Parents of ELLs: Here’s What To Look For in a Preschool Program
My goals as a preschool teacher are for all my students to:
- Feel happy and safe in my classroom, and,
- Have fun and enjoy learning even as they develop the ability to function as part of a group
This last part — that is, to function as part of a group — is one of the hardest things children need to learn when they’re in preschool. It involves suppressing the habit and urge to do what they want at any given time. There are surely constraints at home too but rarely do they involve having to share the space with a dozen other children, and following an agenda created for the group as a whole.
Learning what I’ll call “group skills” is obviously harder for English Language Learners (EELs), who don’t understand what the teacher is saying, not because they have difficulty hearing or understanding language but because they don’t speak English.
Based on my 15 years as an early childhood special education teacher, here are five general preschool program components particularly beneficial for ELL preschoolers, and specific questions to ask:
