Assessment Myths

I find assessment to be extremely interesting, especially since it is such an important component of the ESL classroom. Educators constantly need to be assessing and reassessing their students to make sure that they are understanding the material, however it seems that there is much controversy about standardized testing, and initial testing of the ESL learners. 

I feel bad for ESL learners who are forced to take the same standardized tests as their English native-speaking peers, however, they need to learn the skills to succeed in these tests because it is going to be a part of their learning in the future. It is a hard choice for the ESL teacher to make, because they want their students to achieve dominance in the language but at the same time they want to see their students succeed on the state standardized test. I would say that it is wrong to teach to the test so that the students succeed, however I believe that ESL teachers can implement activities that mirror practices used on the standardized tests. The students need to understand the format of the test, such as multiple choice, short essay, short reading comprehension, etc., so that they can get a good score. All of the listed formats can be implemented in the classroom as well. For example, the students can read a short story and answer multiple choice questions after the reading to check for comprehension. This is not teaching to the test, because the reading can go with the content material, it is the idea that they are practicing multiple choice questions since many of them are unlikely to be familiar with it in the beginning. 

I feel bad for the teacher, Margaret, who was given two new students in one week without any background information on them. I can not imagine how hard that would be. I feel that ESL teachers have it the hardest, because they TRULY need to know each and every one of their students so that they can understand their mannerisms and their process in education. What I think is even harder, is that ESL teachers often get students in the middle of the year-- this happened in my practicum hours when a young girl from Guatemala arrived half-way through the first semester. It's almost as if the teacher has to go back and review everything, and change the classroom dynamic and everything, including changing her classroom vocabulary to that which is simpler for the newly arrived student to understand. Learning a language is a bottom-up process in which one skill needs to be dominated to build onto the next skill. It is extremely difficult to come into the school year after the most basic skills have already been dominated and the new students peers are moving up, while they are stuck at ground zero. This is why it is so important to know as much at the student as possible so that they are provided with the most effective education that caters to their needs. Assessment is important for this reason so that the students can be evaluated, and placed at a level that is comfortable to them.

I never learned about BSM or LAS before, so if I was to be a new teacher who recieved a new student with a low score of LAS, I would just assume that they had extremely LEP. The reality of this myth states that it is important to constantly assess the student after the initial assessments, and I believe that this is a no-brainer, because if I ever recieved a new student- I would constantly be assessing their progress in the class and in the target language.

Assessment is as important in the classroom as teaching is. This means that the teacher is not only assessing her students, but self-assessing her methods as well. Just because we learn many different methods that are thought to be effective, does not mean that they will be effective for the language learner. For this reason, assessment is required to ensure the success of each student and the success of the teacher as well.

11/14

QUE MALA SUERTE! what bad luck! I lost my Myths book, so now I am sad!

But anyways, like I have discussed before I am focusing on strategies for my 345 research paper, however I am having a hard time narrowing it down! I am not sure how to do so, because I feel like all strategies are great for the students, although I feel like I am going to be focusing on strategies that build the students literacy and how this will effect them in their regular classes. This material, is hard to find since there is not much research on how strategies can be implemented by the students in their regular classes, however I am interested to see if there is any research that discusses the benefits of literacy strategies in general. Luckily, there is a big focus on reading skills and writing skills in my ESL clinical classroom, so I am able to get many observations to support my paper.

I need to find a focus for my observation hours, however I have already been focusing on the use of strategies in the classroom, using these notes to hopefully benefit how I teach in the future. One thing that I wish to do with my students is prepare them for mainstream classrooms but I feel that there is so much that I need to do to prepare them, and not enough time. It is unfortunate that students cannot stay in ESL throughout their entire schooling experience, because I feel that the time they spend in the classroom is not sufficient to provide them with the competence they need to survive in the academic communication that school requires, There is so much to teach about culture, about the language, and about how to become autonomous in their learning that I fear I will not be able to completely prepare them! My only hope is to provide them with useful information that they can use outside of the classroom, and I truly advocate that strategies are a great way to do so!

