Struggling with Irish in fifth class- help please

Stepmum2012

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could help/advise me on the best course of action to take for a child in 5th class who is struggling with his Irish.

Bit of background first to put everything in context.
I'm John's stepmum and he stays with us two nights every week, Tuesday & Thursday. His dad (my husband) left school early and did not study Irish at second level so by his own admission, cannot help with Irish.
His mum sometimes checks his homework, sometimes doesn't (I'm going on her signing/not signing the homework diary). I haven't a clue whether she was good, bad or indifferent at Irish herself at school.

John is very good at Maths and pretty good at English, with the exception of a bit of laziness when it comes to correct spelling.

However his Irish really seems to have fallen behind.
He seems to have missed out on lots of the basic words/verbs like Chonaic, Chuala, Feach etc.
He also struggles to read in an 'Irish acent' if you understand me-
For example, the Irish word for woman is bean, pronounced 'ban' but he will pronounce it as bean, as in tins of beans.
I would have thought that words like 'fir' and 'bean' were taught in classes lower than fifth?

I suspect John has been dodging some of his Irish homework in the past by 'accidentally' leaving book at school/ at childminders/ at mam's house.

Anyway, that's the background. Now I'm wondering what we can do to help improve his Irish as I am very conscious of him needing to get into a reasonably good class in first year when he goes to secondary school.

My initial plan is:
1. Monitor homework closely for next 2-3 weeks
2. Contact teacher and find out where in the class John would be ranked ie. average, bottom 20pc, bottom 10pc
3. After hours grinds???

I would be eternally grateful for any help/advice.

Stepmum2012

CookieMonster.x

Stepmum2012 wrote: »

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could help/advise me on the best course of action to take for a child in 5th class who is struggling with his Irish.

Bit of background first to put everything in context.
I'm John's stepmum and he stays with us two nights every week, Tuesday & Thursday. His dad (my husband) left school early and did not study Irish at second level so by his own admission, cannot help with Irish.
His mum sometimes checks his homework, sometimes doesn't (I'm going on her signing/not signing the homework diary). I haven't a clue whether she was good, bad or indifferent at Irish herself at school.

John is very good at Maths and pretty good at English, with the exception of a bit of laziness when it comes to correct spelling.

However his Irish really seems to have fallen behind.
He seems to have missed out on lots of the basic words/verbs like Chonaic, Chuala, Feach etc.
He also struggles to read in an 'Irish acent' if you understand me-
For example, the Irish word for woman is bean, pronounced 'ban' but he will pronounce it as bean, as in tins of beans.
I would have thought that words like 'fir' and 'bean' were taught in classes lower than fifth?

I suspect John has been dodging some of his Irish homework in the past by 'accidentally' leaving book at school/ at childminders/ at mam's house.

Anyway, that's the background. Now I'm wondering what we can do to help improve his Irish as I am very conscious of him needing to get into a reasonably good class in first year when he goes to secondary school.

My initial plan is:
1. Monitor homework closely for next 2-3 weeks
2. Contact teacher and find out where in the class John would be ranked ie. average, bottom 20pc, bottom 10pc
3. After hours grinds???

I would be eternally grateful for any help/advice.

Stepmum2012

I don't think he'd learn much from grinds to be honest plus he's a bit young! What about the Gaeltacht? Colaiste na bhFiann do courses for 5th/6th class. It would reply bring him up while having a good time.

Feeona

How about having Raidio na Gaeltachta on in the background, TG4 etc. there are lots of programmes aimed at children on TG4, have a look at their website. Also have informal chats with him as Gaeilge if you can ie 'Conas atá tú?' An maith leat....?', Cén sórt aimsire atá ann inniu?' etc. Build the number of sentences as his confidence grows. Read road signs as Gaeilge too, this should also help with his pronunciation, and if possible find out the history of a few place names e.g. the Irish for Leixlip is Léim an Bhradáin which means 'Leap of the Salmon'.
You say you're thinking of having a chat with his teacher to find out where he is in class. Ask him/her if there's anything else you could be doing at home, he/she might be able to give you some specific ideas which target his weaker areas.

byhookorbycrook

R na G might be a bit tough, TG4 would be more appealing.

Stepmum2012

Thanks everyone, I'll check out what's on R na G or TG4 that might interest him.
In the meantime I'll try to keep on top of the homework and talking a bit of Gaeilge at home.
I like the road signs idea too.

Yes, the Gaeltacht could be on the cards for next summer.

This evening we were driving for an hour so we did a bit of chatting as Gaeilge and at the weekend I was explaining 'Ta athas orm an chorn seo a ghlacadh' from the All Ireland hurling final....'Ghlac me' was one of words to learn last week.

I've also picked up an English/Irish dictionary and another book so that I can refresh my own memory.

Thanks again

CookieMonster.x

Stepmum2012 wrote: »

Thanks everyone, I'll check out what's on R na G or TG4 that might interest him.
In the meantime I'll try to keep on top of the homework and talking a bit of Gaeilge at home.
I like the road signs idea too.

Yes, the Gaeltacht could be on the cards for next summer.

This evening we were driving for an hour so we did a bit of chatting as Gaeilge and at the weekend I was explaining 'Ta athas orm an chorn seo a ghlacadh' from the All Ireland hurling final....'Ghlac me' was one of words to learn last week.

I've also picked up an English/Irish dictionary and another book so that I can refresh my own memory.

