English as a third, fourth or fifth language.

As much as I enjoy working with the staff at the Hand in Hand main office, I have to say, my favorite day of the week is Thursday (or any other day when I’m at the Jerusalem school) working with the 3rd and 4th graders.  The students I work with are generally a little ahead of their peers in the area of speaking, comprehension,  and writing in English.

Some come from families who are first language English speakers, some have spent time in English speaking countries, and some just have the language ‘gene’. One of my students left Israel with her family after second grade to spend a year in New York City immersed as a third grader. Beginning with no English at all, she returned from the States and is in the fourth grade, speaking English, Hebrew and Arabic fluently.  She writes poetry and helps with the third graders who come into the class mid-way through our time together.  Last week she designed a word search using an animal name list that we put together for the earlier class.



As a class, we do a variety of regular activities, reading, vocabulary, and from time to time we play hangman or word bingo.  Sometimes the kids talk about things that are going on in the school, their families and neighborhoods.  Because I don’t speak either Hebrew or Arabic, when they hit a snag, they work together to puzzle out the word that they’re looking for.  In pairs they work out rhyming words and help with definitions.  Word search puzzles are a big hit, and I use them as a reward or as the primary lesson wrapped around the vocabulary list of the day.  I’d like to tell you it was rocket science, but it’s really not, it’s just fun!

Sometimes we work on comprehension. A student or I will read an open ended story or a selected passage from a classic in children’s literature that I have been able to find here in English.  Just now we’re reading from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.



Last week as a reward for completing two pages in the workbook (remember how much fun those were when you were in school?) we made some pretty spectacular paper airplanes.   I found patterns for several more difficult styles that would require following directions, but I picked patterns so they could puzzle out the order.  Each pattern was marked with a numbered order and dotted lines.  After the initial instructions, including not getting ahead, we started to fold.  One. Two. Three.  Much to my surprise, the student who is the most reserved, the quietest, shyest most hesitant to speak English, exploded from her shell when we started folding airplanes.   It was almost a Hellen Keller, Anne Sullivan moment.  Instead of spelling water in my hand, she took charge.  This is the same little girl who will ask another classmate in Hebrew or Arabic to answer me in English.  Suddenly she was not only counting, but following directions, helping another student and at one point asked me, directly, in English, which way to fold the paper.  I knew she could do it!

Of course, I try to link our lessons to things the kids know, holidays and events in their lives, or new things they might enjoy.  Their primary English teacher is from South Africa, so many of our American holidays are unknown to her and wide open for me.  I usually have new vocabulary words to share, and we talk about the holiday, or the place or the person.  They all knew Halloween and we had fun talking about costumes and Purim.

Thanksgiving was interesting.  After explaining why the Pilgrims left Europe to live in the new world, several of the kids pointed out the similarities with people who come to Israel. Paired up, they each wrote a speech from the perspective of either the Turkey or an (assigned) alternative main course, explaining why we should eat the other. This even worked well for my vegetarian student who decided to be the turkey and suggested we have mashed potatoes and salad because she, the turkey, was too young to die.






Making gingerbread cookies after hearing the story of the Gingerbread Man was an adventure segueing into Christmas.

Every week is an adventure, so long as there are topics left and certainly we've got plenty of holidays, so far, so good.  They liked Halloween, Christmas, President Lincoln Birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Chinese New Year…but Groundhog Day? They just didn't get it.

Maybe if they had a groundhog type animal here….    

Nah, I never got it either and we have ‘em!