Special Thoughts - In the Corner, Not the Ring

The other day I ran into a SERT who is following the blog (yay!) but who said she is feeling badly because she can’t fit time into her schedule to be in Core French classes. So just to clarify for anyone else who may have misunderstood … I can’t either!!! Like every other SERT, my schedule is jam-packed supporting English literacy and numeracy, plus the Empower reading program eats up two hours of my day every day, and I don’t speak French (yet) … so no, even with this project, I am not providing direct SERT support for Core French. My ‘new’ role with Paul is as a collaborative, collegial learning partner - researching the latest techniques from the pros, gathering/co-creating some useful materials together, and cheering him on.  I’m more like the guy holding the towel in the photo - I’m in his corner, but I’m not in the ring.

Things I’m Grateful For:
- Paul’s willingness to share his practice with me, and his patience with my lack of experience with FSL teaching (and French in general)
- My SERT friend telling me how she really felt when she read our blog!

Things I’m Wondering About:
- I should say “wondered about” … I used to wonder if there was any hope for a unilingual SERT being able to help students build French skills. I did a LOT of reading over the Christmas holidays and learned from Dr. Nancy Wise and others that building phonological awareness (pre-reading) skills in English (or French) transfers to the other language! So yes! The time we spend building early literacy skills in English really is going to help our struggling students with their French literacy as well, and vice versa! If you are interested in the reading I did, let us know in the comments below. 

Lisa ☺