Reference: Made in America, Chap. 7
1) "Whether or not courses are made available for LEP students is a product of decisions by individual teachers based on their interest and willingness to provide them. Where do the policies that shape these programs come from?" (pg. 152) - I read this and I was not exactly surprised, but it still makes me pretty angry. These policies I think come from the higher legislature like the state, and if the state is short-sighed, then the schools become short-sighed as a product of their inability to provide funds for these programs. I know that it is tough right now in education; it is my huge deterrent in entering the field. I absolutely dislike with a passion how much bureaucracy high schools and elementary schools have to go through to get what they need and want. The state legislature is run by people who do not understand education. It is ironic and makes no sense at all. There need to be people on these boards or legislature that have been teachers or principals that can advocate for the education system, because we are getting nowhere with what we currently have. We need someone to stand up for these kids and make sure that they get the help they deserve and so desperately desire. I think that Madison did a good job in starting up the Newcomer School for the immigrant students because it gives them someplace to go and be with people who understand their academic needs and understand their cultural background. I believe Olsen mentioned that the school hired people with ESL training and who speak two languages at least. That is amazing and was a great idea when they came up with it. All they had to do was maintain it. I know that the end said that Maria (the one who came up with the idea for the school) has left the district, and I was sad to read that. I hope we find out what happens to her later on, but the school was very wrong in letting her go. I know that it is difficult to maintain a newcomer school like that and I especially do not know just being a college student, but I imagine that what they had should have been a success. We watched that video about a similar school earlier in the semester, and I thought that was an excellent example of a successful newcomer program. Someone should show Madison High that video and see what they think!
2) "Immigrant students face more than simply the academic challenges in their lives." (pg. 154) - I have never read a truer statement than this. Students of immigrant families are facing much more emotional challenges than we as Americans face. The fact is, like Olsen said in the book, many students are from families who have come here illegally and face deportation if they are found out. This situation creates a lot of emotional pressure on the kids going to school to not say anything about their immigration status, and then they are expected to sit there and focus on their academics. It is no wonder that they are not as engaged in school as they should be; they have so many other social and familial pressures going on behind the scenes that school probably comes at a very distant 3rd or 4th on their priority list. Some students have to get jobs to support their families and many drop out of school at 16 in order to help at a family business or merely be there to take care of their younger siblings since they cannot afford any type of babysitter or nanny. Some of these students are basically forced into being parents to their siblings or another employee when all they should be doing is being at school, hanging out with friends, and trying to figure out what to do with their lives. That, in my opinion, is what they came here for, so why should they not experience it? I think it must be very difficult because they probably have such high expectations about coming here and then it is not all sunshine and daisies. They have to work very hard to get accepted in school and then face their parents' 'old-fashioned' ways at home. It can be very confusing for them.
3) 'They liked the idea we were going to take the kids off their hands of the home-base high schools and we were going to teach them English. That was the beginning of the double-edged sword. They want the kids taken care of, somewhere other than in their own classroom or school." (pg. 160) - Well, that is certainly a very sad statement from Maria Rodriguez. I do, however, understand the belief of the school and I will explain why. I hope it does not come off the wrong way, but here it is. I do not exactly blame them for wanting to move the kids somewhere else. It is actually better for them to be in an environment that will support their academic and emotional needs, not to be in a school where no one gets what they are going through and they have to struggle every day. I am not exactly sure how Ms. Rodriguez meant the statement, but I have the optimistic hope that the school wanted to do right by these kids and give them somewhere that is more supportive and can provide the kind of help that the home-base school cannot. Perhaps it is the other way around and the school just wants to get rid of the students and not have to deal with them, which could very well be the case here. I just think that the home-based schools should allow for these newcomer schools to house the students until they are ready for the mainstream high school and then let them be in those classes. If they are never ready, that should be fine, too. They should at least have the goal of being proficient when they get out of high school and be able to get into a decent community college or university in the future. These students deserve the extra help and attention from people who have a background in ESL, not people who are only there for a paycheck.
4) [curriculum] "It is left up to each regular content area chairperson to respond to the academic course needs of the LEP student...the result is limited and uneven access to content courses." (pg. 166) - Another mistake on the school's part here in this quote. I believe that schools with high LEP populations coming in should at least have an ESL chairperson or at the very least, an English department chairperson who has experience or ESL training to schedule and provide these courses. It is ridiculous that someone who probably has no idea that the student is even in ESL is putting them in these classes and that the teacher of the course may not even find out until the first day of class that they have 2 or 3 ESL students in their classroom. Teachers need to prepare for that kind of student in their classroom and be able to edit their lesson plans accordingly. I am of the firm belief that all teachers should have to go through ESL training, but I know that will not be happening in the near future. Still, I think it is absolutely necessary considering the climate of the United States right now. They should at least be sympathetic and go out of their way to help their ESL students, not just allow them to fade into the background and end up not learning anything. It brings to mind something I talked about with my supervisor at BJHS about their own program. She said the mainstream teachers are using high-school level textbooks in their classroom with 7th and 8th graders which may be fine for them, but not for the ESL students! Some can barely read at a 3rd grade level, let alone a high school level! She said that she brought that to the attention of the principal and teachers, but they shot her down. They said that they just could afford to accommodate those students, so she went out and bought her own textbooks out of her pocket. Unfortunately this is the reality of the ESL situation in our schools. Until it gets better, we just have to be their advocates.
5) "The 'temporary' influx of new immigrants, which the district prepared to serve in the Newcomer Center thirteen years ago, has clearly lasted and there is no projected end to the immigration wave...there is no mechanism...for working out a more contemporary and permanent solution." (pg. 172) - Unfortunately, this is a problem that not only affects Madison High in this book, but rather most high schools in the United States that have a large immigrant population. The suburbs of Chicago (where I am from) has had these issues for the past few years, trying to account for the huge influx of Arabic populations from abroad and locally. What happened in our town was that they built a new, beautiful mosque about 10 minutes away from where I live. Since mosques are few and far between in the suburbs, many Muslims have since moved to our area to be closer to their place of worship, and this has affected the people in our town greatly. Many people are not happy with the situation, and they have a very racist attitude about it, including my own parents which I am sad to admit. I think people are hard-pressed to find anywhere that is still primarily "white" and I have told my parents that again and again. My school has been affected by the changes as well, and they have since had to hire another ESL teacher because the one they had could not accommodate the amount of students coming in. I think it is great that my school was not short-sighted like other schools and took the time and effort to hire someone else to take the load off the other teacher, but other schools are not so lucky. They throw 30 or so kids into a class and it becomes chaotic. There is no way a teacher can handle that amount of bodies in a classroom and expect to get anything sufficient done. I have learned this time and time again in my education and methods courses, but school districts are not spending money on expanding schools and making more classrooms. There is no money for that nowadays. I think schools should at least have a more permanent plan for the influx of immigrant students since it does not seem to be slowing down by any means. They need to stop dallying around and talk to their teachers and coordinators and find some way to accommodate the new students they have coming in. There is no way around it. They cannot just deny the students an education. I think that every school in the United States needs to start working on this issue and at least try to hire some people with ESL training and have them start planning a program, especially in areas like Bayview in the book where the immigrant population is quite high.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Observation Week 5: March 27
Note: This week I was only able to observe one day because the students are taking an exam today and it was optional to come in and observe. Also, BJHS is on spring break this week, so I am only commenting on what I observed at Heartland on Tuesday, March 27.
This week, I was looking for some "student talk"; in other words, how the students talk to each other, to their teacher, and what strategies they use when they are speaking. I think that students in both of the classes have intermediate to advanced speaking skills, and it definitely depends on how long they have been here in the United States and how exposure they have had to English. I think for the adults it might be a little easier to become immersed in the language because they immediately have to get jobs to support their families or children that they bring with them. A lot of them work in restaurants and in the hospitality business, so obviously they have to interact frequently with English-speaking customers in the community and therefore have to learn strategic competence very quickly. A few of the students are not as confident in their speaking abilities; I can tell because they do not speak up a lot in class and tend to just sit back and watch the situation. I can tell that they work it through in their heads before they answer any questions, because they probably have that fear of being wrong and that is totally understandable. When they answer questions, their answers are a bit halted at times and they hesitate a lot before saying words that they do not totally understand or cannot pronounce properly. When Sue is doing their syllable stress activities at the beginning of class, the students tend to repeat the words after her to make sure that they pronounce them like a native speaker would. One good thing about Sue is that she uses realistic language and lets them know that some pronunciations are easily accepted in certain areas and that they are not wrong if they pronounce it that way. I think it is great that she lets them know that there are variations in English, because I feel like some English teachers think it is their way or the highway, so to speak, and so there is only one correct pronunciation.
When they are doing their error correction activities, too, I see the students mouthing the words to themselves in order to understand what is wrong in the sentences. The students are really good at the grammar like tenses and punctuation, but they seem to have a lot of issues with slang or uncommonly used words in English, as well as if the error correction activity has spelling mistakes. If you are exposed to the word enough, like we are, we would know if it is spelled wrong, but if they are not reading or writing that word a lot, they would probably not notice a spelling mistake. I know I would not notice words that are spelled wrong in Spanish entirely because I have not read the word in context and I tend to just believe what my teachers tell me is right in Spanish. I feel like that is a similar effect. I know both the classes I observed had trouble with the word "guzzled" because they have never heard it in context. I understand why they did not comprehend the word because I do not feel like a lot of people use it. I know I do not use it, so maybe this book of activities might need to be updated to use more real language. So I definitely think that their grammatical competence is great, but their strategic and discourse competence are still in progress. None of them can communicate in paragraph discourse; they can only saw 1 or 2 sentences before they trail off or get frustrated.