Translating at parent-teacher conferences

So as you know, this past week I went to Chicago to translate at the parent-teacher conferences. I was placed in a 2nd grade classroom, with Mrs. Casper an African-American teacher who has been teaching for over 30 years and is close to retirement. I believe that they specifically placed me with this teacher to translate because she spoke with a thick accent, and many times she used African American venicular. I can she why this was a good choice, because for all of the parents that I translated for, it seemed that they did not understand a single word she was saying. She was a very inspiring teacher and she had much to say about what school is like in CPS. She has been working in Mexican communities throughout much of her experience and she says that she truly enjoys it, although she described to me many of the struggles she faces due to low funding and lack of materials. Even with the limited resources that CPS educators face, her classroom was full of color, with products of the student's learning displayed on all of the walls. I translated for 30 conferences, only 3 parents felt comfortable speaking English the entire time.

I had many questions to ask her what she does to aid the students who have limited English proficiency, and she had much to say. First of all, I would say that 99% of the students spoke Spanish as their first language. Also, about 95% of the parents who came in also had limited English proficiency as well. This means that the learners are spending the majority, if not all, of their time outside of school speaking Spanish. I asked Mrs. Casper how the limited English of almost all of her students effected her implementing lessons in the classroom. What she explained to me was interesting: she said that they do very basic stuff with a focus on developing their literacy in reading and writing. She explained that her goal is to build their vocabulary in using the language, and wants the students to focus on phonetics as well. When I asked her what she does to differentiate instruction for the students who do not even speak English at all, she explained that she just has to use big motions, or that the students will have a peer explain it to them.

There was a very interesting case of one student, whos mother was concerned because her daughter had never taken ESL classes in the past, due to the fact that there was no room and they were full. The mother seeked to get her extra help in building her skills of using English, although there was only one program that she could attend after school, however she could not attend this tutoring session because she has other priorities after school. I felt so bad for this girl, her mother was so concerned that she did not understand anything that was going on. I asked the mother if she had any older relatives that speak English and she said unfortunately no. I then asked if her daughter listens to English music or watches English tv...she explained that pretty much everything is in Spanish. I then suggested that she lets her daughter watch English tv and listen to English music, because the more exposure she gets to the language, the easier it will be for her to start understanding what the teacher is saying.

One of the things that I wanted to focus on was the concern that the parents had for their students learning. Since this was a second grade classroom, of course the parents were concerned with how their students were doing, however if this had been a highschool parent-teacher conference, I feel that there would be a much greater difference in attendance and concern for their childs learning. The majority of the parents were not really concerned with if they were doing well, pretty much every single parent asked if their child was behaving and if they talked to much.

As I said before, I found Mrs. Casper to be very inspiring. She was a very wise and experienced teacher who showed great passion in her teaching. I asked her what made her decide to stick in Chicago. I then explained that many people view teaching in CPS as a challenge, especially due to the lack of resources and the bad rep of the behavior of the students. Her response was very sincere and she said that she herself, as well as all of her children and their children, attended CPS. She told me that she could get a job working in a suburban area, with plentiful resources, and with well-behaved driven school- but that she prefers to work in CPS because it is much more rewarding. She said that her job is not easy, not in any way shape or form, however she wants to give these students the education that they deserve because she wants to make sure they succeed.

Overall, it was a very rewarding experience, and even more so it was interesting to see what the conferences were going to be like in this 2nd grade classroom in Little Village.

Chapter 10

This chapter was interesting, however I find it extremely ignorant of those who think that in America you should 'speak English'. First of all there is not official language in this country. There are 28 million people in this country who speak Spanish as their mother tongue. There are 2 million who speak Chinese, and about 2 million who speak French. And there is over 20 languages that are spoken in this country, so why so much emphasis on English? According to the chapter that people believe that using other language posses a threat to the dominance of English language. No one is trying to dominant English, however the population of SPanish speakers in this country is growing rapidly. Some people are just so ignorant, all we want is for all the students to have an equal education, and this means that some need more help than others. Especially those who have LEP.

Looking at all the the movements that took place, and all the acts that were passed, it seems as if the federal government cannot get it exactly right. Rather they get a litttttle bit closer each and every time.Hopefully, they will realize that the needs of these students are not fully being met, and that there are still changes that need to be made in order to assure their success. Without education, the students can not move onto college. With out college, many of the students end up working at jobs with no outlet, or 'dead-end jobs' as they say. Its a vicious cycle.

