Artifact # 5
Letter Home to Parents with ESL students: using the web site www.babelfish.com teachers can communicate to students and parents whose primary language is not English. They are able to supply students with notes home, and some assignments. When students are not able to speak the same language as their teachers and classmates, this often disables them in the classroom.
Context
This information sheet to parents with ESL students was created during
my pre-service training at Appalachian State University during the Fall
2000.
Impact
Students who are disabled by not speaking English as their primary
language are often left out of school activities because they cannot explain
to their parents what a note home says. This letter home about a
field trip will help the parents to understand about this trip. Having
this written in Spanish will provide a way for teachers to communicate
with parents, until the student has special help learning English.
Using this letter home, teachers will be able to assure that all of their
students have the same opportunities to attend the trip. The
web site www.babelfish.com makes it easy to change English to Spanish,
and then print a copy of this letter.
Alignment
Using the web page www.babelfish.com to make a letter home for parents
and students whose primary language is not English is a way that teachers
can use media and technology to support learning for their ESL children
(Tech.
Comp. 13.3). Also, teachers uses the knowledge of effective verbal
and nonverbal communication techniques to foster supportive interaction
in the classroom by using the information sheet to communicate with parents
effectively (INTASC #6) so that their
students can succeed. This web site could be used by the teacher
in many capacities. The teacher could continue with notes home to
parents, instructions for students, and to help the students learn English
better by having them translate the Spanish.