Kindle with Dictionary function is a brilliant advice. Can’t thank you enough. Did a quick google and turn out that will help us tremendously. A heartfelt thank you. Much appreciated.
You can still ask to have them tested if you want ESP services. It will also give them extended time in test
I have to say: The OP’s written English is really good. His or her accent may be pronounced, but there are lots of immigrant parents, including some on CC, who never attain that level of facility with written English.
The transition to a more demanding school may be a much bigger part of what is going on with the kids than English deprivation. Encourage them to read more, and even to watch more challenging movies.
Hi JHS
Part of the problem is the town we live in. We live one of the nicest towns of Morris County in New Jersey. The majority of students are Americans and there are very few immigrant families like us.
It does not matter in fifth grade if they are academically behind their peers. Are they young for the grade? Are they still really childish? Are they behind in EVERYTHING or just English? Are they perhaps so interested in other stuff that they really don’t give a monkeys about reading and writing at the moment? Are they perhaps better in other things than other kids in their grade?
Is it possible that they are dyslexic or dysgraphic? Is it possible that they just don’t like reading and writing and really have no interest and perhaps reading and writing will never be their thing? My husband is a math guy with mulitple degrees. The only books he reads have sudoku puzzles in them. I am a words person. I failed algebra twice, but I have an english degree. Hubby will never enjoy words, I will never enjoy numbers. If you suspect a learning disability, ask for your kids to be tested. Ask their teachers if they have any concerns.)
I have a college kid and a high schooler. I am going to tell you unequivocally that your kids are still becoming the people, the students, the learners that they have yet to become. Maybe this is just they way your kids are, for now. Maybe it isn’t. Your kids are going to change sooooo much before they are ready to apply to college. But for now, they need to just be kids and become who they will be. (I say that with the caveat that if they have learning disabilities, get that sorted out asap.)
There are many vocabulary-building books you can find in any library or decent bookstore. And I agree with rosered55, in that you could make it a family effort. All of you could challenge yourselves with difficult readings you do together – then study the new vocabulary.
Hi @Lindagaf
A great post. Thank you for the write up. Yes we have one of sons tested for ADHD. He came back Ok. The doctor who tested him asked us to get him tested to see his IQ level. He is like your husband. A math wiz. He is ahead of his peers in math. Loves puzzles and math. He is also the iPad and Xbox guru in his grade. He is the leader of a lot of kids in the gaming etc. He doesn’t like books. Finds them boring. He is pretty normal in every sense except English.
Your point is well taken. Thanks for the insight.
@ArdenNJ , just leave it at “he is normal in every sense.”
You can’t make a square peg fit in a round hole. Also this one: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Maybe words just aren’t their thing. 
First of all your kids struggle with English is not because you do not speak English at home. We were in the same boat (2 kids 4.5 years apart). Both were born here, did not speak English until they were 3, had grandparents and ethnic babysitters, lived in an ethnic community and participated in after school ethnic ECs. Did not matter - both became fluent in English fast. Our elementary school had 15% of kids speaking our heritage language at home but these kids only spoke English among themselves.
The reason for your kids problem is twofold - your elementary school is not good in teaching language and grammar and your kids do not like to read (and, possibly, language is not their forte in general). I remember my son liked some stupid series of books about toilets and was eagerly waiting for the next one. We cringed but were buying him this (and other) junk. Take them to Barnes and Noble often and let them browse. Entice them with cookies from the cafe. Whatever it takes - make them read.
You may have to proactively start taking them for English tutoring (enrichment).
They will not read on their own if there is something easier and more stimulating available. Electronics were weekends only in our house, leaving reading as the best available entertainment. It does not have to be quite that restrictive, but time limits may help.
Hi @ArdenNJ,
I think I am somewhat familiar with your situation. We are also from Eastern Europe, both kids were born here, in the US, both of them started school with almost zero English. It was slightly easier for us because the majority of the kids here are immigrant kids as well and also have imperfect English. However, that was offset by the fact that the majority of them are from Asia and their “linguistic differences” are very poorly compatible with ours (both were pretty bad, though ).
First, please, don’t think that having your “home language territory” at home is bad for them - I cannot even list in how many ways it enriches their lives and education. Do your kids read/write in your native language? We had our kids reading and writing in our home language before starting school and it helped a lot - all the foundations for reading were there, just needed to switch the language.
We also had some difficulty with their English vocabulary initially (although it was earlier). My S was in ESL at that point and we found out that it wasn’t the lack of English words - it was the lack of concepts behind those words. He wouldn’t know and will have difficulty with them in either language. Extra reading solves the problem. Also, great advice about Kindle - we use that feature all the time (and kids do, too).
You can also try watching Jeopardy with them - that’s actually how reading in English “clicked” for my S. Also, since they are gamers, look for vocabulary-oriented games online -my kids enjoyed them.
About the rest I absolutely agree with all the other posters - just have them reading, communicate with the language teacher at school and don’t worry, you still have plenty of time.
Another note - my math-inclined S also wouldn’t just read any book - it took several tries to find those he liked (usually the more humor and adventures, the better) . What also helped is reading with him side-by-side and discussing the book along the way.
Good luck!
My sister-in-law watches television with closed-captioning turned on in order to improve her English. It really helped her seeing the words as she heard them spoken.
I think you should have your kids assessed by an expert. I’m not convinced that the issue is that you speak your own language at home. We know many US-born children of immigrants who speak another language at home and they are not necessarily behind in reading. There might be something else going on.
