Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Talking Points #5 In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
The authors argue that it is "better to be explicit about the numerous and different visions that drive the creation and implementation of service learning activities in schools." When a service learning project is assigned, the assigner needs to explain to the assigned exactly what vision they have by this project being done to answer the question, "In the service of what?""
1. "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students."
This quotation is relevant to the text and the author's argument because it specifically explains the answer to the queston, "In the service of what?" In my service learning project, I am responding to the need of Providence schools with academic issues and working one on one with a student to improve his grades. After this it said, "Service learning can advance other priorities, such as the acquisition of vocational skills." This reminded me of my Habitat for Humanity trip where I went to Biloxi, MI to build a house for a week for a family who were victims of Hurricane Katrina. The trip taught me how important teamwork is and I learned many things about building a house. This was an obvious need in the community. Habitat for Humanity has explicit goals that they have in mind when sendind people on these trips. I knew exactly what I was working for and who I was serving. In fact, I even met the family that would be moving in. Because I knew exactly who I was serving, my teammates and I were able to have an even better attitude in building the house.
2. "After they returned, the students' perspectives of these elementary school children had changed. They were "surprised at the children's responsiveness and attentiveness," they found the children to be "extremely polite and surprisingly friendly," and they discovered that they "listened well and had excellent behavior." One student wrote, "Everyone at the school had good manners, and I think more highly of [the neighborhood] now."
When I told my parents I would be volunteering in Roger Williams Middle School on Thurbers Avenue for fifteen hours this semester, they had mixed feelings about it. They were just like the middle school parents in the article objecting to their children going into an elementary school in a "bad" neighborhood. From my experience in Roger Williams, I have found that the students there are not bad. They are regular middle school children who are finding themselves as they mature. This required service learning is helping to diminish the sense of "otherness." This word "otherness" is a key word that reinforces stereotypes within our community. For example, Roger Williams has a bad reputation when ranked against other middle schools in the state. However, these other middle schools outside of Providence probably do not have free or reduced lunch for over ninety-five percent of their students. Poverty is directly related to poorer grades in school. These facts are ignored during these rankings and when uneducated people look at the statistics and see Roger Williams at the bottom of the list, "fuel is added to the fire" in the stereotyping of Roger Williams of a "bad" school. I tutor a homeless student at Roger Williams. I do not remember any homeless students at my middle school, Mount Saint Charles Academy. So, before we go judging inner city schools, we need to remember they are kids and understand that where they come from directly influences their capabilities in school, and sometimes they cannot do anything about it.
3. "Time and energy given to such superficial betterment [Hannah gives as an example making Thanksgiving baskets for poor families] could much more efficiently be spent in getting at the basic inhibiting influences which perpetuate a scarcity economy in the midst of abundance."
This is an example of a bandaid on a broken arm. Who is to blame? "He [Bush] made no mention of changes that address the structural injustices that leave so many in need." Sometimes we spend time doing things like making Thanksgiving baskets and accept that there are people without food in our community. This is just like when Kozol talked about giving sleeping bags to the people in South Bronx and how it was a bandaid on a broken leg. They are not fixing the problem. They are accepting that those people are going to be cold, just like we accept that some people have no food. We can give them a meal, but that does not solve the problem. So, instead of giving them food every Thanksgiving, maybe all that time and energy could be spent on job training or in some cases, literacy skills.
I thought this article was pretty interesting. I am an advocate of making service learning part of the curriculum. However, I would agree with Mr. Johnson in that he let his students do community service projects of their choosing. There are certain things that I am curious about and really want to learn about. By being able to choose, I would be more enthusiastic about my project and definitely get more out of it. The authors presented a couple of case studies with different ideas of how service learning is presented. I would like to know what is the best way to introduce service learning to the classroom so that learning can take place.
1. "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students."
This quotation is relevant to the text and the author's argument because it specifically explains the answer to the queston, "In the service of what?" In my service learning project, I am responding to the need of Providence schools with academic issues and working one on one with a student to improve his grades. After this it said, "Service learning can advance other priorities, such as the acquisition of vocational skills." This reminded me of my Habitat for Humanity trip where I went to Biloxi, MI to build a house for a week for a family who were victims of Hurricane Katrina. The trip taught me how important teamwork is and I learned many things about building a house. This was an obvious need in the community. Habitat for Humanity has explicit goals that they have in mind when sendind people on these trips. I knew exactly what I was working for and who I was serving. In fact, I even met the family that would be moving in. Because I knew exactly who I was serving, my teammates and I were able to have an even better attitude in building the house.