Conversation between students is very different depending on the class; of course, we expect that every class is going to have a different dynamic so Sue has told me how she feels about the different classes. The morning class is very animated and it is a little smaller and tighter-knit group; a lot of them work together outside of class and have personal friendships so they talk to each other a lot about their families or their kids or something that happened at work the night before, etc. One thing I noticed that was different between the two classes was that the morning class very, very rarely speak in another language to each other, but the night class has a tendency to lapse back into their first language. I cannot seem to figure out what the difference is between the classes. I think the night class is a slightly older group, like 30's and 40's while the morning class is in their 20's mostly. I think the younger group might have an easier time learning English and they feel less tempted to use their first language while the older group is struggling more and gets frustrated so they lapse back into using their first language instead. I think it is just a comfort-ability factor because they also work with the people in their class, and they have a lot to talk about with them, but it is in their first language rather than English.
This week, I was looking for some "student talk"; in other words, how the students talk to each other, to their teacher, and what strategies they use when they are speaking. I think that students in both of the classes have intermediate to advanced speaking skills, and it definitely depends on how long they have been here in the United States and how exposure they have had to English. I think for the adults it might be a little easier to become immersed in the language because they immediately have to get jobs to support their families or children that they bring with them. A lot of them work in restaurants and in the hospitality business, so obviously they have to interact frequently with English-speaking customers in the community and therefore have to learn strategic competence very quickly. A few of the students are not as confident in their speaking abilities; I can tell because they do not speak up a lot in class and tend to just sit back and watch the situation. I can tell that they work it through in their heads before they answer any questions, because they probably have that fear of being wrong and that is totally understandable. When they answer questions, their answers are a bit halted at times and they hesitate a lot before saying words that they do not totally understand or cannot pronounce properly. When Sue is doing their syllable stress activities at the beginning of class, the students tend to repeat the words after her to make sure that they pronounce them like a native speaker would. One good thing about Sue is that she uses realistic language and lets them know that some pronunciations are easily accepted in certain areas and that they are not wrong if they pronounce it that way. I think it is great that she lets them know that there are variations in English, because I feel like some English teachers think it is their way or the highway, so to speak, and so there is only one correct pronunciation.
When they are doing their error correction activities, too, I see the students mouthing the words to themselves in order to understand what is wrong in the sentences. The students are really good at the grammar like tenses and punctuation, but they seem to have a lot of issues with slang or uncommonly used words in English, as well as if the error correction activity has spelling mistakes. If you are exposed to the word enough, like we are, we would know if it is spelled wrong, but if they are not reading or writing that word a lot, they would probably not notice a spelling mistake. I know I would not notice words that are spelled wrong in Spanish entirely because I have not read the word in context and I tend to just believe what my teachers tell me is right in Spanish. I feel like that is a similar effect. I know both the classes I observed had trouble with the word "guzzled" because they have never heard it in context. I understand why they did not comprehend the word because I do not feel like a lot of people use it. I know I do not use it, so maybe this book of activities might need to be updated to use more real language. So I definitely think that their grammatical competence is great, but their strategic and discourse competence are still in progress. None of them can communicate in paragraph discourse; they can only saw 1 or 2 sentences before they trail off or get frustrated.
Conversation between students is very different depending on the class; of course, we expect that every class is going to have a different dynamic so Sue has told me how she feels about the different classes. The morning class is very animated and it is a little smaller and tighter-knit group; a lot of them work together outside of class and have personal friendships so they talk to each other a lot about their families or their kids or something that happened at work the night before, etc. One thing I noticed that was different between the two classes was that the morning class very, very rarely speak in another language to each other, but the night class has a tendency to lapse back into their first language. I cannot seem to figure out what the difference is between the classes. I think the night class is a slightly older group, like 30's and 40's while the morning class is in their 20's mostly. I think the younger group might have an easier time learning English and they feel less tempted to use their first language while the older group is struggling more and gets frustrated so they lapse back into using their first language instead. I think it is just a comfort-ability factor because they also work with the people in their class, and they have a lot to talk about with them, but it is in their first language rather than English.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
3/28 Reading
Reference: Made in America, Chapter 6
1) "Her schooling is over. Her adult life as a wife is about to begin." (pg. 122) - I was excited to read this chapter on Love and Marriage and what the difference was for the immigrants. I read this quote and it immediately reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine. I had a couple of girl friends in junior high and high school whose families were staunchly Arabic. One girl's family had been here for 3 or 4 generations, in the other's family, she was the first generation born here in the United States. It was amazing to see the difference in their family lives; one had to wear the hijab (I think that's how you spell it?) and one did not. One could not come over to my house and hang out with me, the other could. One could hang out with boys and go to the mall, but the other only could with a chaperone. It was really interesting to see how that played out in their family relationships, and I always asked my friend if it bothered her that her family was so traditional and old-fashioned, but to her, that was just a way of life. She never questioned what her parents said or asked her to do, because that is just the way things were. This same girl left right after high school to get married in Palestine, and I have not seen her since. Her parents were not even totally willing for her to graduate, but she convinced them to let her graduate at least and then she was gone. The other girl married a couple years ago right out of high school and now she has a baby. I guess it's my perspective of being American and that it boggles my mind. I think it is strange enough that people from my own culture get married so young, but I feel like it's more understandable when you know their culture. We have totally different expectations of young people here in the United States; no one expects us to get married right out of high school and have children right away. To us, it's like being back in 1950's, or at least to me, it is!
2) "Schooling is viewed as a place to engage in social activities that are constricted outside of school." (pg. 125) - I found this to be an interesting quote because I completely agree with it. School to us is kind of like a free zone where we can be with our friends, say whatever we want to our friends, and just be ourselves away from our parents. School is where we forge social relationships, especially where we learn to forge intimate or dating relationships. I think that having a restriction on dating, in my opinion, can go one of two ways for a teenager. They can rebel and go behind their parents' back (not a good option), or they can obey their parents and be made fun of by their peers by not dating (another not so good option). In high school, nothing is ever a win-win situation. If you do not have a date to a dance or a boyfriend for a long time, you are looked down on as being a loser. I know because I have experienced it myself. I was so desperate just to go to a dance with a guy to be socially accepted and I was just so happy when I finally met my ex-boyfriend because I had someone to show off to my peers. I know it is all very silly and juvenile, but it is how high schoolers think. When you are at home, dating and sex are not things that get talked about often, even in American culture. I have friends that did not even understand anything about it until they were in health class at 16 years old. I was very fortunate that my parents are open and willing to talk about things like that with me, and that's because they remember their parents being very restrictive and unwilling to help them in that area. However, being in a different culture is a whole other concept. It seems that parents are fine with them forging friendships with their peers, maybe even fine with them having friends that are from another race, but when it comes to dating, it is either date inside your race or not at all. It is so unfortunate that they cannot even think to marry someone outside their ethnic background for fear of being cast out by their parents.
3) "For many of the immigrant girls, the hopes of their own futures are set aside as the struggle for family survival in the United States demands their time, energy, and focus." (pg. 129) - This whole section on having to work outside the home totally boggled my mind. I guess I was always under the impression that a lot of immigrant children did not work, but that was maybe because the immigrant kids in my area did not do so. After reading it, I definitely understood the reasoning for the older kids working; it is like any other family in times of economic uncertainty, even in American culture. I got my first job when I was 18, which was a lot older than some of my own group of friends whose families were not as economically solid as mine. In American culture, having a job when you are a teenager is rarely about the money. It is about learning to use your money independently and teaching you some values about working, and a good side effect is that your parents are not constantly footing you money for food or the movies. However, for some teenagers especially as described in this chapter, the money is about helping to feed your own money so obviously they feel obligated to be helping their parents out and taking care of the littler siblings who are not old enough to get out and start working. I think it would be so difficult for the older kids to watch their younger siblings get to go home and relax and have time for homework, but yet they have to be under pressure and be like another parent. It is a hard concept to rationalize. Teenagers are already stuck in this transition period between being a kid and being an adult, and working to support their money just makes it even harder to figure out that distinction.
4) "If you have education, you can get a better job. If you're married, it's difficult if you don't have an education, because you have to stay home and look after kids and you never can say anything." [Shani] (pg. 136) - I feel like this chapter is full of contradicting or opposing opinions, and this is a perfect example of one of them. Shani, a girl described in this chapter, really wants to continue on in higher education and be a doctor for two reasons: 1) because she actually wants to become a doctor and 2) because she is trying to postpone having to marry someone so young. I think Shani wants to please her parents by being successful and being a doctor is the picture-perfect example of an enviable career, but at the same time, her parents are not pleased because they want to see her get married and have kids. What Shani wants them to understand is that getting married means that is then up to the husband to decide if he wants her to go to school or not, and that brings forth a great deal of other issues, like where would she go to school? They could not possibly move far away unless his job allowed him to, so she would have to limit herself to finding something close by. Secondly, if they end up having children, when is she going to find the time to go to school at all if she is taking care of them all day? In the end, she will likely end up quitting and just being a full-time mother, which obviously there is nothing wrong with doing so in any cultural sense, but she would be giving up her dream of being successful and independent and making her parents proud of her. I cannot even imagine (being a college student and being American) my parents telling me that they chose a husband for me and that I need to just go get married and give up everything that for which I have worked so hard. It seems completely unfair, but I am culturally and gender biased in this sense. I want all women, no matter what background, to have equal treatment in the workplace and to have husbands that support them. I know that I would never marry someone who did not support my career but this could just be an American thing.