Communicating with Parents

Another topic that I wish to discuss is the importance of communicating with parents. This is obviously a necessary factor that plays an important role in the students education. The parents need to be involved and informed about what is taking place in their child's education, and if they are not informed how can they help the student with homework or projects that need to be completed outside of the classroom, etc?

Although with ESL students who have low English proficiency, it is most likely that the parents as well do not have a high level of English proficiency either. This complicates the communication process, since one ESL teacher can not know and be fluent in all of the home language of each of his/her students.

This Wednesday I am traveling to Little Village to be a translator for parent-teacher conferences. To me this is interesting and I am excited to see what it is going to be like, what the teachers are going to discuss with the parents, what the parents have to ask about their students learning, etc. I am really excited to use my Spanish as well obviously. The reason that I bring up this upcoming event, is because it is making me think about what it will be like if I have parent-teacher conferences with my ESL student's parents who have difficulties communicating in English. Very lucky are the students who's home language is Spanish because there is an abundance of ESL teachers who speak Spanish themselves. But what about the students who have parents that only speak Korean, or French, or Arabic, etc? It must be intimidating for the parents to come and talk with the teacher who does not know their language, whereas the Spanish  speaking parents are comforted because there is a translator present, or the ESL teacher speaks is already an native speaker of the language.

Stay tuned to see what I discover on Wednesday when I make my trip....

Strategies: What I notice in the field-

Sorry for the late blogging! I've been really sick as of late, and it has taken a toll on me and drained me from my studies. But anyways:

I've been thinking about my practicum hours a lot lately, and I've really been focusing on all of the strategies that are being implemented in the classroom. I truly believe that all of these strategies are excellent and that the students will be able to apply them in the ESL class, but more importantly they will be able to really apply them when they get into their 'regular' classes. The only thing that I noticed is that the students have to do so on their own and they are not guided on how to use them in their other classes. Because obviously in the 'regular' classes, the teachers do not place the emphasis on using any given strategy to achieve the learning material, but rather they present the material and expect the children to find their own independent ways/strategies to contextualize it, learn it and apply it. I observe in the classroom of a "co-taught" science class, in which my co-op is present in the classroom and catering to the 6 ESL student's needs. To describe what I mean by 'catering to the ESL students needs', I mean that she is walking around the room making sure that they understand the task at hand, or making sure that they are caught up on their project that is due. However, I do not see the teacher making extra handouts with much needed vocabulary for them, or differentiating the worksheets/homework to make them more understandable to the students' low English proficiency. More importantly, and focusing on strategies, I do not see the ESL teacher providing examples of how to take the strategies which they learn in their ESL classroom  and apply them to the science class. Therefore I question the effectiveness of the students learning such strategies, since they only learn how to apply them in their ESL classroom readings and activities. This means that the students need to take an independent role of deciding how to apply the strategies they learn to the material in their 'regular' classrooms.

   Also, as we have discussed in class, just because a student is presented how to use a certain strategy, does not mean that the strategy works best for them. Rather, I believe the goal of implemented strategies is to expose the students to different ways of learning and understanding material. This means that the student has to make an independent decision on which strategies that they wish to use in their regular classrooms. For this reason, I believe that content-to-strategy is really effective because it provides the students with different content, new vocabulary, and an opportunity to choose which strategy they wish to apply to achieve the learning goal. Wherease strategy-to-content, they are forced to use the strategy that they are learned and apply it to the content. I believe that in the beginning, it is okay to teach using the strategy-to-content approach because you can make sure that the student understands completely how to apply the strategy correctly. However, I believe that once the students have established a solid base of knowledge about numerous strategies that the teaching approach should change to content-to-strategy so that the students can take a more independent role in deciding which strategy works best for the task at hand. I really liked the article that talked about the ESL class where they did science experiments and constructed paper planes, but they were constantly asked which strategy they thought was needed to be used while learning the material. I think that this is important because the students need to learn how to be independent in making choices about which strategy they should use, since they are not told which strategies to use in their 'regular' classroom. This is what I see in my clinical observations. The teacher teaches the strategy in the ESL classroom, but outside the classroom the students need to know how to use the strategies and which works best in x situation, etc on their own.

