English Progress

Occasionally, one of our friends asks us if Shaling is proficient in English yet. Sometimes they are surprised when I say no. Her communication skills have come so far in 21 months that it is sometimes easy to forget that the reading and writing develop at an entirely different pace. The Chinese language has NO plurals (one cat, two cat, or fifty cat, not cats), only ONE verb tense (I run a race today, but I also run a race last week, I run a race tomorrow, etc.), no alphabet (each character is a word ), no phonics (there are no symbols for sounds ), and no lingual gender differentiation (there is only IT, no HE or SHE, no HIS or HERS, etc.)

Knowing all that, I never cease to be amazed at how far she's come. Yes, it is probably easier for a 9-year-old (now 11-year-old) than an adult, but probably not quite as easy as it would have been if she'd arrived here at a much younger age. Because she is not quite English-proficient (I am guessing her to be at a late 2nd grade reading level), she is still Pass/Fail at school. However, having seen her percentage scores, I know her lowest grade would have been a C, which isn't too shabby for someone still requiring language assistance.

On a side note, Preston's report card was pretty danged good too -- mostly A's, with two B's. One B was a 93% (the highest B possible) and the other was in Pre-Algebra and this is his first year in advanced math. He struggled to settle in to a new routine at the beginning of the year (his first year of junior high -- 7th grade), so I'm thrilled with those grades.

In addition to Shaling's report card, each quarter we receive a Progress Report from Mrs. Bivens (her E.L.L. - English Language Learner - teacher). She receives a rating from 1 through 9 in various categories. 1-3 indicates a Beginning Level; 4-6 indicates a Progressing Level; 7-9 indicates a Proficient Level. Her ratings this quarter were as follows:

9 - Repeats Words
9 - Makes One Word Responses
9 - Knows Alphabet Names & Sounds

7 - Uses English With Classmates
7 - Can Write A Simple Sentence

6 - Starts A Conversation
6 - Asks Permission Appropriately
6 - Uses Context For Reading Unfamiliar Words
6 - Pursues The Meaning Of Unfamiliar Words
6 - Tells Main Idea Of What Was Read
6 - Acquires Concepts In English (Think about that -- she is understanding new concepts in her new language -- pretty sure that 21 months into learning Chinese that would be virtually impossible to me.)

5 - Is A Good Listener
5 - Speaks In Expanding Sentences
5 - Participates In Speaking Activities
5 - Follows Simple Directions
5 - Follows Multi-Step Directions (She may have surpassed her dad on this one.)
5 - Retells A Simple Story
5 - Asks Questions When Not Understanding
5 - Uses Past Tense
5 - Uses Future Tense
5 - Makes Negative Responses Correctly
5 - Recognizes & Use New Words In Context
5 - Decodes Unfamiliar Words
5 - Has Other Strategies For Reading
5 - Read For Answers To Questions

4 - Responds In Complete Sentences
4 - Shares Own Experiences, Ideas, & Feelings
4 - Uses A Dictionary
4 - Writes Independently
4 - Can Recognize Written Errors
4 - Can Write A Paragraph
4 - Can Write A Story

2 - Makes Inferences From Written Text

I know from some emails I received from Mrs. Bivens that Shaling is currently learning some label for community helpers (nurse, teacher, pilot, photographer, police officer, etc.). Additionally, she is using Mad Libs to learn parts of speech. If you aren't familiar, a Mad Lib is a fun puzzle that many kids used to use to pass the time on long car rides. One player asks the other to provide a list of words (as listed below, a type of liquid, something icky, a piece of furniture, an article of clothing, a color, a part of the body, a plural noun, an adjective, an adjective, a plural noun, an animal, a silly word, an adjective, and an adverb). However, the second player has no idea how those words will be used (they haven't seen the story with blanks). After the first player has filled in all of the blanks, a nonsensical story is created. Below is a Mad Lib that Shaling enjoyed so much that she asked Mrs. Bivens to email it to me.

HOW TO ENJOY YOURSELF ON THE BEACH When you go to the beach, you must take along a big blanket, a thermos bottle full of water
TYPE OF LIQUID, lots of suntan pee
SOMETHING ICKY, and a couple of folding chairs
PIECE OF FURNITURE (PLURAL). Then you put on your swimsuit
ARTICLE OF CLOTHING so you can get a beautiful green
COLOR to last you all summer. You also should have a big hat to keep the sun off your waist
PART OF THE BODY. If you want exercise, you can find some beaches
PLURAL NOUN to play volleyball with. Volleyball is America’s favorite nice
ADJECTIVE game. You can also bring a/an hot
ADJECTIVE lunch, such as hard-boiled shalings
PLURAL NOUN, a few dog
ANIMAL sandwiches with mustard, and some bottles of laugh
SILLY WORD cola. If you remember all of the above and get a place near a/an yummy
ADJECTIVE lifeguard, you can sunbathe hungry
ADVERB all day.