2. "After they returned, the students' perspectives of these elementary school children had changed. They were "surprised at the children's responsiveness and attentiveness," they found the children to be "extremely polite and surprisingly friendly," and they discovered that they "listened well and had excellent behavior." One student wrote, "Everyone at the school had good manners, and I think more highly of [the neighborhood] now."
When I told my parents I would be volunteering in Roger Williams Middle School on Thurbers Avenue for fifteen hours this semester, they had mixed feelings about it. They were just like the middle school parents in the article objecting to their children going into an elementary school in a "bad" neighborhood. From my experience in Roger Williams, I have found that the students there are not bad. They are regular middle school children who are finding themselves as they mature. This required service learning is helping to diminish the sense of "otherness." This word "otherness" is a key word that reinforces stereotypes within our community. For example, Roger Williams has a bad reputation when ranked against other middle schools in the state. However, these other middle schools outside of Providence probably do not have free or reduced lunch for over ninety-five percent of their students. Poverty is directly related to poorer grades in school. These facts are ignored during these rankings and when uneducated people look at the statistics and see Roger Williams at the bottom of the list, "fuel is added to the fire" in the stereotyping of Roger Williams of a "bad" school. I tutor a homeless student at Roger Williams. I do not remember any homeless students at my middle school, Mount Saint Charles Academy. So, before we go judging inner city schools, we need to remember they are kids and understand that where they come from directly influences their capabilities in school, and sometimes they cannot do anything about it.
3. "Time and energy given to such superficial betterment [Hannah gives as an example making Thanksgiving baskets for poor families] could much more efficiently be spent in getting at the basic inhibiting influences which perpetuate a scarcity economy in the midst of abundance."
This is an example of a bandaid on a broken arm. Who is to blame? "He [Bush] made no mention of changes that address the structural injustices that leave so many in need." Sometimes we spend time doing things like making Thanksgiving baskets and accept that there are people without food in our community. This is just like when Kozol talked about giving sleeping bags to the people in South Bronx and how it was a bandaid on a broken leg. They are not fixing the problem. They are accepting that those people are going to be cold, just like we accept that some people have no food. We can give them a meal, but that does not solve the problem. So, instead of giving them food every Thanksgiving, maybe all that time and energy could be spent on job training or in some cases, literacy skills.
I thought this article was pretty interesting. I am an advocate of making service learning part of the curriculum. However, I would agree with Mr. Johnson in that he let his students do community service projects of their choosing. There are certain things that I am curious about and really want to learn about. By being able to choose, I would be more enthusiastic about my project and definitely get more out of it. The authors presented a couple of case studies with different ideas of how service learning is presented. I would like to know what is the best way to introduce service learning to the classroom so that learning can take place.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us by: Linda Christensen
Christensen's argument is that very young children are being molded by a "secret language," which is basically the media, that teaches stereotyping of different cultures and genders. She also argues the importance of taking action to raise awareness and potentially create change.
1. "Consequently, most of the early information we receive about "others"-- people racially, religiously, or socioeconomically different from ourselves -- does not come as a result of firsthand experience. The secondhand information we receive has often been distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete...."
This shows how young children are attuned with "others" and immediately begin stereotyping them. An example from this article talked about a three year old who had already begun using information from Peter Pan to announce facts. Christensen is arguing that it is okay that a three year old is announcing facts from a movie. However, the movies should not be stereotypical in nature to begin with. Very young children should be initially exposed to a media that does not teach them to put people into categories like today's media does. As these children grow up and hear about others acting in a way that fits their specific category, it will reinforce the stereotypes in the children's minds. This is because it is much easier to store information in your mind when it already has somewhere to be stored. If these children hear something about others that does not fit their specific category, it contradicts what you thought was true and can be easily thrown out. It should not be like this. Something needs to be done about about the media so that one day this cycle of a pre determined image known to all about a specific culture will be eliminated.