Chapter Eight

DISCLAIMER: there is a lot of things that I want to say, and it is all just pouring out in my blog because this Chapter made me ANGRY!

As I started to read this chapter during the half time of the Chicago Bears game, I found myself being more and more drawn into the reading than paying attention to the game! There is so much that I want to talk about this chapter, it really drove me kind of crazy. I found myself writing WRONG! next to many of the things that teachers said or thought about culture, continuing education in terms of learning new approaches, their ideas on differentiating or changing their approaches, and AHH just a million more things that they said that were completely WRONG!

First of all, I would just like to say that the majority of teachers at this school as well as the principal are BLIND and IN-DENIAL. I really like how Stern explains it is like sweeping it under the rug. First of all, the principal does not even know the accurate statistics that represents the population of LEP students in his own school, that he supposedly is in charge of. All of the teachers at this school believe that the school is fully integrated, and what is causing separation  and division in the students is the students academic abilities and school activities. Do these teachers even know their students? I mean, when I become a teacher I plan to know whats going on in their lives, and if they can not bluntly see that the school is not functioning as "one big melting-pot" how teachers romanticize it to be, then they really must be blind. The teacher says, "No on even really notices color" (186). Uhhhh, hello! ya they do. The teachers say they dont, but I agree that it is just because they choose not to address it. Where as the students ABSOLUTELY DO NOTICE COLOR, it affects everything they do and feel and think at school, and if you can not realize that, then you should not be the principal. If you do not make it necessary that the teachers take training classes on how to differentiate instruction to make it understandable to the 1/4 LEP students  in your school, then you should not be a principal.

It really bothers me that some of the teachers at this school do not believe that they need to receive training in order to serve better the new diversity at the high school for some of the following reasons:
-they have been teaching for a while and are offended that someone might tell them their techniques are not benefitting their students
-or they "feel it insults their years of experience" (182)
-they believe their "formulas and approaches they have used all along should be sufficient and appropriate fore all students now" (180)
-They believe that if some "students are not doing well now, something must be wrong with the students' attitudes, values or culture" (180)
-they believe that in should be voluntary to take such classes
-they believe that "they have to change what they are doing for those students" (182)

ALL of these reasons are completely wrong, and the teachers who said them are stuck up and have no passion for the education of their students. I don't know, but I feel like all of the people who are in classes with me that are going to be teachers share the same passion as I do to make a difference in each of my students education. If I notice that a students is not understanding something, then I would absolutely try my best to make the material understandable to them. I wouldn't just ignore them or stick them in the back of the class, just so they can "get by".  If they had LEP then I would make sure that the material was understandable to them by making vocabulary handouts for them as an aid, or creating other aid, etc. Many of these teachers view adopting LEP approaches in their classroom as "extra work", but they need to get over it! Being a teacher is a non-stop job. Even in the summer you are working, even in the evenings when you should be relaxing you are working, even during the 20 minutes during the day when you have a lunch break you are working. This is what being a teacher is.

The teachers who believe that their methods and approaches that they have used during the "years of their experience" are failing to do one very important thing: EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR TEACHING. Obviously something they are doing is not working for the student. Teachers should constantly be evaluating and reevaluating how they are teaching and how the students are taking the input they give them. If a student is not understanding something, then there may be something wrong with how the teacher presents the material, etc. Many of the teachers at Madison High seem to blame the reason for students failing as lack of motivation. Well part of being a teacher is making sure that you are captivating your students. There are many ways to change the material to make it appeal to the students identity and issues that are important to their lives. One of the parents of a students complained about the lack of an inclusive curriculum. Well, I do not blame the students for not being interested in the material of some old British guy who babbles on and on and uses very proper English. Although I am sure that the material in this class served some educational purpose, the students has a very good point that there should be material that the students can relate to.