5) "For the immigrant girls, there were two strongly opposing peer group concepts of appropriate future gender roles: the romantic lover where attractiveness is key, and the respectful, dutiful wife/daughter." (pg. 142) - I think this is another dichotomy that can be very confusing to immigrant girls who are watching American girls interact. American girls do not have as many expectations as other cultures do, and we can essentially just go date, do what we want, dress how we want without any real consequences unless you have some very strict parents. The newcomer girls are then jealous and confused as to why American girls can act like that and why they cannot be like them. I am absolutely sure that some of them do not want to be like us at all and would prefer their own culture's way of doing things, though. It amazes me every day how silly teenage girls are and how they act to get boys' attention; I know because I live with a 16-year-old sister. Sometimes I just kind of wonder what it would be like to have an arranged marriage, have family pick out someone for you. I just think that it is always portrayed negatively in movies or television shows, any sort of media speaks out against it, but do we ever really think to ask people who are in arranged marriages what it is like? I wish I could ask my Arabic friend about it but I rarely see her anymore. I do have a friend here who is American but from a very conservative Christian religion who was arranged to marry her husband. They have been married for a little over a year now, and she tells me all the time that she is so happy that she trusted their families to set them up. She said it was never a question for her whether or not she should marry him, she just knew that she trusted the people around them and her faith to get her through, which honestly I find pretty admirable. It takes a lot of courage to just pick up and get married without really knowing someone, and she says that their relationship gets stronger every day that she is with him. Anyway, back to the point of the quote, there exists a kind of strange dichotomy of what a wife is expected to be; this just goes back to gender roles in general. I find it fascinating that we, at the same time, have to be sexual and romantic partners and then be the housewife and mother that men seem to expect us to be and that is even more true of other cultures. I just wonder how they must feel entering into a marriage with no prior dating or intimate experiences and then somehow are expected to be perfect in all areas of marriage and that they have to please their husband. I am really not trying to criticize how people do things, but I guess I am not in that place and do not really understand because of my own background. I have a strong, independent mother who is pretty much the head of our household and that is what I am used to; I am not used to traditional gender roles and I guess that is what I expect of other relationships at times, but I know I have to learn to be more open to other ways of living and being in a marriage or relationship.
1) "Her schooling is over. Her adult life as a wife is about to begin." (pg. 122) - I was excited to read this chapter on Love and Marriage and what the difference was for the immigrants. I read this quote and it immediately reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine. I had a couple of girl friends in junior high and high school whose families were staunchly Arabic. One girl's family had been here for 3 or 4 generations, in the other's family, she was the first generation born here in the United States. It was amazing to see the difference in their family lives; one had to wear the hijab (I think that's how you spell it?) and one did not. One could not come over to my house and hang out with me, the other could. One could hang out with boys and go to the mall, but the other only could with a chaperone. It was really interesting to see how that played out in their family relationships, and I always asked my friend if it bothered her that her family was so traditional and old-fashioned, but to her, that was just a way of life. She never questioned what her parents said or asked her to do, because that is just the way things were. This same girl left right after high school to get married in Palestine, and I have not seen her since. Her parents were not even totally willing for her to graduate, but she convinced them to let her graduate at least and then she was gone. The other girl married a couple years ago right out of high school and now she has a baby. I guess it's my perspective of being American and that it boggles my mind. I think it is strange enough that people from my own culture get married so young, but I feel like it's more understandable when you know their culture. We have totally different expectations of young people here in the United States; no one expects us to get married right out of high school and have children right away. To us, it's like being back in 1950's, or at least to me, it is!
2) "Schooling is viewed as a place to engage in social activities that are constricted outside of school." (pg. 125) - I found this to be an interesting quote because I completely agree with it. School to us is kind of like a free zone where we can be with our friends, say whatever we want to our friends, and just be ourselves away from our parents. School is where we forge social relationships, especially where we learn to forge intimate or dating relationships. I think that having a restriction on dating, in my opinion, can go one of two ways for a teenager. They can rebel and go behind their parents' back (not a good option), or they can obey their parents and be made fun of by their peers by not dating (another not so good option). In high school, nothing is ever a win-win situation. If you do not have a date to a dance or a boyfriend for a long time, you are looked down on as being a loser. I know because I have experienced it myself. I was so desperate just to go to a dance with a guy to be socially accepted and I was just so happy when I finally met my ex-boyfriend because I had someone to show off to my peers. I know it is all very silly and juvenile, but it is how high schoolers think. When you are at home, dating and sex are not things that get talked about often, even in American culture. I have friends that did not even understand anything about it until they were in health class at 16 years old. I was very fortunate that my parents are open and willing to talk about things like that with me, and that's because they remember their parents being very restrictive and unwilling to help them in that area. However, being in a different culture is a whole other concept. It seems that parents are fine with them forging friendships with their peers, maybe even fine with them having friends that are from another race, but when it comes to dating, it is either date inside your race or not at all. It is so unfortunate that they cannot even think to marry someone outside their ethnic background for fear of being cast out by their parents.
3) "For many of the immigrant girls, the hopes of their own futures are set aside as the struggle for family survival in the United States demands their time, energy, and focus." (pg. 129) - This whole section on having to work outside the home totally boggled my mind. I guess I was always under the impression that a lot of immigrant children did not work, but that was maybe because the immigrant kids in my area did not do so. After reading it, I definitely understood the reasoning for the older kids working; it is like any other family in times of economic uncertainty, even in American culture. I got my first job when I was 18, which was a lot older than some of my own group of friends whose families were not as economically solid as mine. In American culture, having a job when you are a teenager is rarely about the money. It is about learning to use your money independently and teaching you some values about working, and a good side effect is that your parents are not constantly footing you money for food or the movies. However, for some teenagers especially as described in this chapter, the money is about helping to feed your own money so obviously they feel obligated to be helping their parents out and taking care of the littler siblings who are not old enough to get out and start working. I think it would be so difficult for the older kids to watch their younger siblings get to go home and relax and have time for homework, but yet they have to be under pressure and be like another parent. It is a hard concept to rationalize. Teenagers are already stuck in this transition period between being a kid and being an adult, and working to support their money just makes it even harder to figure out that distinction.
4) "If you have education, you can get a better job. If you're married, it's difficult if you don't have an education, because you have to stay home and look after kids and you never can say anything." [Shani] (pg. 136) - I feel like this chapter is full of contradicting or opposing opinions, and this is a perfect example of one of them. Shani, a girl described in this chapter, really wants to continue on in higher education and be a doctor for two reasons: 1) because she actually wants to become a doctor and 2) because she is trying to postpone having to marry someone so young. I think Shani wants to please her parents by being successful and being a doctor is the picture-perfect example of an enviable career, but at the same time, her parents are not pleased because they want to see her get married and have kids. What Shani wants them to understand is that getting married means that is then up to the husband to decide if he wants her to go to school or not, and that brings forth a great deal of other issues, like where would she go to school? They could not possibly move far away unless his job allowed him to, so she would have to limit herself to finding something close by. Secondly, if they end up having children, when is she going to find the time to go to school at all if she is taking care of them all day? In the end, she will likely end up quitting and just being a full-time mother, which obviously there is nothing wrong with doing so in any cultural sense, but she would be giving up her dream of being successful and independent and making her parents proud of her. I cannot even imagine (being a college student and being American) my parents telling me that they chose a husband for me and that I need to just go get married and give up everything that for which I have worked so hard. It seems completely unfair, but I am culturally and gender biased in this sense. I want all women, no matter what background, to have equal treatment in the workplace and to have husbands that support them. I know that I would never marry someone who did not support my career but this could just be an American thing.
