For my lesson this week I was fortunate enough to be allowed in a classroom because I am not currently teaching. I just moved to Italy about a month ago and it is very hard to find a teaching job in the middle of the school year.
The classroom I found myself in had 8 students, 6 of which are native to Italy, and speak Italian as their primary language. 1 student is from France and the other is from America. I have never taught a class that is almost all ELL, or ESL students!
Having to teach a lesson using a model proved to be a great tool for me! The students really understood what I was trying to convey to them once they saw the model and what they were learning about. The language barrier is not terrible, as most of these students have been taking ESL classes since they were 6 or 7. But, when it comes to the subject of science, there are many vocabulary words that are foreign to them, causing some confusion. Having the model allowed me to point to different things while answering their question or introducing vocabulary terms that are unknown to them.