Maybe the reason that the students are seperated by their academic abilities, is because many teachers look at the students who have LEP and say "If they cant read English well enough, they can't make it. I dont feel the least bit guilty about that. I think it's important we set standards and insist kids read well enough. (183)" Well part of this is that teachers at this school need to learn and be trained in how to help students learn literacy in a second language. It takes anywhere from 5-8 years to only become proficient in that language, and even longer to develop the skills to use that language academically. The principal at this school is resisting the creation of an ESL Department in the school, because he thinks that it will further create "seperation" and "labeling" of LEP students (186), yet he claims that the school is one big melting pot where everyone is equal. He even said, "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure there ought to be any classes taught in any language besides English, because after all this is America and we ought to speak English" (182) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my biggest pet peeve! I absolutely hate when people say this it is so ignorant. Obviously this teacher does not understand that the use of the students' first language can help them develop the academic skills they need to succeed in the class. And that instead of being pushed to the back of the class and ignored, they can gain knowledge in necessary subject matter, that can help them in other aspects of their life, even if they do not go onto college.

What these teachers should realize is that maybe their students are not doing well in class, or continuing to college not due to their culture, motivation, or whatever other excuse they say, but rather due to what the teachers are doing. Obviously, all the teachers praise the students who are getting straight A's and are college bound. But in my eyes, it's the students who are struggling in school who need the most attention. I do not understand why the "older/experienced" teachers do not want to "deal" with those students, those are the students that I have the most compassion for and feel that I can make a difference in. I think the "old" teachers have lost their passion for teaching, such as the one that I have. I really hope that my passion "fire" never goes out as theirs did, because that would be horrible and my students would suffer horribly.  I just cant wait to get out there and start making a difference, because these are the students that I feel I can motivate and have an impact in their education!

Chapter 7

I enjoyed this chapter, but what I want to talk about more is what I see in my practicum. Last week we decided that we should pay attention to the focus on literacy in our classrooms. Well in my classroom at Kingsley Junior High there is literacy everywhere! On the walls, in the texts books, in the 'bellringers' and just about everywhere else you can imagine. What is great about the literacy that is in their 'bellringer' activities is that a lot of times, it's literacy that they may need to know for everyday life. Such as there was a bellringer that had a newspaper add, and the students had to find the answers to the questions and create questions of their own by using the newspaper add. It's good because not only are they becoming competent in the language, they are also achieving competency in activities that may occur outside of the classroom.

More importantly, there are literacy activities that help the students become active readers, a skill that they will need for school. First the teacher introduces the reading strategy. Then the class reads together while the teacher models the strategy. Then the students take turns reading out loud while the teacher guides them with the strategy. And finally, the students complete the reading while using the strategy amoungst themselves. It's great and the students enjoy doing it. Although one thing I would have to say is that the text that the 6th, 7th and 8th graders were reading was a little easy in my opinion. This is bad because when it comes time to transition into highschool the students will not have a book with a ton of pictures and captions and small sections of text.

Next, an activity that I really liked, focused on literacy BUT also focused on teaching note-taking skills. It was awesome because they really need to know how to take notes. So the teacher talked out loud, giving her lecture using the smart board and guided them on how to fill out the first section. She then continued to talked and left it up to them to finish filling out the sheet of notes. Although some of them found it rather easy, there were many who struggled. This activity is key because it is teaching academic competence, so that the student can have the abilitiy to communicate and interact in an everyday classroom.

Chapter 6

I found this chapter to be extremely interesting. I marked all over the pages with important information that I plan to use in my final paper. One of the issues discussed in this book is the struggle that many of the immigrants face in terms of identity. For these young girls, they struggle between becoming like the "American girls" and staying true to their religion, culture, and beliefs. In their eyes, the American girl is seen as one who is sexually active with other men. It does not always mean sex, but it means that they date a lot of guys, dress racy, and are able to kiss and hold their hands. For them this can be viewed as almost never happening. And yet so many of these young girls are so hooked on the American notion of falling in love that the temptation is almost to good to give in to. For many of the young girls, school is an escape from their strict home life in which they are either forced to work to provide for the family, or live in fear of being part of an arranged marriage. So many of them choose to date anyways and just lie to their parents about it. This causes them to feel shame because they do not like lying to their parents. I find it interesting the whole struggle that those face who are going through arranged marriages: they fear that they will lose everything they have to give in to the life of a man that they do not even know. They see school as a tool to be used to gain power in the relationship. Many wish to continue their education so that they can get a good job, and will not have to rely so much on the man to take care of them. They seek independence so that they can continue to be social and provide for themselves, instead of being locked inside the home caring for the husband and children while cleaning all day. For many of the girls, this life seems pointless to them, therefore they wish to find ways to become financially independent.

