Working With Immigrant Children in Schools

Abstract

Before one gets into a classroom to teach, he or she needs to have acquired some basic teaching skills. Teaching in a conventional classroom seem simple, although may sometimes be difficult. However, teaching children from diverse backgrounds can be challenging. No matter the number of years of experience a teacher may have, teaching immigrant children with limited language skills and in some cases weak foundation in formal education is a challenging task. This chapter critically examines immigrant children and their education, some of the challenges that hamper their learning, and some practical skills that teachers will need to effectively teach them. Teachers need to understand the complexity and diversity of children under their care, appreciate the circumstances in which immigrant children live, make the necessary efforts to retrain or acquire some additional skills to enable them to become competent to effectively support learning of the increasing immigrant children population that continue to flood their classrooms.