2. "As they view each episide, they fill in a chart answering these questions. (For a ready to use copy of the chart visit www.rethinkingschools.org/rst)
Christensen goes out of her way to include this note in her article. She is showing the importance of taking an action when a problem is presented. It shows that she is more than a talker, she is a "doer". This concept is very important in the world today and i feel like my generation is more doers than ever before.
I recently went to a "College Leadership RI" meeting where we had a tour of Crossroads RI and some young leaders came in to speak to us. One of the speakers was named Ray Harris and was one of the Providence Journal's top 10 (or 20) people to keep your eye on in RI. He is an executive director of a few groups that promote activities for teenagers in inner city schools and his topic of discussion for us was being a doer and not a talker. He used many examples about how his board has great ideas and that he knows if he does not do it, it will not get done. Because of his attitude, he is quickly as on the rise and his future is looking very bright. Christensen is doing her part in presenting easy ways for us, the readers, to take action if we want to. Later in the article she says, "But what am I teaching them if the lesson ends there! That it's enough to be critical without taking action?" I think she does a great job as a teacher to realize the importance of that part of the project.
3. "Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess."
I am a little confused about the second part of this quotation about ugly girls never being able to play the princess. In today's society, most ugly people marry ugly people just like good looking people marry good looking people. That is just the way it is. I learned in my Human Development class at RIC that the most successful relationships occur with people of the same socioeconomic status. I feel like even if an ugly man marries a gorgeous woman or an ugly woman marries a gorgeous man in a movie that it will not really matter because it is not the common case. I feel like it is not really something that works with her argument just because of the facts of the matter. As far as women who aren't white beginning to fell left out, I know the black singer Brandy played as a black cinderella. So, Christensen's ideas are definitely common because things are already being done about it today. There is a show today called Diego that Hispanic children will have an easier time relating to also. So, she definitely has a valid argument in that her issues on the media are being addressed and there has been action on it too.
I think Christensen does make good points, but, I do not really agree with the article. Some things need to be broken down to a very simple level for young viewers even if it means putting people into categories. I do not think that the media has shaped me as a young child to make me sterotype people. -- Christensen argued most people would say they are not shaped by the media-- I feel like most people quickly outgrow the Disney movies they saw as a young child and do not use that to group others. They are simply forms of entertainment. If family and teachers reinforce that stereotype in a child's mind, I do not believe it is Disney's fault, for example.
I do not see much of a connection to other authors other than how it relates to Johnson in that solutions and take action plans are embedded in the text. These two authors offer the readers ready to use solutions to begin using in their own life immediately.
1. "Consequently, most of the early information we receive about "others"-- people racially, religiously, or socioeconomically different from ourselves -- does not come as a result of firsthand experience. The secondhand information we receive has often been distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete...."
This shows how young children are attuned with "others" and immediately begin stereotyping them. An example from this article talked about a three year old who had already begun using information from Peter Pan to announce facts. Christensen is arguing that it is okay that a three year old is announcing facts from a movie. However, the movies should not be stereotypical in nature to begin with. Very young children should be initially exposed to a media that does not teach them to put people into categories like today's media does. As these children grow up and hear about others acting in a way that fits their specific category, it will reinforce the stereotypes in the children's minds. This is because it is much easier to store information in your mind when it already has somewhere to be stored. If these children hear something about others that does not fit their specific category, it contradicts what you thought was true and can be easily thrown out. It should not be like this. Something needs to be done about about the media so that one day this cycle of a pre determined image known to all about a specific culture will be eliminated.
2. "As they view each episide, they fill in a chart answering these questions. (For a ready to use copy of the chart visit www.rethinkingschools.org/rst)
Christensen goes out of her way to include this note in her article. She is showing the importance of taking an action when a problem is presented. It shows that she is more than a talker, she is a "doer". This concept is very important in the world today and i feel like my generation is more doers than ever before.
I recently went to a "College Leadership RI" meeting where we had a tour of Crossroads RI and some young leaders came in to speak to us. One of the speakers was named Ray Harris and was one of the Providence Journal's top 10 (or 20) people to keep your eye on in RI. He is an executive director of a few groups that promote activities for teenagers in inner city schools and his topic of discussion for us was being a doer and not a talker. He used many examples about how his board has great ideas and that he knows if he does not do it, it will not get done. Because of his attitude, he is quickly as on the rise and his future is looking very bright. Christensen is doing her part in presenting easy ways for us, the readers, to take action if we want to. Later in the article she says, "But what am I teaching them if the lesson ends there! That it's enough to be critical without taking action?" I think she does a great job as a teacher to realize the importance of that part of the project.