5) "For the immigrant girls, there were two strongly opposing peer group concepts of appropriate future gender roles: the romantic lover where attractiveness is key, and the respectful, dutiful wife/daughter." (pg. 142) - I think this is another dichotomy that can be very confusing to immigrant girls who are watching American girls interact. American girls do not have as many expectations as other cultures do, and we can essentially just go date, do what we want, dress how we want without any real consequences unless you have some very strict parents. The newcomer girls are then jealous and confused as to why American girls can act like that and why they cannot be like them. I am absolutely sure that some of them do not want to be like us at all and would prefer their own culture's way of doing things, though. It amazes me every day how silly teenage girls are and how they act to get boys' attention; I know because I live with a 16-year-old sister. Sometimes I just kind of wonder what it would be like to have an arranged marriage, have family pick out someone for you. I just think that it is always portrayed negatively in movies or television shows, any sort of media speaks out against it, but do we ever really think to ask people who are in arranged marriages what it is like? I wish I could ask my Arabic friend about it but I rarely see her anymore. I do have a friend here who is American but from a very conservative Christian religion who was arranged to marry her husband. They have been married for a little over a year now, and she tells me all the time that she is so happy that she trusted their families to set them up. She said it was never a question for her whether or not she should marry him, she just knew that she trusted the people around them and her faith to get her through, which honestly I find pretty admirable. It takes a lot of courage to just pick up and get married without really knowing someone, and she says that their relationship gets stronger every day that she is with him. Anyway, back to the point of the quote, there exists a kind of strange dichotomy of what a wife is expected to be; this just goes back to gender roles in general. I find it fascinating that we, at the same time, have to be sexual and romantic partners and then be the housewife and mother that men seem to expect us to be and that is even more true of other cultures. I just wonder how they must feel entering into a marriage with no prior dating or intimate experiences and then somehow are expected to be perfect in all areas of marriage and that they have to please their husband. I am really not trying to criticize how people do things, but I guess I am not in that place and do not really understand because of my own background. I have a strong, independent mother who is pretty much the head of our household and that is what I am used to; I am not used to traditional gender roles and I guess that is what I expect of other relationships at times, but I know I have to learn to be more open to other ways of living and being in a marriage or relationship.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Observation Week 4: March 20 and 22
This week I will mostly be talking about my observations at Bloomington Junior High School with Kathy (my cooperating teacher). BJHS's ESL program is pretty small; there are only 6 in her class and the rest have been mainstreamed into regular classes. The class I observe is a combination Social Studies/Reading ESL class and lasts for an hour and a half which is a very long time for these students in my opinion. But then again, Kathy says that the kids really love being in ESL class because everything is a little slowed down for them, and she works with them very closely on the material. Their textbooks are at a 3rd and 4th grade reading level so that they can fully comprehend the material, but even then some have some difficulty. The class make-up is 5 students who are Spanish speakers and 1 students whose first language is Hindi. I sort of feel bad because he ends up getting a little lost in the shuffle because all the other students speak the same language, but they are very nice to him and are able to talk to him in English most of the time. One girl has just moved here from Honduras (in January) and has been living with her aunt ever since; her mother just arrived yesterday and even from Tuesday to Thursday I saw a huge difference in her personality. When I first met her, she was very shy and did not even want to talk to me in Spanish but today she was quite talkative and wanted to participate more, and came in with a smile on her face which elated Kathy. Hopefully her mother being here will really help her be motivated in class.
Two of the students in the class are very advanced in English; they are both A students and Kathy lamented that they were still in ESL but unfortunately they passed every section of their ACCESS exam other than the English section which still placed them in ESL. They will be taking it again at the end of the school year and hopefully they will pass then because then they will end up in the ESL program at Bloomington High School, which she does not want for them. I did not ask her much about the program there, but I will find out more details as I go along. Kathy is an excellent teacher; she actually taught at the ELI for 9 years before she went to the junior high level, so she has a lot of experience with ESL students. She is really compassionate and helpful, but she gets frustrated a little easily with the students at times. She said she feels bad for getting irate with them, but she does not speak much Spanish so she never really knows if they are staying on task with the lesson, and that would be frustrating to a lot of people.
Thankfully for me, I do not need to worry much about the language barrier with Spanish and I was able to help the two girls who have been here for a short period of time with their assignments. I am really excited that I can get some translating experience along with the practicum experience because I always need to speak more Spanish! I actually helped one of the girls with her exam today; she did pretty good for the most part but needed a few words and phrases explained to her in Spanish, so I felt really good about helping her out. She seemed a little awkward with me, which I understand completely because this was only my second day in the class. Hopefully that will get better as we go along. The other students are very welcoming and really willing to talk to me and listen to me, since Kathy wanted them to believe I have some authority in the classroom, so I will need to work on that.
I wanted to tell an interesting story I heard at Heartland today: one of the women in our class (she is from Ecuador) has been here for a few years. Somehow one of their error correction activities got them on the topic of passports and green cards, and the woman told us something disturbing that happened to her here in Bloomington-Normal. She said one night during her first week here, she was walking down Main Street to go to Walgreen's, and a cop stopped her on her way there. He promptly asked her if she had a green card and passport with her, and she said of course she did, so she handed them over. He checked them and asked her a couple of questions about why she walking and why she was out so late, etc which she answered politely. She said he seemed skeptical but left. She said a similar thing happened to her a few months ago, but not with the same cop. Sue and I were pretty appalled by her story. The woman seemed fine about it, even laughing, but Sue explained to her that what they did was wrong and is illegal and the woman was very surprised. I just find it very irritating that just because they see an ethnic woman walking down the street, they immediately think she is up to no good. It's just so racist! These people come here and expect to be treated the way they should be treated, and stopping her on the street for basically no reason is completely disrespectful.
I thought that it went along nicely with what we were talking about in class and in the Made in America chapter. We put people into these racial categories and associate the stereotypes we see in movies or on television and we then assume that all people of that background are like that, which I have learned over time is definitely not the case.
Two of the students in the class are very advanced in English; they are both A students and Kathy lamented that they were still in ESL but unfortunately they passed every section of their ACCESS exam other than the English section which still placed them in ESL. They will be taking it again at the end of the school year and hopefully they will pass then because then they will end up in the ESL program at Bloomington High School, which she does not want for them. I did not ask her much about the program there, but I will find out more details as I go along. Kathy is an excellent teacher; she actually taught at the ELI for 9 years before she went to the junior high level, so she has a lot of experience with ESL students. She is really compassionate and helpful, but she gets frustrated a little easily with the students at times. She said she feels bad for getting irate with them, but she does not speak much Spanish so she never really knows if they are staying on task with the lesson, and that would be frustrating to a lot of people.
Thankfully for me, I do not need to worry much about the language barrier with Spanish and I was able to help the two girls who have been here for a short period of time with their assignments. I am really excited that I can get some translating experience along with the practicum experience because I always need to speak more Spanish! I actually helped one of the girls with her exam today; she did pretty good for the most part but needed a few words and phrases explained to her in Spanish, so I felt really good about helping her out. She seemed a little awkward with me, which I understand completely because this was only my second day in the class. Hopefully that will get better as we go along. The other students are very welcoming and really willing to talk to me and listen to me, since Kathy wanted them to believe I have some authority in the classroom, so I will need to work on that.
I wanted to tell an interesting story I heard at Heartland today: one of the women in our class (she is from Ecuador) has been here for a few years. Somehow one of their error correction activities got them on the topic of passports and green cards, and the woman told us something disturbing that happened to her here in Bloomington-Normal. She said one night during her first week here, she was walking down Main Street to go to Walgreen's, and a cop stopped her on her way there. He promptly asked her if she had a green card and passport with her, and she said of course she did, so she handed them over. He checked them and asked her a couple of questions about why she walking and why she was out so late, etc which she answered politely. She said he seemed skeptical but left. She said a similar thing happened to her a few months ago, but not with the same cop. Sue and I were pretty appalled by her story. The woman seemed fine about it, even laughing, but Sue explained to her that what they did was wrong and is illegal and the woman was very surprised. I just find it very irritating that just because they see an ethnic woman walking down the street, they immediately think she is up to no good. It's just so racist! These people come here and expect to be treated the way they should be treated, and stopping her on the street for basically no reason is completely disrespectful.
I thought that it went along nicely with what we were talking about in class and in the Made in America chapter. We put people into these racial categories and associate the stereotypes we see in movies or on television and we then assume that all people of that background are like that, which I have learned over time is definitely not the case.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
3/21 Reading
Reference: Made in America Chapter 5
I will be following the similar pattern as my previous blog posts of this book.
1) "I love my country. I dream about it every night. I hope to see it again. I have no place I belong here. I do not belong with Latins; I am not at home here. The whites do not accept me. I am the only speaker of my language. I am Brazilian!" (pg. 107) - As we talked about a little today in class, it is hard enough being an immigrant in the United States and be expected to learn the language; among other things, students also need to find a way to fit in within their racial category within the country or more specifically, the school system. Sandra, who is Brazilian, obviously does not identify with the Latino community and does not identify with the white community, so where does she belong? There is no other ethnic group that she can be with, so what can Sandra do? I have to wonder what we as their teachers can do to help them belong and fit in; I guess that we can help them by presenting about their culture, having a cultural day dedicated to Brazilians or something like that, but then again, that might be too superficial. It's very surface culture and we want them to identify with themselves at a deeper level. I think she probably thought that being with the cholas would help her fit in better at the school since that is the goal of most teenagers, but it will never fully satisfy her. It is important to make friends and be involved at the school, and in that case, Sandra did have her bases covered in that sense, but it just makes me feel bad for these students who do not have everywhere to go essentially. I think as teachers we just need to be there, support them, and be a helping hand whenever they need us.
2) "Many immigrant students at Madison have a stronger sense of connection to teachers and gratitude to the school than do their U.S.-born Latino peers...they hold on to their belief that school is their route to success in this new land" (pg. 114) - I know I experienced this in the high school I observed in; even being there for 2 days, I saw how the students viewed their teacher and their ESL experience. Seeing the difference between her junior American Literature students and her ESL students was eye-opening. The native English speakers were rowdy, did not pay attention to anything the teacher said, and generally just acted like they did not want to be there at all. They continually complained, saying, "Why do I have to do this?" and "I hate English, this class is so boring", but the ESL students did not complain at all, listened very attentively to the teacher, and asked a lot of deep questions about their reading material. I think the difference might be the fact that the class is a lot smaller and there is more individualized attention with the ESL students versus the juniors who are English speakers, but I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, these students are so privileged. They have absolutely no idea what these ESL kids go through." I mean, you cannot necessarily blame them for being privileged; they do not know that they are privileged! They take it for granted that they know the language and that they do not have to go through what the ESL kids go through every day. Being in a foreign country has a similar effect, but it's not the same. When they learn Spanish or French at school, they are not expected to go out in the halls and speak it with their peers, as much as we foreign language teachers would like them to! The only way that they would ever know sort of what the ESL kids experience would be to study abroad in a country where they do not know any of the language. I wish we could do that to get through to them, but that's almost impossible in this economy.
