Article 4-Designing a Seventh-grade social studies course for ESL students at an international school

As I was reading this article, I could relate to what Fisher was trying to put together. I too, had learned a lot from the chapters of Chamot and O'Malley's CALLA book. This strategy of brainstorming and using a web graph is one of the best ways to compile ideas on a special topic and gather whatever resources you need to create a lesson and make sure that you are looking out for the ESLer's interest. It will be hard but if you have your main topic, in this case, social studies, you can web this type of strategy for any subject. So long as you always keep in mind of your ESLer's, their need (individually), and work out your web, it can be done. This technique can also be used technology. For example, you want to do social studies on the Micronesian culture. I found that PREL is very resourceful in that subject. PREL even goes as far as giving you common every day words or phrases in the different Micronesian languages. I might use language as part of one of the student's assignment, they would exchange phrases and words in their language and give it to a classmate who is from a different island. I could also have them share their culture, different kinds of food, clothing, religion, and what they like to do in their spare time for enjoyment. The students would learn a little more about their peers to where they won't feel too uncomfortable or too shy to share with each other.
Many students feel that because their are of a minority group, that they don't want to speak out in fear that they might be ridiculed or be intimidated. We as teachers would all learn by this experience. We are all learners too!