WHAT TYPES OF INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES BEST MEET THE NEEDS OF THE LFS STUDENT?
First and foremost, prior to considering the instructional activities/strategies to be used, it is extremely important that the student be provided with a warm, caring school/classroom environment. This is vital because, as previously stated, LFS students often find all aspects of the school environment alien. The idea of not “fitting in” can eventually result in the development of low self-esteem and the risk of dropping out (Johnson, Levy, Morales, Morse, and Prokopp, 1986). Past statistics indicate that for many secondary LEP students, the middle school is often the beginning of a high dropout rate (Minicucci, 1985; Olsen & Chenn, 1988). Varying activities, providing cooperative learning opportunities, and using audio-visual aids while attempting to draw from the students past experiences is an excellent strategy to implement. The goal is to not only teach students literacy skills in the native language, but to also teach meaningful, communicative, and functional use of the English