3) "Racial paths" [in regards to belonging or not belonging] (pg. 117) - This concept is particularly upsetting. Students, on top of being in ESL, are placed into these racial categories and then are expected to behave with their peers and at school according to these categories. They are brought down by the stereotypes of society and how the teachers perceive them; it is why they are put in lower-track courses and then they are expected to not go to college and not pursue more white-collar jobs. It is because society believes that they will not succeed in their education. I am honestly not sure where that stereotype has come from, maybe movies or television, but it is really negative and really hurts their self-esteem and it breaks their spirit. It calls attention again to the student who got into Berkeley but could not go because her family could not afford it; the girl was originally placed in lower-track classes and then the teachers were shocked to see that she was performing way above what they expected her to. We cannot place kids into these categories. I know that sometimes our own backgrounds come into play and we do not always notice it, but as teachers we have to pay attention to these issues, and as ESL teachers the kids look up to us to be the voice of reason so to speak. They want us to be there for them emotionally, and to stand up for their rights because they do not have the words to do so. Like Tiffany talked about in class today, they are put into these paths where they honestly believe they will not succeed because they are illegal immigrants and therefore do not want to be in school. They would rather just quit school and start what society expects them to do, follow the paths of their parents and grandparents and perhaps even further back. I do not think we should stop them from doing what they think they should do because sometimes it is an issue of pride and what their family needs or wants them to do, but we should at least let them know that they can rise above what is expected and do what they want to do. We should support them at every step as their teachers; help them apply to colleges and write essays, things that will get them ahead in life.
4) "...what do you get for working harder? A diploma is a diploma. It's good for a job at Pizza Hut." (pg. 118) - This sort of goes along with the third quote I chose. I feel though that this is an issue of what every high school student in America is facing, not just the students in this book. Times may have been a little different in the early 90's, but the message is still clear; a diploma is just a piece of paper that gets you out of high school but means nothing in the real world. The students are absolutely right about that. When my parents were graduating high school, that was a very big deal. That meant you were now an adult and could go get a real job. Now it is just another step in the road toward becoming an adult. Getting your college degree is now the marker of being an adult and even then it does not always mean securing a job. Times are tough, and kids realize this more than we think they do. They know the truth of the matter, and there is no point in keeping them in the dark. As I said, being their teacher means being a role model and being someone who can help them through high school and beyond. We need to help them believe in themselves and believe they can succeed in college, giving them the tools to do so. We need to tell them that a diploma is a big deal for them, that it means that they have learned enough English and can survive in the real English-speaking world. It is an achievement and they should know that. I know I am scared of graduating and that my diploma is just a piece of paper, as well, but I obviously know that I am privileged and the ESL students are not. This statement just really hit me deep because I know how that feels and I have had friends that have felt the same way, white and Latino alike.
I will be following the similar pattern as my previous blog posts of this book.
1) "I love my country. I dream about it every night. I hope to see it again. I have no place I belong here. I do not belong with Latins; I am not at home here. The whites do not accept me. I am the only speaker of my language. I am Brazilian!" (pg. 107) - As we talked about a little today in class, it is hard enough being an immigrant in the United States and be expected to learn the language; among other things, students also need to find a way to fit in within their racial category within the country or more specifically, the school system. Sandra, who is Brazilian, obviously does not identify with the Latino community and does not identify with the white community, so where does she belong? There is no other ethnic group that she can be with, so what can Sandra do? I have to wonder what we as their teachers can do to help them belong and fit in; I guess that we can help them by presenting about their culture, having a cultural day dedicated to Brazilians or something like that, but then again, that might be too superficial. It's very surface culture and we want them to identify with themselves at a deeper level. I think she probably thought that being with the cholas would help her fit in better at the school since that is the goal of most teenagers, but it will never fully satisfy her. It is important to make friends and be involved at the school, and in that case, Sandra did have her bases covered in that sense, but it just makes me feel bad for these students who do not have everywhere to go essentially. I think as teachers we just need to be there, support them, and be a helping hand whenever they need us.
2) "Many immigrant students at Madison have a stronger sense of connection to teachers and gratitude to the school than do their U.S.-born Latino peers...they hold on to their belief that school is their route to success in this new land" (pg. 114) - I know I experienced this in the high school I observed in; even being there for 2 days, I saw how the students viewed their teacher and their ESL experience. Seeing the difference between her junior American Literature students and her ESL students was eye-opening. The native English speakers were rowdy, did not pay attention to anything the teacher said, and generally just acted like they did not want to be there at all. They continually complained, saying, "Why do I have to do this?" and "I hate English, this class is so boring", but the ESL students did not complain at all, listened very attentively to the teacher, and asked a lot of deep questions about their reading material. I think the difference might be the fact that the class is a lot smaller and there is more individualized attention with the ESL students versus the juniors who are English speakers, but I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, these students are so privileged. They have absolutely no idea what these ESL kids go through." I mean, you cannot necessarily blame them for being privileged; they do not know that they are privileged! They take it for granted that they know the language and that they do not have to go through what the ESL kids go through every day. Being in a foreign country has a similar effect, but it's not the same. When they learn Spanish or French at school, they are not expected to go out in the halls and speak it with their peers, as much as we foreign language teachers would like them to! The only way that they would ever know sort of what the ESL kids experience would be to study abroad in a country where they do not know any of the language. I wish we could do that to get through to them, but that's almost impossible in this economy.
3) "Racial paths" [in regards to belonging or not belonging] (pg. 117) - This concept is particularly upsetting. Students, on top of being in ESL, are placed into these racial categories and then are expected to behave with their peers and at school according to these categories. They are brought down by the stereotypes of society and how the teachers perceive them; it is why they are put in lower-track courses and then they are expected to not go to college and not pursue more white-collar jobs. It is because society believes that they will not succeed in their education. I am honestly not sure where that stereotype has come from, maybe movies or television, but it is really negative and really hurts their self-esteem and it breaks their spirit. It calls attention again to the student who got into Berkeley but could not go because her family could not afford it; the girl was originally placed in lower-track classes and then the teachers were shocked to see that she was performing way above what they expected her to. We cannot place kids into these categories. I know that sometimes our own backgrounds come into play and we do not always notice it, but as teachers we have to pay attention to these issues, and as ESL teachers the kids look up to us to be the voice of reason so to speak. They want us to be there for them emotionally, and to stand up for their rights because they do not have the words to do so. Like Tiffany talked about in class today, they are put into these paths where they honestly believe they will not succeed because they are illegal immigrants and therefore do not want to be in school. They would rather just quit school and start what society expects them to do, follow the paths of their parents and grandparents and perhaps even further back. I do not think we should stop them from doing what they think they should do because sometimes it is an issue of pride and what their family needs or wants them to do, but we should at least let them know that they can rise above what is expected and do what they want to do. We should support them at every step as their teachers; help them apply to colleges and write essays, things that will get them ahead in life.
4) "...what do you get for working harder? A diploma is a diploma. It's good for a job at Pizza Hut." (pg. 118) - This sort of goes along with the third quote I chose. I feel though that this is an issue of what every high school student in America is facing, not just the students in this book. Times may have been a little different in the early 90's, but the message is still clear; a diploma is just a piece of paper that gets you out of high school but means nothing in the real world. The students are absolutely right about that. When my parents were graduating high school, that was a very big deal. That meant you were now an adult and could go get a real job. Now it is just another step in the road toward becoming an adult. Getting your college degree is now the marker of being an adult and even then it does not always mean securing a job. Times are tough, and kids realize this more than we think they do. They know the truth of the matter, and there is no point in keeping them in the dark. As I said, being their teacher means being a role model and being someone who can help them through high school and beyond. We need to help them believe in themselves and believe they can succeed in college, giving them the tools to do so. We need to tell them that a diploma is a big deal for them, that it means that they have learned enough English and can survive in the real English-speaking world. It is an achievement and they should know that. I know I am scared of graduating and that my diploma is just a piece of paper, as well, but I obviously know that I am privileged and the ESL students are not. This statement just really hit me deep because I know how that feels and I have had friends that have felt the same way, white and Latino alike.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Spring Break Observations
During my spring break, I observed at a high school near my hometown; the high school is a large suburban high school with a population of around 3000-3200 students. The ELL program at this high school has one teacher (I will call her Jill for the purpose of this blog), and she teaches 4 different ELL courses: ELL resource, and levels 1-3. The course counts as English credit for graduation and the students may stay in the ELL courses until they feel that they are ready to be mainstreamed into the regular English courses. To qualify for the specialized courses, the feeder school in the area has already indicated that they need the ELL courses, the students must have indicated on their entrance exams that they speak another language at home and also that they are testing below average on the English section of the entrance exam. Students have the option to either take the ELL courses or the parent can refuse the option and the student will be mainstreamed. Jill told me that 90 percent of the parents choose to have the ELL courses for the benefit of their adolescent, which I think is a very good idea. Jill's opinion was that if they have the resource, what reason would they have not to utilize it, which I think makes a lot of sense.