In this sense education does seem to be important to the young girls. For those who are the oldest of their siblings, they are often times sought to be the caretaker of the younger ones, working to help provide and cleaning and taking care of them. This is important, because for the oldest ones, school is not so significant. What is significant is taking care of the younger siblings so that they can succeed in school.

All these young girls want is to find love, but for them the American way of love means that they have to explore sexually with their significant other. Although this seems to be a stereotype that is not exactly true, they fear that they will betray their culture and religion, and even more importantly; the parents are worried that their immigrant children will "cross the line". For this reason, many of the girls are deported back to live with their family in their own culture, because the parents want the children to marry in their own race and not to mix. They want this so that their culture, language, and beliefs will be passed down to the next generation. They are so worried about keeping their identity that they do not want their children to experience dating, unless the end outcome is marriage with someone of their kind.

Identity In Madison High

From the beginning of this book, I have been very interested in the identity that the students take on upon arriving to Madison High, and how it effects the original identities that they came to this country with. Although so many explain that the United States is a country described as a melting pot of cultures, races, languages, and religions, it seems as though many times the social pressures of others wish to homogenize and assimilate these differing cultures into one in order to eliminate some of the differences that there are. It seems to be this way as well at Madison High. Upon arrival to the school, the students are classified as immigrants until they choose a group in which they wish to identify themselves with. For many, this is a problem for reasons such as there is no specific group to which they can join to identify themselves with. In terms of nationalities such as Brazilian or Guatemalan, there is no specific group because instead there is one group which umbrellas all of the nationalities of Latin America- the Latinos. This is extremely problematic for some, because this is creating a pan-ethnic identity in which all of the identities of the other nationalities are homogenized into one, even though they are extremely different in terms of language, customs, beliefs, and dress. Many of the students will give in and join the group regardless of them losing part of their culture since they have to conform to the homogenous identity of everyone else in their group. The idea of the color spectrum of white or black, brown or yellow is completely problematic at Madison High because they are smashing together an array of cultures, just simply due to the color of their skin. Ideally, and as it is romanticized, America is a land of opportunity that accepts an array of nationalities. However this does not seem to be the case, newcomers are expected to assimilate and "choose their race and their place" almost immediately in the American culture. This process can be very devastating and confusing for those who have to endure through it.

Once students conform to a certain identity with a group, there is then a new set of rules that they must conform to in terms of how they act, how they dress and what language they speak. The original identity of the newcomer is almost completely lost, because it is almost as though they are asked to act in a way that is completely different to how they would normal be. Many of the students believe that if you go to class on time, bring your books and materials, do your homework, participate in class, etc, that you are "acting white". So in other terms, many of the newcomers value education and believe that it is important to do so in order to receive their diploma. However, once they conform to the Latino group, they admit that they begin to skip class and hang out with friends because there is no point in them going to class, because pretty much as long as they go to school, they can get a diploma and work at Pizza Hut.

Why is it that students need to find a place according to their race? Why is it that students can not simply work together and be together as one, disregarding the unimportant differences that their are between one another such as skin color, language spoken, and ways of dressing. Students can learn so much more from eachother if they just drop these differences and accept one another's culture. However, will this ever change in America? I feel that there will always be those who pressure others to choose their place, no mater what.

