This month’s You Ask, We Answer question comes from Debbie McManus. Debbie works with Lancaster County Adult Education in Lancaster, SC. Debbie wants to know if the English Forward curriculum could be used in elementary schools. My initial thought was that many of the interactive strategies seem a natural fit for young ESL learners, but I checked with Dr. Heide Wrigley who was instrumental in developing English Forward to get her take on the question. Here’s what Heide had to say:
The model itself (the Lesson Flow along with the strategies) is definitely transferable. The content, however, is geared toward adults. Our approach (purposeful teaching and engaged learning aka “explicit teaching”) is used in K-12 as well as in adult programs and in colleges.
The strategies should be transferable to different populations including elementary school kids. The following strategies would work particularly well: Think-Pair-Share; Total Physical Response; Language Experience approach, Flash Cards; go Fish. Memory; Simon says; Chalk Talk; and of course the various strategies involving multi-media (visuals; PP, music; video)
Have any of you used the English Forward strategies in the elementary classroom? Tell us about your experience by clicking on the comment link below.
And don’t forget to submit your questions for You Ask, We Answer under the blue Ask A Question box on the right hand column of both the Blog and Teaching Tips pages. Right now we’ll be answering questions the middle of each month, but if we get a lot of questions and a demand for more posts, we’ll answer them more frequently. So be sure to submit your questions.