3. "Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess."
I am a little confused about the second part of this quotation about ugly girls never being able to play the princess. In today's society, most ugly people marry ugly people just like good looking people marry good looking people. That is just the way it is. I learned in my Human Development class at RIC that the most successful relationships occur with people of the same socioeconomic status. I feel like even if an ugly man marries a gorgeous woman or an ugly woman marries a gorgeous man in a movie that it will not really matter because it is not the common case. I feel like it is not really something that works with her argument just because of the facts of the matter. As far as women who aren't white beginning to fell left out, I know the black singer Brandy played as a black cinderella. So, Christensen's ideas are definitely common because things are already being done about it today. There is a show today called Diego that Hispanic children will have an easier time relating to also. So, she definitely has a valid argument in that her issues on the media are being addressed and there has been action on it too.
I think Christensen does make good points, but, I do not really agree with the article. Some things need to be broken down to a very simple level for young viewers even if it means putting people into categories. I do not think that the media has shaped me as a young child to make me sterotype people. -- Christensen argued most people would say they are not shaped by the media-- I feel like most people quickly outgrow the Disney movies they saw as a young child and do not use that to group others. They are simply forms of entertainment. If family and teachers reinforce that stereotype in a child's mind, I do not believe it is Disney's fault, for example.
I do not see much of a connection to other authors other than how it relates to Johnson in that solutions and take action plans are embedded in the text. These two authors offer the readers ready to use solutions to begin using in their own life immediately.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community By: Dennis Carlson
I believe Carlson's argument is to raise awareness in how America's public education system is still "normalizing" today's students, but at the same time, the system has made improvements. When she sums up her article, she says "We have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them (students) in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to "come out" and find their own voices."
1. “Three techniques of normalization and (hence) marginalization have been of primary importance in this regard: (1) the erasure of gayness in the curriculum. (2) the “closeting” and “witch hunting” of gay teachers, and (3) verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students.”
Two of my teachers were lesbians at my junior high school and I did not find out until other students in the class told me much later into eighth grade. As my friends told me, we laughed as if it was a big deal. If my friends did not tell me that my teacher was a lesbian, I never would have known. In fact, she was one of the best teachers I ever had and I still remember some of the ways in which she conducted her class. When she asked a student a question and the student said, “I don’t know,” she would work with that student no matter how stubborn that student was until that student gave an answer. My teachers knew that being open with their orientation at school was frowned upon and therefore, I never knew and they “closeted” their orientation. My school consisted of one thousand students and I only knew of one gay student. He felt tremendous discrimination and any guy that was friends with him was considered a loser. It especially shows the intimidation of students because I find it hard to believe only one in one thousand was gay. Gayness was definitely not in the curriculum at my school and I do not recall learning any of the history of gay people. I agree with Carlson in how the erasure of gayness in the curriculum encourages America’s students to see it as something that is abnormal.
2. “Willard Waller, in his 1932 classic The Sociology of Teaching, argued that homosexuals should not be allowed to teach for several reasons.”
I found this part of the article to be confusing. Why would Carlson bring up one person’s argument from the 1930’s? This was a long time ago and does not reflect today’s methods in regards to normalizing. I feel like Carlson is digging for an argument and is bringing up something from a long time ago to strengthen her case when I think it weakens it. For example, Attorney General Eric Holder is not going to talk about racism in the past as a means of showing how it is still portrayed today. Holder spoke about new things like how Americans simply do not talk to each other enough about race. I am not saying that Carlson believes this 1930’s view is the view of America today but she definitely uses that 1930’s view as part of her argument.
3. “For example, it is now estimated that up to one-third of all adolescent suicide victims are gay, approximately one quarter of all homeless youth in the United States are gay, and dropout and drug abuse rates among gay youth are likewise high (Gibson 1989).
