2/1 Readings

Reference: Working with English Language Learners, Chapters 2 and 3, S. Cary

Chapter 2 addresses the question, "How do I find useful information on a student's cultural background?" I thought that this chapter was extremely helpful because I thought this was a question that I had no idea how to answer. Lenny, the teacher in the classroom, got a new student who the secretary called "Ka or Kas" and all the secretary could say about him was that "he was Asian" (pg. 21). This totally surprised me, because I have learned that this just seems very derogatory and that students should not be referred to as merely 'Asian' and as the author says on page 22, "Asian [is] a convenient, one-size-fits-all label" which is completely true. Students who are from Asia do share similar customs or languages, but they all have a culture all their own, the Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian, does not matter.  As ESL teachers, it is imperative that we never put students in a box, like we talked about today in practicum about the essentialist versus non-essentialist approach; we cannot pigeon-hole students to be a certain way just because they belong to a certain culture and there are always exceptions to the so-called 'rules'.
It was funny and ironic that we discussed what Hmong was today in practicum and then this chapter was about a student from that culture, so I was excited to learn more about that specific culture. I was amazed at what the culture has been through in recent years and what sort of past they are bringing into the classroom. I think that Lenny should be the model for every ESL teacher and I would like to model myself after him for the future; as we talked about before, teachers need to be researchers as well as role models and mentors, especially for ESL student. He asked himself the right questions, like "Where were the potential conflict points between Hmong and American mainstream culture? What specific aspects of an American 5th grade class might Ka and his family find puzzling or troublesome?" or "What English sounds or structures would Ka find unusually difficult?" (pg. 23). These are all excellent questions to ask before going into the classroom and editing your teaching style to help fit this student's needs among everyone else's needs in the class. I think what is important is that teachers know certain aspects of their culture that might interfere with other beliefs in the classroom, and what specific linguistic knowledge will come in handy, which we find out later in the chapter that he must implement different strategies in order to accommodate Ka's learning style.
Something else that really struck me about this teacher was that he used the student helper in the class, Emilio. I thought this was a very useful tool; I am learning in my methods course right about having student helpers and students you can trust to get things done in the classroom, and Emilio seems like one of those types of children. It's important to find a student with good leadership skills and a higher English proficiency, but does understand where the new student is coming from, like later on when they are reading the story and Ka did not understand "beginning" and "ending" and Emilio helped Ka to understand what those words meant by using circumlocution. Current teachers need to take cues from Lenny, and I plan on definitely trying to implement these types of procedures in my future ESL classroom. I think that teachers should have to believe that they are alone in teaching; they should learn to be independent, but have a certain amount of interdependence on their colleagues, peers, and even their own students. Education is not a one-way street, per se; there needs to be a rapport between teacher and student, teacher and colleague, and many other combinations within the school system.

Chapter 3, "How do I make my spoken language more understandable?", I found to be a bit confusing at first because the process was so long in teaching these students the book, but I saw the merit in many things that Jeff (the teacher) did. An important thing that they mention first in the chapter is this, "But Jeff worried how the book would fly this year, given the change in class makeup" (pg. 37), which is certainly something I would not think to consider right away. One does have to think about what the book entails, what types of cultural stereotypes or customs may be brought up, and will students be able to understand the material brought forth to them. I think going over the book with a fine tooth comb and making sure there is going to be no negative connotations or consequences is a good plan. Otherwise, one definitely needs to plan for the fact that books can change over the next couple of years, and personally, I think they should just to add some variety, but I do understand at the same time that it creates extra work for the teacher who has to plan all the lessons based on the book, and it is certainly much easier to keep the original lesson plans and just add or edit things in the previously made lesson plans. When you're a teacher, time to make lessons does not come around too often and so making lesson plans to use for years is always beneficial.
When Jeff was reading "Stone Fox" to his class, I think that he put a lot of preparation into setting up the book, like giving the kids prior knowledge and understanding to contextualize the book, which is always imperative in any classroom, especially an ESL one where students rely heavily on experiences and visuals. "Jeff asked the kids to tell what they saw and predict storyline elements" (pg. 39), which is something every teacher should strive for in literacy, because making connections and making predictions is a huge part of reading comprehension. I think that the students seemed to really respond to this decision-making process and I am sure that makes them eager to keep reading the story because they want to find out if their predictions are true. Jeff also used paraphrasing during his reading of the text so that the kids would be able to understand the material better, and this is a tool many teachers (not just ESL teachers) use in the classroom, especially in foreign languages as well where students do not understand the phrasing that a native speaker would use, like slang or jargon. Something else that Jeff allowed for in the classroom was the telling of spin-off stories in order to make connections to the story at hand, like "the death of the dog and Stone Fox's remarkable gesture of kindness" (pg. 41) seemed to allow for a lot of different interpretations and kids telling stories about their own pets or kind things they had seen people do in movies or in real life. It is important with reading and listening skills to make your own visual and emotional connections to a story; otherwise it will make no absolutely no impact on the kids. I remember reading stories in elementary or middle school and feeling like I could not connect with it at all, and needless to say I cannot remember a single detail or title from any of those stories. 
The really cool thing about this chapter was that it gave the format for watching movies, like the student who did "Pursuit of Happyness" and either was able to write or draw what they saw on the screen and talk about their opinions on the film. I definitely want to photocopy that and use it for my own future classes. I think it is a great visual tool for students and for teachers so that they can see where a student is at in written language and in listening comprehension as well.