When did they graduate from ESL classes? What did their ESL teachers have to say about their progress? What is your state requirement for follow-up? You need to know that information. Your kids might qualify for continuing ESL services. In some districts it is necessary to lawyer-up to get help.
Do you have a good public library? It doesn’t matter much what your kids are reading, just that they do read. Make friends with the children’s librarian there and let that person help your kids find things that interest them.
Screening language learners and multilingual children for learning disabilities is very challenging. Get help from the ESL teacher in working through that stuff. It is easy to over or under identify learning issues when there are second languages involved.
Are your kids’ friends good readers? Do they share books and talk about them, or do they have other interests? Do applicants from your kids’ school who have classroom grades like your kids’ normally perform better on the private school placement tests than your kids did? Some of the issues you see might just be products of the school itself.
Hi @happymomof1
You have asked many questions and I will try to answer them all as much as I can. If I am not clear, please let me know so I can clarify more.
I dropped my kids to first day of Kindergarten in September 2011 and they knew little to no English.
In December 2011, the ESL teacher tested my kids and said they passed the English threshold and they didn’t ESL. Kindergarten was half a day. Either my kids were little Einsteins and learned passable English in just 3 months or school did us wrong.
No they didn’t have any ESL teachers at school. But they speak English like an American now and I don’t think they will qualify for ESL. Their issue is vocabulary and complex grammar mostly. What our sons teacher told us last week was exactly this. By the way this teacher is from England. She said most American kids hear this complex grammar at home listening to their parents. They learn about idioms, catch phrases at home. Your kids don’t have that chance. Up until 2 years ago they would watch TV but nowadays they aren’t interested in TV either. They prefer to spend their free time on electronics.
Friends of our kids are good readers yes. But they mostly talk about games and stuff not about books. They have other interests like sports and music besides Electronics.
Some kids from our school did very well on ISEE that our kids took and didn’t do so well on. But this was for English. In Math, both my kids did better than regular kids.
Today we received their report for 2nd Trimester. Top grade is 4. My kids’ grades are mostly 4’s in Math, Science and Technology but mostly 2 and 3’s in Reading and Writing.
Both my kids are helpers to both of the teachers in Math where teachers use them as help to explain certain mathematical concepts to other kids in the classroom.
I hope I answered most of your questions. If not, please let me know.
Hi @Lindagaf
Your posts are refreshing. Great analogy with the Horse example. Thanks again for all you say. I understand what you are trying to say. I just can’t stop blaming myself with their struggles in English. I wish I didn’t accept the offer from my company to move to USA. I did well for myself and my wife but did I cost my children’s future forcing them to live in a country where their parents don’t speak the language very well? Questions, questions, questions.
A few thoughts.
- The language of academic learning is very different than conversational language. When younger, I could,converse in french...but I NEVER would,have been able to attend a french speaking only school. It's a different language subset.
- You don't have to take your kids to Barnes and Noble. You can take them to the library.
- You speak your native language at home...and I want to say...it is a huge gift that your kids at bilingual.
- In addition to speaking your native language at home, I am going tomguess that you didn't have a lot of English anything kicking around...like children's books, magazines, newspapers, etc. so your kids really didn't get exposed to English until they started school. That being the case...it can take up to six up years to become fully fluent for learning in a language.
- Does your school have an ELL (English Language Learners) teacher? If so, request annevaluation of your oids' competencies in English. This can be done.
- Watching TV is nice for receptive language, but it really doesn't do a thing for speaking. It simply is NOT interactive. The best way to learn speaking is in an interactive way...not by watching TV. Plus...when watching TV...the show just zips by. Your kid has no opportunity to ask questions or get clarifications, or have something repeated.
Watching TV has a place…but it’s not a language teaching format in my opinion.
- Do your kids do well in any school subjects? For example, some ELL kids do fine in Math. Or better in science or on situations with hands on learning.
- Are your kids involved in any activities with peers outside of school? Sports, scouts, anything where English would be spoken in a more social situation?
Hi @Tanbiko
Thanks for sharing your experience. Tutoring is what we will do if we can’t help them on our own.
Thank you very much my friend. My kids can speak our native language but can’t read or write. It is our mistake I know. I wish we handled this language thing better. FYI. I just ordered 2 kindles for them. That was a great advice from @bodangles . I think we have a little plan in place. We will see how things will progress. Thanks again for your input.
My younger child and I had a mother/daughter book group for many years starting around 5th grade. It met monthly. In turns the families hosted with the host kid selecting the book for that month and preparing some discussion questions. The book group aspect got her reading books that she otherwise would not have selected. Gradually their discussions became deeper. A couple of the mom’s were good at taking questions to another level.
Naturally, with kids around there were plentiful snacks! We set a meeting time that was consistent every month such as the second Tuesday of the month.
Through sports and networking we tried to have kids from different schools. Perhaps you can form something like this or your local bookstore runs groups.
We lasted until 10th grade when sports and plays were more important to them.
Reading, crossword puzzles, flashcards with word games (and math too, if that makes it fun for them). Often kids can read aloud and understand none of it. I worked with a boy (4th grade) and he had no comprehension. He wanted to read books for ‘older’ kids because he wanted to be smart, so his teacher and I were trying to get him to slow down, to read at an age appropriate level (not Harry Potter or other fantasy books because he couldn’t imagine what the words meant). I’d bring in non-fiction, sports articles, basketball stories as that he could understand.
Magazines can get kids reading as there are pictures and the articles are usually short. My daughter liked reading books on tape, following along with the tape. That helped her a lot but it is slow going.