Oral Language | Reading | Writing

Meet Sonia

Sonia is 6 years old, and is in kindergarten at an elementary school in a medium sized Midwest town.  Born in the Ukraine, Sonia and her family moved to the Midwest when she was 4 years old.  

Both of Sonia’s parents speak some English, but prefer to Ukranian and Russian at home.  Her father is in graduate school at a local university and her mother works at a local children’s museum.  Sonia has three older brothers.  The three spend much of their time playing games around the house.  Sonia’s favorite game is Jungle-Jingle.  Similar to Ring around the Rosie, the players hold hands and walk in a circle while the selected person, jungle, runs inside the circle until the song is over.

Sonia enjoys school, but really misses her grandparents back at home. She loves math and reading. Sonia’s official English language proficiency level is 2.8 (WIDA). 

Sonia receives daily ESL instruction through a pull-out program taught by a certified ESL teacher. She receives this instruction in a small group with 5 students at the intermediate levels of English proficiency.  Her school has a one-to-one technology program and provides each student with an iPad for use at school and at home.  Her regular classroom teacher does not yet have received specific training on how to work with ELLs.  

When Sonia is not studying, she really enjoys drawing. Her grandmother gave her a special coloring set to take with her to the states. She likes to draw pictures of her house and relatives in Ukraine, and hopes to go back and visit someday. 

Reading sample: Jen and Max Build a House