Newcomer
Curriculum
Outline
For students who are
ESL, EFL, ESOL,
SIFE, or Refugee
By Maria @Everyone Deserves to Learn
Thanks for downloading!
And may I add, thank you for the work you do. It takes a big heart to
shape little minds, and it takes an even bigger heart to help newcomers
adjust to life in the United States. Whether you’re teaching 5 year olds or
17 year olds, you know that some students come to the US lacking basic
foundational education in their home languages. It’s then up to us to
bring them up to grade level in just a few short months.
This curriculum outline is just that- an outline. I have topics divided by
units, but these four units took us two full school years to complete. They
may take your class one month, one year, or four years. No two classes
are alike. When I received my first class of newcomers, I searched high
and low for something like this and came up short. My students were 1st,
3rd, 4th, and 7th graders, and none had ever been to school before. One
had never even held a pencil before. When I say we started at the very
beginning, I am not exaggerating. We started with learning to spell and
write our names, learning the ABC’s, and learning to count to 10. Some
things took us a week to learn, some things took us 4 months.
In full disclosure, it took us almost two full school years to even get close
to a third grade Common Core standard. I can hear the gasps. Go
ahead and pick your jaw up off the floor. Here’s why: students need to
survive before they can thrive. In terms of language acquisition, that
means they need to be able to communicate verbally before they can
become readers and writers. I always say, “If they can speak it, they can
read it. If they can read it, they can write it.” It’s tempting to drill
students on sight words and grammar structures to have them keep up
with the class, but doing so without teaching strong verbal
communication skills may delay a student’s progress.
This outline is in no way intended to replace an existing curriculum you
may be using, nor is it intended to ensure student success for all learners.
It’s just what worked for me! And if there’s someone out there struggling
with newcomer students, then I hope it works for you too!
-Maria
Everyone Deserves to Learn 2016
These resources will help you get your Newcomers reading,
writing, listening, and speaking in all content areas. Find
them in my TPT Store: Everyone Deserves to Learn
Speaking: Writing:
• Hello • Name
• My name is/What is your • Date
name • Number Words
• How are you/I am ____ • Handwriting/tracing
• How old are you? I am… • One to one
• Where are you from? I am correspondence on
from… paper and from the
• Where do you live? I live board
at …
• This is my ____ (family Math:
words • I have #
• More/less
Listening: • Numerals 1-120
• Classroom • Number words 1-120
rules/procedures • Even/odd
• Hand signals for • Skip count by 2,5,10
• listen • Place value
• Speak/repeat • Counting on
• All of us • Basic addition/subtraction
• Wait facts
• Stop
• All done/no more Social Sciences:
• This one/right here • Important people in
school (teacher, nurse,
Reading: principal)
• Letter recognition • Important people in
• Consonant sounds community (police,
• Short vowel sounds firefighter, doctor)
• Family words
• Seasonal words
Everyone Deserves to Learn 2016
Speaking: Writing:
• I need help • Name
• Who is in your family? • Date
• Number Words
(And response)
• One to one
• Today is … correspondence,
• Tomorrow will be … • Sentence frames with
• Yesterday was…. days and months, word
• What do you like? I like families, sight words
…. (general nouns)
• Color identification Math:
• I need help • Even/odd
• Skip count by 3,4
• Place value
• Counting on
Listening: • Number words 51-100
• Classroom • Missing addend
rules/procedures • Arrays
• Hand signals • Multiplication facts
• Basic questions • Greater than/less than
• I have/who has games • Time
• 2D and 3D shapes
Reading:
• Long vowel sounds Social Sciences:
• Begin to blend • Seasons and weather
phonemes and • Clothing and food
digraphs • Environmental signs:
• Seasonal words stop/yield/one
• Reading for fluency way/hospital
Everyone Deserves to Learn 2016
Speaking: Writing:
• Expressions (Wow, Ok, • Sentence frames with
Great) word families
• What did you do • Sentence frames with
yesterday/this seasonal words
weekend? • Picture writing prompts
• I did, I went, I saw…
• Where is the … It is Math:
in/on/at …. • Money
• Word problems
Listening: • 2,3,4 digit addition and
• I have/who has games subtraction
• Following one and two • Estimation
step directions • Rounding
• Balancing equations
Reading: • Division
• Rhyming poetry
• Emergent readers Social Sciences:
• Reading for fluency • Classifying objects
• Reading for (small/large/heavy/ligh
comprehension t/soft/hard)
• Landforms
• Geography
• American symbols
• Animal habitats
Everyone Deserves to Learn 2016
Speaking: Writing:
• What did you say? Can • Picture writing prompts
you repeat that? • Beginning Middle End
• May I please… • Lists of objects in
• I heard you say… categories
• I agree/disagree… • Punctuation and
capitalization
Listening: • Writing from dictation
• I have/who has games
• Following three and Math:
four step directions • Geometric shapes
• Phone numbers/area • Measurement
codes/zip codes • Perimeter
• Area
Reading: Symmetry
• Identify nouns • Equal parts
• Identify action verbs • Fractions
• Identify adjectives • Graphing
• Leveled readers
• Summarizing plot with Social Sciences:
beginning middle end • Animals or Objects
Can/Have/Are charts
• American traditions
• States of matter
• The water cycle
• Current events
Everyone Deserves to Learn 2016
