Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

Students who do not speak English as a first language often have a much more difficult time reading English than speaking it. These students usually find themselves reading books way below their abilities with in their own language because they are just starting to read English. But reading easy books written for much younger audiences doesn’t make anything easier; it makes the task insulting.
ESL students are usually very proficient in reading in their own language and can read books of the same level as everyone else in their grade; they just can’t read them in English. In middle school, I helped teach a Michael, a Spanish-speaking sixth grader how to read in English. He was exceptionally bright but painfully shy and that kept him from speaking in class and asking for help. Together, we read chapter books in the library a couple of times a week. He started to look forward to finishing the books and got excited to start new ones, but looking back, I wonder if he was ever insulted that we were reading books that were below his abilities in his first language.