Thanks again

Also there are Irish clubs run every week, one by Colaiste na bhFiann and one by Spleodar. They have separate ones for primary school children. It usually lasts 1.5 hours/2 hours and you just play games through Irish. It's not totally through Irish, there are English words thrown in so they understand so you're not in the deep end! It could help him just even to hear it being spoken.

emilydesmond

Stepmum2012 wrote: »

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could help/advise me on the best course of action to take for a child in 5th class who is struggling with his Irish.

Bit of background first to put everything in context.
I'm John's stepmum and he stays with us two nights every week, Tuesday & Thursday. His dad (my husband) left school early and did not study Irish at second level so by his own admission, cannot help with Irish.
His mum sometimes checks his homework, sometimes doesn't (I'm going on her signing/not signing the homework diary). I haven't a clue whether she was good, bad or indifferent at Irish herself at school.

John is very good at Maths and pretty good at English, with the exception of a bit of laziness when it comes to correct spelling.

However his Irish really seems to have fallen behind.
He seems to have missed out on lots of the basic words/verbs like Chonaic, Chuala, Feach etc.
He also struggles to read in an 'Irish acent' if you understand me-
For example, the Irish word for woman is bean, pronounced 'ban' but he will pronounce it as bean, as in tins of beans.
I would have thought that words like 'fir' and 'bean' were taught in classes lower than fifth?

I suspect John has been dodging some of his Irish homework in the past by 'accidentally' leaving book at school/ at childminders/ at mam's house.

Anyway, that's the background. Now I'm wondering what we can do to help improve his Irish as I am very conscious of him needing to get into a reasonably good class in first year when he goes to secondary school.

My initial plan is:
1. Monitor homework closely for next 2-3 weeks
2. Contact teacher and find out where in the class John would be ranked ie. average, bottom 20pc, bottom 10pc
3. After hours grinds???

I would be eternally grateful for any help/advice.

Stepmum2012

I am a transition year student in Donegal and I am creating a kit to help children in primary schools improve their Irish. With the help of parents I intend to help combat the struggles many student have with the Irish language. I would greatly appreciate it if you could email me with any ideas you would like me to include in my kit to help students such as your step-son. If you could please email me any of your ideas, I can also send you what will be included in thye kit so far. Your input would be greatly appreciated,
Emily

email - emilyd4896@gmail.com

slarkin123

Get a meeting with his teacher first. I know in our primary there's a resource teacher for the kids that are lagging behind. The school themselves might be able to help. Putting him in a conversational course would be a good idea as someone already said.

Big Bag of Chips

I have fairly good Irish and even I struggle with R na G!!

I always use short phrases at home. When dressing the kids (they're still small!) phrases like.. Seas suas, lámha suas, cas timpeall.. small phrases that they don't even notice now!

I know you want to improve his Irish, but don't make a huge issue out if it, don't over concentrate on it to the detriment of other subjects. Try keep it light.

And don't be too hard on his mam (checking his homework or not!) she may not be in any better a position to guide him than your husband is!

maxiem

deleted

Stepmum2012

emilydesmond wrote: »

I am a transition year student in Donegal and I am creating a kit to help children in primary schools improve their Irish. With the help of parents I intend to help combat the struggles many student have with the Irish language. I would greatly appreciate it if you could email me with any ideas you would like me to include in my kit to help students such as your step-son. If you could please email me any of your ideas, I can also send you what will be included in thye kit so far. Your input would be greatly appreciated,
Emily

email - emilyd4896@gmail.com

Hi Emily- from the parents point of view, a list of common words/verbs with an explanation of how they are pronounced phonetically (sp?) would be helpful.

slarkin123 wrote: »

Get a meeting with his teacher first. I know in our primary there's a resource teacher for the kids that are lagging behind. The school themselves might be able to help. Putting him in a conversational course would be a good idea as someone already said.

Thanks slarkin, parent/teacher meetings are next week so both parents will hopefully have a chance to find out what the teacher thinks. Spoke to his mum this morning & she says it's hard to get time with a resource teacher until he's very far behind the rest of the class.

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

I have fairly good Irish and even I struggle with R na G!!

I always use short phrases at home. When dressing the kids (they're still small!) phrases like.. Seas suas, lámha suas, cas timpeall.. small phrases that they don't even notice now!

I know you want to improve his Irish, but don't make a huge issue out if it, don't over concentrate on it to the detriment of other subjects. Try keep it light.

And don't be too hard on his mam (checking his homework or not!) she may not be in any better a position to guide him than your husband is!

Big bag of chips, thanks for that, phrases sound like a good idea. I don't think I'm making a huge issue out of it and definitely not to the detriment of the other subjects (all homework is checked).

I don't think I'm being hard on his Mam either, all I said was that I didn't know how good/bad she is at Irish herself. Had a chat with her this morning & she is aware of some of J's homework-dodging tactics too.
Husband has asked J's teacher to ensure that J's homework is written into his homework journal every day before he leaves school. Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction.

It's quite a frustrating position to be in to be honest- I want to make sure J does well at school but, given that he is stepson, I am not his Mam & I won't always be listened to.
Obviously living out of two homes is not ideal for J but that's his family position. There is no animosity between the parents, which means it is a fairly amicable set up 99% of the time.


Thanks all

byhookorbycrook

I don't know of any school offering learning support for Irish,most schools are hard pressed to cover English and maths!

doctorwhogirl

Bun go Barr (kids book) has a lovely section at the back with basic sentence structure and phrases etc.... that's laid out really clearly. I had a child in my class really struggling with Irish last year so I set him a bit extra every night of making two sentences using the sentence builder pages at the back of the book. Have to say, it really helped.

This website is great too!

http://www.isfeidirliom.ie/