In thinking about some of the clinical hours that I have completed, I noticed immediately one thing: all of the Latino Students work together, all of the Oriental students work together, and all of the African students who speak french work together. In this given situation, I believe that it is language that divides them. They like to make little comments to each other in their own language, to try and be the class clown. Unfortunately, in the 6th and 7th hour that I observe, there is only one boy from Korea, who is surrounded by numerous Latinos, who constantly talk and laugh to each other in Spanish. Many times I hear him scream out, Speak English! While other times I hear him say, Are they making fun of me?. I feel really bad for the student because he is extremely self conscious that they are saying things about him and that he is unable to understand. To be honest, they usually are not saying anything about him at all. However in one instance, I heard the boys snickering about how high the Oriental student was wearing his pants (this was coming from a Mexican student who generally always wears his pants down to this ankles). I immediately got the Latino student's attention, and said that it is inappropriate to make comments about others in class. It does not seem that there is a dividedness of the class, just that the students choose to hang out with and speak to those of their language. If and when students do need to interact with the others, they work fine, however once they have finished the task they are back to yelling to others across the classroom in their language.

If I were the teacher, I would demand that there be a decrease in comments made in our foreign language. I think that the students are using the language as a "code" so that others cannot understand what they are saying. Instead, I believe it should be only used when students can not understand the task, etc. However, I feel in doing this, I am taking away of the environment that I would want to create in which their native language is welcomed and accepted. I just do not know what I would do.

Chapter3

This chapter was extremely interesting to me. I find that the struggle that the students have with their identity has created a vicious circle. First, they realize that they are different, whether it be their skin color, their nationality, the language they speak, etc. Then, they realize that the majority of other people are different from them also. This in turn leads them to conform with a group of others who are the same as them, further pushing their differences from the others around them. It's so sad. Why can't this school just get along and accept that everyone is different from each other in unique and interesting ways? The school could seriously just benefit if the racism would stop and the students would accept eachother and learn from each other. In this chapter it explains that the students always say they all get along, but then they do not act like it. Reading this story makes me want to go to this high school, grab the kids by the shoulders, and shake them while saying, "What's wrong with you?!"

The next concept I found quite interesting about the struggle the students have with their identity, is the notion of "white-washing" or being a wannabe. White-washing means that the students are trying to act white, and acting white includes the following behaviors:

-bringing a backpack to class

-bringing books to class

-trying to do well in class

-getting help or asking questions in class

-speaking English instead of the home language

I have no idea where they came up with these ideas! Basically what they are saying, is if you try to do well in school then you are acting white? That makes no sense at all. It saddens me that so many of the kids are discouraged about continuing higher education after high school. And what blew my mind is that so many teachers have told them to "not even bother" or that "you can never have the grades to go". Maybe what the teachers should realize is that it is because this notion of "white-washing" that students do so poorly in school. They think it's cool if they are in the Skills track of the school because being in the college prep track, they are only placed with white or asian students, with few black and latinos in that category.

 

Chapters 1+2

I can not begin to explain how interesting I find this book! I believe that the first chapter really tries to capture how great the school really is with all of the diversity of the students, making it seem like an extremely great school. On the other hand the second chapter really captures what the school is really like and the issues that there are due to the extreme level of diversity..

One thing that I found extremely interesting is that the word "identity" was not used until page 52. And then after it was only used a few more times. I believe that there is an extreme case of identity confusion at this school. The students are facing struggles of deciding who they are and what they are suppose to be. They do not want to act American because then they will be betraying their culture, but if they do not try  to be American then they are pointed out as being different. It's a struggle, and even more I think that it is interesting that what you wear in the school really points out who you are. I felt so bad for the girl who came to America from Mexico and she wanted to wear a clothing item that is traditional to her culture. She was so excited to wear it and be proud of where she is from but then when she got to school she was ashamed and embarassed because she felt so different from everyone else. Poor girl.


I truly like the activity that the teacher is doing with her class about mapping out the school. The issue of race seems to be how the school is divided, and it is obvious that all of the students know and realize this. Also, at the beginning of chapter two I found the rules that each class, the class of immigrants and the class of white students, came up with were completely different. The class of immigrants came up with rules like "no mean racism, dont make fun of peoples dress, dont make fun of culture and try to learn about each other." While the regular white classrooms rules were "No put downs, no personal attacks. Respect yourself and others. Dont talk while others are talking." So it is obvious that the immigrant classroom wanted to make rules that respect their differences, while the white classroom wanted rules that told them not to attack them and the rest of the rules were not creative in that "respect yourself and others" is something that a 1st grade classroom could come up with.