Jill has been teaching English for 10 years and ELL for 8 of those 10 years she has spent at this high school. She also teaches American Literature which I was able to observe as well. She does not speak any other language fluently, but she is attempting to teach herself some Spanish and Arabic in her spare time since that is the need of her students. The demographics are that the majority are from Arabic-speaking countries (Yemen, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine), a few from Spanish-speaking (Guatemala and Mexico), and 2 students from Vietnam and South Korea. She felt that it would be beneficial to know a little Arabic to familiarize herself with the language and culture in order to help her students.
An interesting thing that this high school provides is the resource period, which I think is an excellent idea. The students from all of her courses can take this class and it counts as a study hall; they can then work on homework from other courses, do make-up work, quizzes and tests from other teachers as well. The school provides each student a computer in the classroom so that they can work on any internet-related homework or if they need to do PowerPoints for their classes. Students are responsible for working on something the whole class period (50 minutes), and the teacher gives them a zero or half credit if they are not working on something. They may read an outside book or book for a class when they are done with regular homework. Jill emails and works closely with their teachers so that she knows what type of classes they are taking and how she can best help them; she is a little limited because her specialty is English, but she can help them translate or define a word for better comprehension of the material. I was able to walk around and assist a couple of students with those things as well while she worked with a student on a Works Cited Page, which he had never done before. Students are able to help each other with their homework if they are in the same class or same subject. Jill provides them with outside reading material; she has mostly modern literature like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, some graphic novels, and a few classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and the Outsiders.
Side note: something I noticed that I loved about these classes were that because of the size (each class had less than 10 students), the students did not culturally segregate. They definitely know the value of speaking English and practicing with their classmates. Of course their good friends spoke their native language but they sympathized with the students whose language was not Arabic and the older students helped the younger students, as well. I was pleased to see such a nice harmony among the group. They were very well-behaved and very polite; Jill has clearly made an impact on them. They very clearly respect her and feel like she is there for them. She talks to them about their personal lives and their families and said that they do a cultural day once a month where they bring a food or a movie in their native language to celebrate their culture, which I think is great, but they probably could do a little more. Likely it depends on the nature of how the school views the ELL program.
Jill's Level 1 and 2 classes (intermediate to high intermediate level) are all boys, which I thought would be totally terrifying, but I was quite wrong. The boys were respectful, listened patiently to directions, and worked well together. They are very independent learners; my teacher told me that it took her a lot of time and effort to get them to behave this way, but some of them have had her for 2 years and some for only half a year so far, so they are still getting accustomed to the ELL course. She mostly uses supplemental reading materials because the textbook she was given she felt was not up-to-par with what she wanted them to learn; she uses an outside short story book called "Beyond the Stories" which contains articles in sheltered English about certain topics in American culture. For example, the short article they read for that day and the next day's class was about geeks and how that term has evolved over time. The students were able to relate to it right away and understand what she meant by that term because they knew about the social structure of their high school. She has them do popcorn reading of the article or story, and after they have read their section she has them summarize or paraphrase it to make sure they have understood it completely which I think is an excellent measure of their reading comprehension skills. She also makes sure that everyone reads at least twice in the reading so that they can maximize their learning of the material. The classes are very discussion-based and encourage the students to speak in English at all times which is also imperative in an ESL classroom.
Jill's Level 3 (intermediate high and advanced speakers) class is the smallest and also has the only girl. Most are seniors and there is one junior in the class, and I was happy to hear from them that they were all continuing on in higher education, even if it was at the community college level. They all seemed very eager to learn and continue improving their English. They are currently reading "the Giver" which seems to be a popular book in ESL courses (the woman I observed at Heartland was reading the same book) and as she does with her other classes, the students read aloud from the book and then summarize what they have just read. In her level 3 class however, Jill points out very specific grammar points that they should be aware of and also has them note vocabulary for their use; she does this in her level 1 and 2 but not nearly as much. She also asks the students to sympathize with the main character and try to make it relevant to their daily life by asking them questions like "How would you feel if...?" or "What do you think would happen if...?". She also shows them literary devices in the text like metaphor and onomatopoeia and gives them examples to help retain it, like "buzz" for a bee. Jill also employs a multitude of facial expressions and hand gestures; she is not afraid to look silly in front of them or if they laugh at her which is important when you are a teacher. We have to be actors to make anything click! The reading seems a bit difficult at times for them to read, but they stop and ask questions of the teacher, like "Am I saying this right?" or "What does this mean?" And she very willingly stops the reading to explain things to them, which you need to be prepared for as an ESL teacher.
Overall, I loved getting the experience of observing in a high school classroom since I have been observing at a community college and this week will begin my observations at the junior high so I am excited to see all the ends of the spectrum and how students progress in their English skills.
Jill has been teaching English for 10 years and ELL for 8 of those 10 years she has spent at this high school. She also teaches American Literature which I was able to observe as well. She does not speak any other language fluently, but she is attempting to teach herself some Spanish and Arabic in her spare time since that is the need of her students. The demographics are that the majority are from Arabic-speaking countries (Yemen, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine), a few from Spanish-speaking (Guatemala and Mexico), and 2 students from Vietnam and South Korea. She felt that it would be beneficial to know a little Arabic to familiarize herself with the language and culture in order to help her students.
An interesting thing that this high school provides is the resource period, which I think is an excellent idea. The students from all of her courses can take this class and it counts as a study hall; they can then work on homework from other courses, do make-up work, quizzes and tests from other teachers as well. The school provides each student a computer in the classroom so that they can work on any internet-related homework or if they need to do PowerPoints for their classes. Students are responsible for working on something the whole class period (50 minutes), and the teacher gives them a zero or half credit if they are not working on something. They may read an outside book or book for a class when they are done with regular homework. Jill emails and works closely with their teachers so that she knows what type of classes they are taking and how she can best help them; she is a little limited because her specialty is English, but she can help them translate or define a word for better comprehension of the material. I was able to walk around and assist a couple of students with those things as well while she worked with a student on a Works Cited Page, which he had never done before. Students are able to help each other with their homework if they are in the same class or same subject. Jill provides them with outside reading material; she has mostly modern literature like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, some graphic novels, and a few classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and the Outsiders.
Side note: something I noticed that I loved about these classes were that because of the size (each class had less than 10 students), the students did not culturally segregate. They definitely know the value of speaking English and practicing with their classmates. Of course their good friends spoke their native language but they sympathized with the students whose language was not Arabic and the older students helped the younger students, as well. I was pleased to see such a nice harmony among the group. They were very well-behaved and very polite; Jill has clearly made an impact on them. They very clearly respect her and feel like she is there for them. She talks to them about their personal lives and their families and said that they do a cultural day once a month where they bring a food or a movie in their native language to celebrate their culture, which I think is great, but they probably could do a little more. Likely it depends on the nature of how the school views the ELL program.
Jill's Level 1 and 2 classes (intermediate to high intermediate level) are all boys, which I thought would be totally terrifying, but I was quite wrong. The boys were respectful, listened patiently to directions, and worked well together. They are very independent learners; my teacher told me that it took her a lot of time and effort to get them to behave this way, but some of them have had her for 2 years and some for only half a year so far, so they are still getting accustomed to the ELL course. She mostly uses supplemental reading materials because the textbook she was given she felt was not up-to-par with what she wanted them to learn; she uses an outside short story book called "Beyond the Stories" which contains articles in sheltered English about certain topics in American culture. For example, the short article they read for that day and the next day's class was about geeks and how that term has evolved over time. The students were able to relate to it right away and understand what she meant by that term because they knew about the social structure of their high school. She has them do popcorn reading of the article or story, and after they have read their section she has them summarize or paraphrase it to make sure they have understood it completely which I think is an excellent measure of their reading comprehension skills. She also makes sure that everyone reads at least twice in the reading so that they can maximize their learning of the material. The classes are very discussion-based and encourage the students to speak in English at all times which is also imperative in an ESL classroom.
Jill's Level 3 (intermediate high and advanced speakers) class is the smallest and also has the only girl. Most are seniors and there is one junior in the class, and I was happy to hear from them that they were all continuing on in higher education, even if it was at the community college level. They all seemed very eager to learn and continue improving their English. They are currently reading "the Giver" which seems to be a popular book in ESL courses (the woman I observed at Heartland was reading the same book) and as she does with her other classes, the students read aloud from the book and then summarize what they have just read. In her level 3 class however, Jill points out very specific grammar points that they should be aware of and also has them note vocabulary for their use; she does this in her level 1 and 2 but not nearly as much. She also asks the students to sympathize with the main character and try to make it relevant to their daily life by asking them questions like "How would you feel if...?" or "What do you think would happen if...?". She also shows them literary devices in the text like metaphor and onomatopoeia and gives them examples to help retain it, like "buzz" for a bee. Jill also employs a multitude of facial expressions and hand gestures; she is not afraid to look silly in front of them or if they laugh at her which is important when you are a teacher. We have to be actors to make anything click! The reading seems a bit difficult at times for them to read, but they stop and ask questions of the teacher, like "Am I saying this right?" or "What does this mean?" And she very willingly stops the reading to explain things to them, which you need to be prepared for as an ESL teacher.
