Today I had a Spanish boy in my class. It was his first visit to the Indonesian room. He is in Year 1 and has almost no English. Luckily I have Spanish and I gave him a quick run down on how our class works. I usually tell new students to just listen in and copy the others, and let them know that they do not need to speak until they are ready. It was a busy lesson, with me occasionally translating explanations into English and Spanish!

Anyway, I was really surprised when, during a game of ‘Di mana Bobo?‘, Nestor raised his hand. I asked him “Nestor, di mana Bobo?” and he said, “Putih”. Oh, we all celebrated by clapping. I told the class, “Nestor pandai!” He offered another answer during the same game and this time said “Jingga” with no prompting! I was amazed. I have taught EAL kids before, and usually they do not raise their hand in front of the class, especially when they are so new. I would hazard a guess that his hand will not be raised in his homeroom for some time yet. But because of this beautiful method of teaching with comprehensible input, he felt safe, heard controlled vocabulary repeated many times, and spoke when he felt confident. I love this way of teaching!!!!