This is very important because it shows how gays are not respected in society and are so hurt because of it that some give up on themselves and some give up on life. This is a staggering statistic and definitely needs more attention. It shows the extent to which American culture is normalized. Whenever a small portion of the population makes up a large portion of a depressing statistic, I believe it is because of injustice within a system. Why do over ninety five percent of students in Providence schools get free or reduced lunch? Why do African Americans make up such a large percentage of people in prison when they do not represent the same percentage of people in the population? These people are oppressed because they are not part of the culture of power and I hope Carlson is right when she says “the modernist idea of homogeneous, normalizing community is being more seriously disrupted than ever before.”
This article took me a long time to read because it is a scholarly article and I needed to look up many words. I hope we talk more in class about marginalization and normalization. Sometimes when you are immersed in a community where there are “normal” and “abnormal” views, you do not take time to seriously look at why some views are “abnormal” and address them. I never thought about how textbooks are normalized to disregard a whole gay community and never really took time to think about how intimated gay students are in coming out. It has always been so easy to “go with the flow” and not upset common views.
It relates to other texts that we have read like “Johnson” in which it talks about those with power and privilege. Carlson talks about markers of difference including class, gender, and race. She also talks about white, middle class, male, and heterosexual versus black, working class, female, and homosexual. Johnson talked about how mentioning you are homosexual before giving a speech will totally change how a crowd will receive you and that being heterosexual will not surface weird feelings. Where Johnson names homosexuals those without power, Carlson names them abnormal according to today’s society. They are both referring to the same problem and are trying to raise awareness on the issue and offer insight to solving it.
1. “Three techniques of normalization and (hence) marginalization have been of primary importance in this regard: (1) the erasure of gayness in the curriculum. (2) the “closeting” and “witch hunting” of gay teachers, and (3) verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students.”
Two of my teachers were lesbians at my junior high school and I did not find out until other students in the class told me much later into eighth grade. As my friends told me, we laughed as if it was a big deal. If my friends did not tell me that my teacher was a lesbian, I never would have known. In fact, she was one of the best teachers I ever had and I still remember some of the ways in which she conducted her class. When she asked a student a question and the student said, “I don’t know,” she would work with that student no matter how stubborn that student was until that student gave an answer. My teachers knew that being open with their orientation at school was frowned upon and therefore, I never knew and they “closeted” their orientation. My school consisted of one thousand students and I only knew of one gay student. He felt tremendous discrimination and any guy that was friends with him was considered a loser. It especially shows the intimidation of students because I find it hard to believe only one in one thousand was gay. Gayness was definitely not in the curriculum at my school and I do not recall learning any of the history of gay people. I agree with Carlson in how the erasure of gayness in the curriculum encourages America’s students to see it as something that is abnormal.
2. “Willard Waller, in his 1932 classic The Sociology of Teaching, argued that homosexuals should not be allowed to teach for several reasons.”
I found this part of the article to be confusing. Why would Carlson bring up one person’s argument from the 1930’s? This was a long time ago and does not reflect today’s methods in regards to normalizing. I feel like Carlson is digging for an argument and is bringing up something from a long time ago to strengthen her case when I think it weakens it. For example, Attorney General Eric Holder is not going to talk about racism in the past as a means of showing how it is still portrayed today. Holder spoke about new things like how Americans simply do not talk to each other enough about race. I am not saying that Carlson believes this 1930’s view is the view of America today but she definitely uses that 1930’s view as part of her argument.
3. “For example, it is now estimated that up to one-third of all adolescent suicide victims are gay, approximately one quarter of all homeless youth in the United States are gay, and dropout and drug abuse rates among gay youth are likewise high (Gibson 1989).
This is very important because it shows how gays are not respected in society and are so hurt because of it that some give up on themselves and some give up on life. This is a staggering statistic and definitely needs more attention. It shows the extent to which American culture is normalized. Whenever a small portion of the population makes up a large portion of a depressing statistic, I believe it is because of injustice within a system. Why do over ninety five percent of students in Providence schools get free or reduced lunch? Why do African Americans make up such a large percentage of people in prison when they do not represent the same percentage of people in the population? These people are oppressed because they are not part of the culture of power and I hope Carlson is right when she says “the modernist idea of homogeneous, normalizing community is being more seriously disrupted than ever before.”
This article took me a long time to read because it is a scholarly article and I needed to look up many words. I hope we talk more in class about marginalization and normalization. Sometimes when you are immersed in a community where there are “normal” and “abnormal” views, you do not take time to seriously look at why some views are “abnormal” and address them. I never thought about how textbooks are normalized to disregard a whole gay community and never really took time to think about how intimated gay students are in coming out. It has always been so easy to “go with the flow” and not upset common views.