Overall, I loved getting the experience of observing in a high school classroom since I have been observing at a community college and this week will begin my observations at the junior high so I am excited to see all the ends of the spectrum and how students progress in their English skills.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Observation Week 3: March 6 and 8
The focus of my observations for this week was the use of "teacher talk" and the general rapport between the students and the teacher (Sue). Sue is awesome, by the way. I really like her positive attitude and her ability to keep the class motivated at all times. The students really seem to like and respect her, and I can tell because when they come in, they always say, "Hi Sue! How are you?" and they have conversations with her about their families or funny things that their kids did, and she has conversations with them about her own husband and kids, which I think is really nice. It shows that she is approachable and that the students can feel comfortable talking with her about personal issues and she told me before, anything to get them talking in English is fine by her. Her morning class is really good about speaking in English and conversing with each other; the Spanish speakers tend to fall back a little at the beginning and end of class and conversing among each other, but most of the other students are varied in their language, so they do not have too many people to speak with, which I am sure is a blessing in disguise. As I mentioned, Sue uses a lot of personal anecdotes and stories to get her point across; like when the students were confused about what a boulevard was, she explained the abbreviations for all the streets and what they look like, showing them pictures and explaining the type of neighborhood she lived in, etc. Usually then the students have that look of recognition on their faces and they can move on with the lesson. I like that she is really able to slow down for them and allow for that class time to discuss things rather than them be totally bored about the grammar things they have to do.
I noticed that she also does a lot of repetition and paraphrasing of their speech; when a student has difficulty trying to get their point across, she listens very patiently until they finish and then she thinks about it and says, 'Ok, so you meant...this?' and the student will either say yes or they will try to explain it in different words, which I think is really helpful for improving their strategic competence. When she is speaking, she also highlights or emphasizes certain words that she wants them to focus on, especially if they are a vocabulary word for the chapter or unit. I know my foreign language teachers would do things like that, like in Spanish when we were going to learn commands or the subjunctive, the teacher would say those verb tenses louder so that we would recognize when they were using them and I personally think it is a very effective tool for the students so that they can hear it in real context. She also demonstrates some concepts by using facial expressions and gestures, sometimes even completely doing the action even if it makes her look silly or they laugh, but I know they laugh because they think she is funny, not because they are laughing at her. I think as teachers (especially ESL teachers) we have to make fools of ourselves to get our point across and we have to look stupid once in a while. It's part of the job! Something else that I really like that she does is if they are talking about something unrelated to class, she will make it part of the lesson, like this one girl was saying to her friend, "Ugh, I feel sleepy" and Sue said, "You feel sleepy? Guys, what part of speech is sleepy?" I think that is pretty clever! It is a good way to get everyone back on focus for the lesson. I will definitely remember that for the future.
Another little thing that I have noticed in my observations during this whole experience is that ESL teachers have to, in a way, be history or science or math teachers too! I think that we do not always realize that that is part of our job, because the students come in not totally understanding everything that we are using in our lessons because everything is so culturally bound. The students during their grammar lesson were talking about 'east of the Mississippi River' and they were very confused because they did not understand the historical context of it, and some did not even know where the Mississippi River was, so Sue pulled up a picture of a map so that they had a visual aid. That is something else very important for ESL: visual aids and cues. They need all the help they can get in that area. There are literally 50 or more moments I have seen so far that Sue had to use a picture or her own gestures to get them to understand a point she was making. I will keep looking for other teacher talk strategies but for right now, this is all I can report on!
I noticed that she also does a lot of repetition and paraphrasing of their speech; when a student has difficulty trying to get their point across, she listens very patiently until they finish and then she thinks about it and says, 'Ok, so you meant...this?' and the student will either say yes or they will try to explain it in different words, which I think is really helpful for improving their strategic competence. When she is speaking, she also highlights or emphasizes certain words that she wants them to focus on, especially if they are a vocabulary word for the chapter or unit. I know my foreign language teachers would do things like that, like in Spanish when we were going to learn commands or the subjunctive, the teacher would say those verb tenses louder so that we would recognize when they were using them and I personally think it is a very effective tool for the students so that they can hear it in real context. She also demonstrates some concepts by using facial expressions and gestures, sometimes even completely doing the action even if it makes her look silly or they laugh, but I know they laugh because they think she is funny, not because they are laughing at her. I think as teachers (especially ESL teachers) we have to make fools of ourselves to get our point across and we have to look stupid once in a while. It's part of the job! Something else that I really like that she does is if they are talking about something unrelated to class, she will make it part of the lesson, like this one girl was saying to her friend, "Ugh, I feel sleepy" and Sue said, "You feel sleepy? Guys, what part of speech is sleepy?" I think that is pretty clever! It is a good way to get everyone back on focus for the lesson. I will definitely remember that for the future.
Another little thing that I have noticed in my observations during this whole experience is that ESL teachers have to, in a way, be history or science or math teachers too! I think that we do not always realize that that is part of our job, because the students come in not totally understanding everything that we are using in our lessons because everything is so culturally bound. The students during their grammar lesson were talking about 'east of the Mississippi River' and they were very confused because they did not understand the historical context of it, and some did not even know where the Mississippi River was, so Sue pulled up a picture of a map so that they had a visual aid. That is something else very important for ESL: visual aids and cues. They need all the help they can get in that area. There are literally 50 or more moments I have seen so far that Sue had to use a picture or her own gestures to get them to understand a point she was making. I will keep looking for other teacher talk strategies but for right now, this is all I can report on!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
3/14 Reading
Reference: Olsen, Made in America Chapter 4
Following my trend for my blogs, I will select some quotes from the chapter and elaborate why I chose that particular quote. This chapter of "Made in America" focused on how the acquisition of English changed the lives of the ESL students at Madison High.
1) "According to formal school policy, court law, and program design, the educational task of becoming American is viewed as a matter of becoming English speaking" (pg. 91) - This is a bit confusing to me, considering my educational background. It calls attention to the issue that 'being American' means that you have to speak English, and it is kind of funny because the USA does not even have an official language; it just happens that the majority of people here speak English and that is why it became the most common language. We have always had people here that do not speak English, but unfortunately our ancestors tried to get them to stop speaking it. I know my mom and dad tell stories of their own grandparents who had to deal with immigrating here and learning English. Luckily my grandparents and great-grandparents maintained their language for a couple generations but they never taught it to my parents' generation of speakers. They remember certain words and phrases but they are by no means fluent. Both of my parents have lamented about never learning their relatives' languages, but that just was not the case back when my parents were growing up. The belief was that there was no need for them to speak another language but times have changed. It makes me think sometimes, if people still had the same policies and had not been as lenient or understanding about second language acquisition, would the United States be in the same position as it was when my parents were growing up?
2) "Language shock" and "being laughed at for incorrect English...heavy accents, and having difficulty finding their way when they do not understand and do not feel free to ask for clarifications of English" (pg. 93) - This saddens me. I have to admit that when I was younger when people spoke other languages around me, I was very confused. I do not think I was angry about it and I do not think I was ever the angry type about it, but I remember being in junior high and there were some Arabic-speaking students I made friends with because we were on the same bus going to school. They used to speak to each other in Arabic sometimes and laugh and joke around, but in a way I felt a little jealous or annoyed because I wanted to be included in what they were saying. Sometimes if people speak in another language we have this knee-jerk reaction that they are making fun of us or saying something mean, but I am sure that that is barely ever the case. I think that it is just a human reaction and as I got older and had more self-confidence, I just pass by people who speak other languages and say to myself, 'I'm so glad that they are able to maintain their language and not lose it'. I guess I am the exception to the rule though. Another issue this quote brings up is the fact that the students are terrified to ask their teachers questions and for clarifications because they do not want to appear 'stupid'. This can be the fault of the teacher by not being welcoming or the student could be going through their Silent Period of language acquisition and it can be a combination of both. I know it is difficult for teachers to focus on every single student, but if a student has been talkative before and has suddenly stopped talking, that is a sign that something is wrong and they should pay attention to that change.
3) "It is weird and cute, but I have to study it hard. No one teaches it and it is not in the dictionary." (pg. 97) [Note: referring to American slang] - Oh, the good old American slang. In this case, I truly feel bad for non-native speakers of English. Our slang is constantly changing and varies even by individual. We are constantly changing words to suit our groups of friends and we also have to understand what group of friends we are talking to. I know that even I get confused sometimes with who knows what and who is more aware of certain musical artists and movies that we mutually like, and I know that I have gone up to certain people and made a joke thinking it was between me and that person and they stared at me, very confused. For most people, we just laugh and say 'oh I'm sorry, that was someone else' but for NNS's of English, there are so many dynamics to language that they probably will never grasp entirely unless they are only around native speakers for extended periods of time and observe the slang in use.
4) "Teaching a minority mother tongue for a few hours a week in a school where the majority language is the medium of education maybe psychologically beneficial" (pg. 103) - This is the first mention of the fact that they have heritage language classes for these students; it did not surprise me that the language would be Spanish because it is popular and they are in California. Unfortunately, most schools do not have the budget or the resources to enroll students in primary language classes and the fact is that some areas do not have people who are certified to teach that speak the other languages like Farsi or Arabic, but there are definitely things we can do to promote them using their primary language. The schools could set aside an hour of the school day during school or after school even for the students to be able to use their native language; they can write letters to relatives, read books in their native language, research the internet for famous authors or music from their native country, and that way they could at least try to connect with their primary language. I felt so sad to read that Nadira's family was upset with her for losing her Farsi connections and that she felt like she could not communicate anymore and that she did not expect for that to happen. I really hope that does not happen to every student because it is very depressing. Students should feel very proud that they have a different culture and should be in a safe environment that supports the use of that language.
