PROMPT 3: Relating to Carlson

In order to be a good teacher sometimes we need to break the barriers and make some change. We, as teachers, need to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning. As seen on my last prompt there are many students that have English as their second language. The way they are being taught and assessed is affecting their learning. We need to come up with different type of activities that will teach and help our students understand that there is more out there rather than just our “normalizing community.”

At some point we will need to accommodate to a need of our student. When it comes to testing a student, that are English Language Learners, we need to either give them more time while testing or give better examples that we believe will help. On one of my tutoring sessions, Ms. Klaire asked me to test Jasmine, Melissa and Nelson, out in the hallway. She gave me a list of 20 words and told me to first read the word to them, then give them the word in a sentence and finally to repeat the word to them. I thought it would be easy to test the children, but I was wrong. When I began testing them I noticed none of them wrote anything on their paper. I decided to sound out the word for them a few times to see if it would help. I kept encouraging and telling them that they could do it if they tried, and they did. Ms. Klaire came out to see what was wrong because according to her I was taking too long because she was done testing the rest of the class using the same words. I apologized, and began to do it her way again but the children had blank marks on their paper. Ms. Klaire needs to give the children a better opportunity to show what they know, because I was able to see their capability with the bit more time that I gave them. This reminded me of what we discussed in class about “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB), a program with a goal to see improvement in the future with Reading and Math. The NCLB has a great goal but fails when it sees all students being the same. They don’t see that there are students that are ELL’s or students that have disabilities, and are testing them all alike.

Not everyone realizes that we are all unique in a certain way. We have the ability to do a lot but sometimes we need to do it a little bit more different than others. At times we need to help people see that there are people that need respect and a type of opportunity. As a competent teacher we should teach our kids that there are sociocultural differences. There are some people that stick to their norms and avoid the fact that there is more out there then just their norm. In example we have ELL’s that are not receiving the same help at home like other English speaking students. All of this reminds me of Dennis Carlson who wrote the article, “Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community”. In this article he talks a lot about gay people being treated wrong but he also focuses on the five components of Democratic, Multicultural Curriculum. He talks about us, as teachers, having protection and equality for differences and protection of minority rights. He says we should challenge the “essentialistic worldviews”. He tells us that we should cross and rupture the boundaries between different people. We should build alliances and hear what people have to say from their personal experiences.

PROMPT 2: Relating to Goldenberg

As I mentioned in my last blog many of the students walked up to me and asked me questions kindly. One of their many questions was if I spoke Spanish, when they heard that my answer was yes they all had a smile in their face. I noticed that out of the 24 students in the class, about 20 of them are Hispanic and there are only about 4 students that are Asian. I believe that they were excited to see that I spoke the same language as them since Ms. Klaire and the teacher assistant do not speak Spanish, since they are both Asian. As I looked at the data in Infoworks.com I came across specific information gathered from the school. They say that 62% of the students in the school are Hispanic, 17% of the students are Asian, 12% are African American, and 9% of the students are white or Native American.

The three students that I have one on one time, every time I go to the school, are all Spanish speakers that have more trouble reading in English. Jasmine, one of my three students gets help from her classmates because she does not speak English at all. Her two classmates always talk to her in Spanish to help her understand the class assignment. I had a feeling that Jasmine was shy and she didn’t like to speak in front of the other students. One day I let the other students do a different activity while I took Jasmine aside. I asked her, in Spanish, to tell me what she knew in English because I sensed that she understood and knew some words. She let me know that she understood little words in English but that she did not know the ABC’s neither in English nor in Spanish. I was shocked to hear this, I wrote down the alphabet for her and I began to sing the ABC’s with her. She told me that it was the first time she heard that song and she let me know that no one in her house spoke English. This gave me an understanding of the reason why she was having a more difficult time then the rest of the students.

The situation with Jasmine reminded me of the article that I read for class from Claude Goldenberg, titled “Teaching English Language Learners”. Goldenberg made us feel in some sense how it felt to be brought up speaking one language and then being thrown into school where they only spoke English. It is a challenge for a child to get through when they are not receiving the appropriate help. Goldenberg talks about their being a lack of success when non-English speakers are not receiving the appropriate help. Goldenberg talks about teaching ELL’s (English Language Learners) to read in their first language and then in their second language because it can help them succeed in their reading. I believe that if this was to happen in this elementary school, Jasmine would be given an opportunity to succeed with the rest of the school and improve their test scores.

With the diverse school the children love to show their cultural capital. Nelson, one of my one on one students, knows we are both Hispanic but have different cultures. He likes to ask me random questions like if I had ever had a certain food that he knows or if I had visited a certain place that his family usually goes to. The diversity in this school allows us and the students to learn things and get new experiences from one another.

PROMPT 1

Living in Providence I was not so shocked to see the type of neighborhood that surrounds the elementary school that I was placed in. This school is close to a highway and to its right stands a liquor store. The neighborhood is very loud because it is part of a main street. As I walked towards the red blocked building I noticed that the school only had two floors and was not as big as other elementary schools in Providence. The building had a small parking lot located in front of the building where only about ten cars fit and a large blue dumpster that they have. At first I was confused which door was the main door because they all seemed to look like side doors.

As I walked through the hallways I saw many signs that where in English and in Spanish, most of the signs had rules of the building and others just had class pictures. I was so nervous to walk into the class because I did not know what to expect. I was welcomed by Ms. Klaire who introduced me to the students; they all greeted me in a very kind way. As I stood waiting to be instructed, I looked around the classroom and I noticed that the classroom was split up into different sections. Such as a library section, a science section with plants they are growing, and they had posters of the words they were focusing that week. The students each had their individual desks but they were put together in groups of four or six.

As I got to meet the students they all seemed very nice and were excited to have me there. These students are taught to value respect, it shows a lot by the way they greeted me and four out of their five class rules have to do with showing respect. Their first rule says to stay in your seat and work quietly, the second one says to raise your hand and wait quietly, the third one says to keep your hands feet and objects to yourself, and the fourth one says one person talks at a time while others listen. Another way that they also showed their good manner to respect was that a few students walked up to me and asked kindly if they could ask me a question and as I answered yes they asked if I was really pregnant, children and their curiosity but the way they asked was very nice.

This school feels like all the teachers have good communication with each other and they share things that they all appear to do. It seems like they share ideas because I noticed that they all have their students in two lines when walking out of the class; one with boys and the other with girls. They all also have the students place their finger in front of their mouth to show that they are quiet and ready to walk out. The teachers all seem to know each other very well which to me is a great thing.