I'm new to public school--and certainly new to MS, and I find myself in a tough situation--kids who have been in ESL too long, don't care, and not many people care about them. I have been asking for help and here a few things that have been suggested to me:

1. Freedom Writers (watch the movie, read her book, get ideas).

2. Bring magazines to class and let them pick out an article or two that they would be interested in. When I go home, I record them on a cd (sound recorder on my pc works just fine) and create some sort of puzzle and extension activity to go with it (it can be as easy as circle/write as many nouns as you can from the article...). I found some good activities to make at www.puzzlemaker.com . I tried it for the first time today and for the FIRST time, I was able to teach a whole lesson without having to stop and redirect. It was phenominal. Now, I looked at the work they did and I noticed that they didn't complete (or do it??) it, so tomorrow they will be completing it before we can move on to something new.

3. Have lunch with them--eat with them and ask about their home life. Get to know them/connect with them and let them know that I care.

I have tried so many other things too--watching movie clips, reading high interested/culturally relevant texts, moving seating charts, trying to call home (with no luck, of course...), having them write in their journals, breaking out the text book and boring them to death... the list goes on and it's only the second week of school!!!!!!!!

I'm still open to ideas, and I'll post more when I can.