Following my trend for my blogs, I will select some quotes from the chapter and elaborate why I chose that particular quote. This chapter of "Made in America" focused on how the acquisition of English changed the lives of the ESL students at Madison High.
1) "According to formal school policy, court law, and program design, the educational task of becoming American is viewed as a matter of becoming English speaking" (pg. 91) - This is a bit confusing to me, considering my educational background. It calls attention to the issue that 'being American' means that you have to speak English, and it is kind of funny because the USA does not even have an official language; it just happens that the majority of people here speak English and that is why it became the most common language. We have always had people here that do not speak English, but unfortunately our ancestors tried to get them to stop speaking it. I know my mom and dad tell stories of their own grandparents who had to deal with immigrating here and learning English. Luckily my grandparents and great-grandparents maintained their language for a couple generations but they never taught it to my parents' generation of speakers. They remember certain words and phrases but they are by no means fluent. Both of my parents have lamented about never learning their relatives' languages, but that just was not the case back when my parents were growing up. The belief was that there was no need for them to speak another language but times have changed. It makes me think sometimes, if people still had the same policies and had not been as lenient or understanding about second language acquisition, would the United States be in the same position as it was when my parents were growing up?
2) "Language shock" and "being laughed at for incorrect English...heavy accents, and having difficulty finding their way when they do not understand and do not feel free to ask for clarifications of English" (pg. 93) - This saddens me. I have to admit that when I was younger when people spoke other languages around me, I was very confused. I do not think I was angry about it and I do not think I was ever the angry type about it, but I remember being in junior high and there were some Arabic-speaking students I made friends with because we were on the same bus going to school. They used to speak to each other in Arabic sometimes and laugh and joke around, but in a way I felt a little jealous or annoyed because I wanted to be included in what they were saying. Sometimes if people speak in another language we have this knee-jerk reaction that they are making fun of us or saying something mean, but I am sure that that is barely ever the case. I think that it is just a human reaction and as I got older and had more self-confidence, I just pass by people who speak other languages and say to myself, 'I'm so glad that they are able to maintain their language and not lose it'. I guess I am the exception to the rule though. Another issue this quote brings up is the fact that the students are terrified to ask their teachers questions and for clarifications because they do not want to appear 'stupid'. This can be the fault of the teacher by not being welcoming or the student could be going through their Silent Period of language acquisition and it can be a combination of both. I know it is difficult for teachers to focus on every single student, but if a student has been talkative before and has suddenly stopped talking, that is a sign that something is wrong and they should pay attention to that change.
3) "It is weird and cute, but I have to study it hard. No one teaches it and it is not in the dictionary." (pg. 97) [Note: referring to American slang] - Oh, the good old American slang. In this case, I truly feel bad for non-native speakers of English. Our slang is constantly changing and varies even by individual. We are constantly changing words to suit our groups of friends and we also have to understand what group of friends we are talking to. I know that even I get confused sometimes with who knows what and who is more aware of certain musical artists and movies that we mutually like, and I know that I have gone up to certain people and made a joke thinking it was between me and that person and they stared at me, very confused. For most people, we just laugh and say 'oh I'm sorry, that was someone else' but for NNS's of English, there are so many dynamics to language that they probably will never grasp entirely unless they are only around native speakers for extended periods of time and observe the slang in use.
4) "Teaching a minority mother tongue for a few hours a week in a school where the majority language is the medium of education maybe psychologically beneficial" (pg. 103) - This is the first mention of the fact that they have heritage language classes for these students; it did not surprise me that the language would be Spanish because it is popular and they are in California. Unfortunately, most schools do not have the budget or the resources to enroll students in primary language classes and the fact is that some areas do not have people who are certified to teach that speak the other languages like Farsi or Arabic, but there are definitely things we can do to promote them using their primary language. The schools could set aside an hour of the school day during school or after school even for the students to be able to use their native language; they can write letters to relatives, read books in their native language, research the internet for famous authors or music from their native country, and that way they could at least try to connect with their primary language. I felt so sad to read that Nadira's family was upset with her for losing her Farsi connections and that she felt like she could not communicate anymore and that she did not expect for that to happen. I really hope that does not happen to every student because it is very depressing. Students should feel very proud that they have a different culture and should be in a safe environment that supports the use of that language.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Observation Week 2: Feb 28 and March 1
This week for my observations I decided to focus on course objectives, course content/materials and did a short textbook evaluation for their class text. The students for both Reading 3 courses are using "College Level Reading 3", a series edited by Patricia Byrd and Joy M. Reid, which I know we have read articles published by both of them before in my TESOL courses at ISU so I think they have a pretty good authority in the TESOL field. According to Sue (the professor), the basic course objectives of Reading 3 at Heartland are for the students to master parts of English grammar, which includes syllable stress, word definitions, and correcting grammatical errors within sentences. Sue uses a book for her questions on error correction that is a designed like a TOEFL exam, since most of them need more experience with that content and plan on taking the TOEFL again soon. Other than that book, Sue creates her own materials and she said that all of the other ESL professors create their own materials since they were not satisfied with how the textbook approached grammar. After reading the book, I definitely understand what she meant. The textbook is certainly excellent in its realm (reading) and has varied and level-appropriate activities and has great vocabulary lists as well as very approachable reading selections. I would certainly not complain about it meeting its purpose in that area, but at the same time, there is little to no explicit grammar instruction in the textbook; it just makes the assumption that the students have already learned these things before which I (and Sue) believe is a huge oversight on the book's part. The students are still confused on what punctuation marks are called in English; they were calling a colon "two periods" and a semicolon "the period comma thing" and Sue had to correct them a few times before realizing that they actually never learned the proper names for the marks. That's where I believe having native speakers of English is a bit of a downfall because for us everything in English is just so innate and we cannot imagine that people do not know the names of punctuation marks! But even between me and Sue, there is a huge generation gap and her generation called exclamation points "exclamation marks" and I can see why English can be so confusing because it changes so frequently. The students just seem so confused because English has way too many rule exceptions to remember. Sometimes I cannot even remember all of them!
Something to note: students do not take a placement exam before attending Heartland. Some students have failed their TOEFL exam and are just biding time and improving their English in order to attend ISU or another 4-year college or university, or they already have full-time jobs here and are improving their English so that they can get promoted or function better at their current place of employment. Something else I found interesting was that in their native countries some were taught by British speakers of English so that is something else Sue has to factor into her teaching, because British English pronounces and call things different names than in American English. In a way, Sue has to kind of re-program their English and their pronunciation because that is where they have the most difficulty.
Other notes about the textbook; the textbook addresses 9 "competencies" or objectives of the course for the students, and that way the students can keep track of where they are in the competencies. 1 of these competencies is addressed explicitly in the chapters of the book. It includes a section specifically on reading strategies that students will be tested on in the chapter exams that Sue gives out (they have an exam once a month). Something cool I liked about the book was that it had links to the Academic Word List online; I believe we saw it in 345 with Dr. Seloni before. I'm glad that the book addresses that so that the students have a useful and easy tool to practice vocabulary. The textbook emulates the type of responses it wants from the students; it shows a great deal of examples and summarizing main points in order for the students to comprehend better. I think that modeling is hugely important in language in general but especially in ESL environments. They usually model the vocabulary terms or concepts with images; for example for the word "stress" they have a college-age looking student who has a disturbed look on their face as they look at an exam which I thought was interesting. I think that the students can relate to the photographs and can get a good sense of what the emotions are behind that vocabulary word. I think the textbook uses a variety of cultures in the images and gender is well-represented. The layout is comprehensible and goes in a nice succession of difficulty in the concepts; however, the book is rather boring as an external appearance and could use more colors to liven it up a bit.
Something to note: students do not take a placement exam before attending Heartland. Some students have failed their TOEFL exam and are just biding time and improving their English in order to attend ISU or another 4-year college or university, or they already have full-time jobs here and are improving their English so that they can get promoted or function better at their current place of employment. Something else I found interesting was that in their native countries some were taught by British speakers of English so that is something else Sue has to factor into her teaching, because British English pronounces and call things different names than in American English. In a way, Sue has to kind of re-program their English and their pronunciation because that is where they have the most difficulty.
Other notes about the textbook; the textbook addresses 9 "competencies" or objectives of the course for the students, and that way the students can keep track of where they are in the competencies. 1 of these competencies is addressed explicitly in the chapters of the book. It includes a section specifically on reading strategies that students will be tested on in the chapter exams that Sue gives out (they have an exam once a month). Something cool I liked about the book was that it had links to the Academic Word List online; I believe we saw it in 345 with Dr. Seloni before. I'm glad that the book addresses that so that the students have a useful and easy tool to practice vocabulary. The textbook emulates the type of responses it wants from the students; it shows a great deal of examples and summarizing main points in order for the students to comprehend better. I think that modeling is hugely important in language in general but especially in ESL environments. They usually model the vocabulary terms or concepts with images; for example for the word "stress" they have a college-age looking student who has a disturbed look on their face as they look at an exam which I thought was interesting. I think that the students can relate to the photographs and can get a good sense of what the emotions are behind that vocabulary word. I think the textbook uses a variety of cultures in the images and gender is well-represented. The layout is comprehensible and goes in a nice succession of difficulty in the concepts; however, the book is rather boring as an external appearance and could use more colors to liven it up a bit.
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