It relates to other texts that we have read like “Johnson” in which it talks about those with power and privilege. Carlson talks about markers of difference including class, gender, and race. She also talks about white, middle class, male, and heterosexual versus black, working class, female, and homosexual. Johnson talked about how mentioning you are homosexual before giving a speech will totally change how a crowd will receive you and that being heterosexual will not surface weird feelings. Where Johnson names homosexuals those without power, Carlson names them abnormal according to today’s society. They are both referring to the same problem and are trying to raise awareness on the issue and offer insight to solving it.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
"Teaching Multilingual Children," Virginia Collier
Collier argues that teachers can properly teach multilingual students if they are careful in the manner in which they teach them and need to use the right tools from their "tool box." If the right tools are used, students will be eager to learn a new language and at the same time appreciate their very important home language and culture.
1. "People untrained in linguistics, particularly politicians, tend to believe that if limited English proficient students can converse with their monolingual English-speaking peers, then these English-language learners can compete with them on an equal footing. If it were only so easy! English-language learners who can chat comfortably in English do not automatically develop the academic language skills needed to compete."
During group activities in class, we are usually asked to find who the author is blaming. This definitely shows that at least part of the blame is being put on politicians. As I was reading this quotation, it reminded me of the article we just read by Kozol in which there were the quotations, "Why would you want to put so many people with small children in a place with so much sickness" and "The point is that they put a lot of things into our neighborhood that no one wants." Politicians are quick to be blamed for many problems in society. It is not possible for politicians to make everyone happy and that is why politicians have such a difficult job and are always under so much pressure. It is an easy solution to blame a politician, but maybe we should be trying to find other roots to the problem instead of pointing fingers.
2."Native like conversation proficiency generally takes students two or three years to master. It is not as intellectually as demanding as school or academic language."
This quotation captures what many students are doing in order to get by in the classroom and announcing that there is a difference between native language and academic language. Also included in this quotation was "This level of English proficiency in the U.S. context includes the ability to handle complex conversation (one might call it the ability to get along in the outside world) using contextual cues such as gestures and intonation from the other speakers, and situational cues to meaning." The reason why I liked these quotations is because I can relate it to an example in my life. It reminds me of a recent Domino's Pizza co-worker named Suilo. It reminds me of him because this quotation directly expresses how people can get by in the U.S. by being able to handle native like conversation proficiency but not academic language. Suilo, a Dominican, knows as much as he needs to about the English language know to work for Domino's and deliver pizza. He was able to have small conversations in the store and was able to pick up on gestures when dealing with customers. The only thing that Suilo had trouble with was answering the phone because it required a little more knowledge and understanding of the English language. By talking on the phone, it was impossible to pick up on gestures, and that was part of the reason he passed the phone onto me.
So, I think this quotation is important because I believe there are many people out there who are only proficient in native speaking because they have mastered that and are able to get by in America because of that. Some of these people may not have been challenged enough in school and had been allowed through the system not knowing enough academic English.
3. "Be aware that children use first language acquisition strategies for learning a second language."
I find this to be true in my life because I used English as a model when I learned Spanish in high school. The teachers know that we do this in order to learn, so, they set up the classroom in ways that show how it relates to English. Collier is presenting a model to all teachers of language that this is the number one thing to know when teaching students a second language. There is a great burden put on teachers of language because sometimes students will not be able to adapt and will become extremely frustrated. While this is happening, Collier still presents ways in which teachers can keep the students interested and eager to learn. These are key aspects in her article in which teachers and students learn together and from each other.
This was pretty tough to read and I found myself going back to re-read many sections. I found a few ways in which this article related to our class and the articles we have read. I observed a connection between Collier and Delpit when Collier says, "One must teach in two languages, affirm the cultural values of both home and school, teach standardized forms of the two languages but respect and affirm the multiple varieties and dialects represented among students in class, be a ... on and on." I think these "standardized forms" is something Delpit would agree with so that students can learn the codes of power to succeed in mainstream America. Furthermore, Delpit would agree that teachers should also encourage and adapt to students background, culture, and language styles. So, I see a similar argument between these two authors.
