my day to day experiences and connect with some of you out there. |
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