Miss.

Smith is a Grade Two teacher and this school year she has
her first ESL student. His name is Marco. Marco is a refugee from a war
torn country. Upon doing some research on Marcos background, Miss.
Smith has found that Marcos family was not always able to afford
schooling and Marco has only completed one year of elementary
school. Marco is very unfamiliar with Canada, the Canadian culture,
and the English language.
Due to Marco being Miss. Smiths first ESL student, she was
unsure how to properly accommodate his needs. Miss. Smith has asked
Marcos parents to speak more English at home. She thought of
teaching her students about other cultures to make them more
culturally aware, however, she felt that the students were too young to
understand.
To accommodate some of Marcos needs, Miss. Smith has placed
Marco with a responsible classroom buddy, allows Marco to be a
classroom helper, and uses visual representations when explaining
new concepts. Regardless of Miss. Smiths efforts to help Marco, she
has some concerns about his behavior in class. Miss. Smith has noticed
that Marco is disengaged, sits alone during lunchtime, and often cries
asking to go home due to feeling sick.
Miss. Smith struggles when asking Marco questions regarding the
lesson being taught because she notices that he does not answer her
questions and shrugs his shoulders. She is unsure if this means that
Marco does not know the answer or that he simply does not know how
to communicate the answer to her.
1. Using the resources that have been assigned to your group, what
are some additional techniques or methods that Miss. Smith could use
to help Marco?
2. What could Miss. Smith have done differently to help Marcos
transition?