I found an example from this article that related to our classroom discussion of equal versus equitable. "On the false premise that English oral competence is all that an immigrant child needs to compete with native English speaking peers, too many ESL or other English-language learner programs fail to provide a literacy curriculum for their unique needs." Being equitable to these students would mean that these unique needs were acknowledged. Immigrant students usually speak their native language at home and are put at a serious disadvantage when placed in schools when children native to America have already had a head start at learning English at home.
1. "People untrained in linguistics, particularly politicians, tend to believe that if limited English proficient students can converse with their monolingual English-speaking peers, then these English-language learners can compete with them on an equal footing. If it were only so easy! English-language learners who can chat comfortably in English do not automatically develop the academic language skills needed to compete."
During group activities in class, we are usually asked to find who the author is blaming. This definitely shows that at least part of the blame is being put on politicians. As I was reading this quotation, it reminded me of the article we just read by Kozol in which there were the quotations, "Why would you want to put so many people with small children in a place with so much sickness" and "The point is that they put a lot of things into our neighborhood that no one wants." Politicians are quick to be blamed for many problems in society. It is not possible for politicians to make everyone happy and that is why politicians have such a difficult job and are always under so much pressure. It is an easy solution to blame a politician, but maybe we should be trying to find other roots to the problem instead of pointing fingers.
2."Native like conversation proficiency generally takes students two or three years to master. It is not as intellectually as demanding as school or academic language."
This quotation captures what many students are doing in order to get by in the classroom and announcing that there is a difference between native language and academic language. Also included in this quotation was "This level of English proficiency in the U.S. context includes the ability to handle complex conversation (one might call it the ability to get along in the outside world) using contextual cues such as gestures and intonation from the other speakers, and situational cues to meaning." The reason why I liked these quotations is because I can relate it to an example in my life. It reminds me of a recent Domino's Pizza co-worker named Suilo. It reminds me of him because this quotation directly expresses how people can get by in the U.S. by being able to handle native like conversation proficiency but not academic language. Suilo, a Dominican, knows as much as he needs to about the English language know to work for Domino's and deliver pizza. He was able to have small conversations in the store and was able to pick up on gestures when dealing with customers. The only thing that Suilo had trouble with was answering the phone because it required a little more knowledge and understanding of the English language. By talking on the phone, it was impossible to pick up on gestures, and that was part of the reason he passed the phone onto me.
So, I think this quotation is important because I believe there are many people out there who are only proficient in native speaking because they have mastered that and are able to get by in America because of that. Some of these people may not have been challenged enough in school and had been allowed through the system not knowing enough academic English.
3. "Be aware that children use first language acquisition strategies for learning a second language."
I find this to be true in my life because I used English as a model when I learned Spanish in high school. The teachers know that we do this in order to learn, so, they set up the classroom in ways that show how it relates to English. Collier is presenting a model to all teachers of language that this is the number one thing to know when teaching students a second language. There is a great burden put on teachers of language because sometimes students will not be able to adapt and will become extremely frustrated. While this is happening, Collier still presents ways in which teachers can keep the students interested and eager to learn. These are key aspects in her article in which teachers and students learn together and from each other.
This was pretty tough to read and I found myself going back to re-read many sections. I found a few ways in which this article related to our class and the articles we have read. I observed a connection between Collier and Delpit when Collier says, "One must teach in two languages, affirm the cultural values of both home and school, teach standardized forms of the two languages but respect and affirm the multiple varieties and dialects represented among students in class, be a ... on and on." I think these "standardized forms" is something Delpit would agree with so that students can learn the codes of power to succeed in mainstream America. Furthermore, Delpit would agree that teachers should also encourage and adapt to students background, culture, and language styles. So, I see a similar argument between these two authors.
I found an example from this article that related to our classroom discussion of equal versus equitable. "On the false premise that English oral competence is all that an immigrant child needs to compete with native English speaking peers, too many ESL or other English-language learner programs fail to provide a literacy curriculum for their unique needs." Being equitable to these students would mean that these unique needs were acknowledged. Immigrant students usually speak their native language at home and are put at a serious disadvantage when placed in schools when children native to America have already had a head start at learning English at home.
Talking Points #1 completed on time... I just posted it to the wrong section of my blog
Talking Points #1 completed on time... I just posted it to the wrong section of my blog
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