THE BRIDGE-HELPFUL READING LITERACY STRATEGIES

Reading Literacy
3.2 Activities for children with migrant backgrounds – for learners of
all ages from primary to lower secondary school level
by
Jana Špilar Dodič, teacher of Slovenian at the lower secondary school
level, Slovenia
Introduction:
The number of pupils with migrant backgrounds is increasing fast in our society. At
Osnovna šola Pivka, approximately 30 percent of our students are of migrant
backgrounds. These include children who were born in Slovenia, but whose grandparents
moved to Slovenia during the war in Yugoslavia. For most of them Slovenian is not their
first language, and many of them still have difficulty expressing themselves in Slovenian.
Then there are those children who have moved to Slovenia recently with their families,
and have serious difficulties in communication. Every year, approximately three children,
usually from the former Yugoslav countries of Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia, come to our
school. In the past, our school also hosted children from China and Russia. In Slovenia,
some arrangements have already been made at the national level for these children. Every
migrant child receives a special status after moving to Slovenia, which means that for the
first two years they can be exempt from being graded, because it is important that they
first assimilate into our society. They usually get an extra hour of Slovenian per week,
which, unfortunately, is not a lot.
For this reason, our school organizes special workshops for migrant children who have
difficulties communicating in Slovenian. The purpose of these workshops is for the
teachers to talk Slovenian as much as possible with these children, and use fun activities
through which they can learn the new language more quickly, as well as learn about
Slovenia, our habits and customs.
All of our workshops usually start with a game, which serves as an ice breaker and helps
the migrant children introduce themselves.
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