Hello,

I am a new first grade teacher from Boston, MA. For the first time I am teaching students who do not speak English as their primary language. At the same time, English is the primary language of about half of my students. I am struggling in my efforts to teach basic reading to both groups of kids at the same time. This week I attended the NAEYC conference in Atlanta, Georgia in search of tools to help me deal with this situation.

One software product that seemed promising is a sight words website called www.sightwordswithsamson.com. I looked at the free trial and it seems well suited for my English speaking kids but I am unsure of the value with the ESL students. The trade show rep assured me that this product is widely used by ESL teachers.

I was wondering if Dr. Zack ever reviews websites or other tools and if so, would he be willing to post his thoughts on this site.

Sorry for the long-winded posting,
BB