TEACHING ESL - FAQ'S & SCENARIOS

Background Information

• Planning instruction without a requisite level of background information
• Insufficient background information provided by the teacher
• Where do I go from here?

Establishing Rapport

• My tutee is resistant to help. I want to develop a trusting relationship.
• Fostering a partnership between tutee and tutor.
• Lowering the affective filter
• My tutee has become hostile to me
• What a difference a day makes
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The dual identity of my tutee

Sustaining Motivation

• Maintaining the focus and simultaneously engaging the student.
• Making the kids, "little teachers"
• Helping a tutee with limited English background express original ideas.
• I can't keep my tutee engaged
• Designing activities that will develop his vocabulary and keep him motivated
• Keeping the student attentive
• Mixing business with pleasure. Making assessment enjoyable.
• Finding alternative methods to reinforce instruction
• My tutee hates reading
• Getting a Student to Open up

Designing Instruction

• My student only talks when no one else is around
• Giving support, without always giving the answer
• Designing instruction for an emergent reader
• My student is embarrassed by the leveled books that he is reading and is consequently aggressive toward other students during reading time
• Designing instruction for a student who is a beginner in terms of language development
• Developing English through L2 versus using L1
• How do I make sure my lessons stick?
• When we work with friends, it doesn't show what he can do on his own.
• My student is enthusiastic about reading, but only when the book is written in Spanish.
• Using other students to help instruction for your tutee
• My student has trouble spelling and the teacher doesn't want me to spell the words for her.
• Using small group instruction to assess your student
• To correct or not to correct
• When is the appropriate time to shift activities
• Skipping the unknown words
• Scaffolding the student toward understanding
• She wants to teach me her language
• My student is constantly off task
  
A ctivities

• Developing vocabulary and oral fluency using dynamic activities
• Everyone else in the class wants to work with us
• My student is able to express her ideas orally, but has a low level of oral comprehension
• Developing oral comprehension
• Cutting across the content areas
• Designing a final activity that is memorable and ties everything together
• Variety is the spice of writing sentences
• Bringing out emotions