Race to adapt to remote ESL learning

Race to adapt to remote ESL learning

City educators say they’re bracing for herculean challenges in adjusting to teaching students remotely and are racing to adapt their lessons as the city rolled out additional guidelines for principals and teachers Wednesday.

Teachers and parents POLITICO spoke to described an onslaught of information being rolled out as the city begins the process of teaching more than 1 million students from afar, at dramatically different levels of learning, affluence and technological savvy — neverminded students who don’t speak English or those have special needs.

Islah Tauheed, a general education second grade teacher at P.S. 567 Linden Tree Elementary School in the Bronx told POLITICO 20 of her school’s families are in shelter and about 100 are living “doubled up” with relatives.

“When it came to Sunday night … I was so heartbroken,” Tauheed said referring to when the city finally decided to close schools amid the rapidly spreading coronavirus. “I didn’t have a proper goodbye or proper closure, or the fact that in the Bronx … 37 percent of our students are in temporary housing, just not knowing where they were gonna get their food.”

The school sent home a paper survey Friday for parents to asses their technological access and received 114 responses — 92 percent have smartphones and 94 percent have internet access, but only 58 percent have computers and laptops. There are six different languages spoken at the school, with more than 60 percent of families on the poverty line.

Learn more about this topic by reading this article on Politico.

After reading “Race to adapt to remote ESL learning” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.