New immigrants

​Pupils who are new immigrants from Ethiopia come from very different backgrounds than most of our pupils. Their world knowledge is often very different than that which we assume the typical Israeli pupils have. It is a known fact that, in order for learning to occur, we must rely on prior knowledge on which to build new knowledge. This is especially important when teaching a foreign language. Trying to have pupil do a performance based task on planning a vacation for their families, when that pupil has never been on a vacation in their lives – with or without their families – is like asking your typical EFL teacher to learn to pilot a spaceship. The majority of us would not have enough previous relevant knowledge (aviation? physics?) to get 10 meters – let alone hundreds of kilometers – off the ground. 

This area of the site will include activities that you have found to be relevant – whether they come from a specific book, or are activities that you developed or took off of the internet – if you used it, and found it to be appropriate, please share. And then come back and find treasures that YOU will be able to use.