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.
Monday, March 19, 2012
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.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
3/7 Reading
Reference: "Made in America", Chapter 3 - Laurie Olsen
As I did with my last post, I will pick a few quotes that really stood out and why I chose those particular quotes for this blog.
1) "So for us, school is just, you come to classes and you just sit there. And if you sit there long enough, after four years they give you a diploma...we just don't matter." (pg. 60) - As a future teacher and someone who really values education, this is tough to read. I cannot say that I totally relate to this statement but there were times in high school, even though I was at least being challenged by my teachers and I had a good array of activities and friends, I did feel like I was just a number. I went to a school of 4100 students, and it was difficult not to get lost in that sea of people. I think that the problem in schools of that size and of a lot of schools in general is that the teachers just do not have the time or resources to provide the amount of individualized attention that their students so desperately need. This goes especially for the ESL students who need more attention and more help with their studies and everything else. It broke my heart that they did not even like being in school and just wanted to get their diploma and leave. At the same time, I was glad that they actually wanted to graduate, which I feel is a bit pathetic in my opinion. Students should want to graduate to pursue higher education or pursue a career, not just graduate to graduate. I think another problem these students face is the issue of higher education. Even though I am an avid supporter of more education, students who do not want to go to college should not be forced to and vice versa. Do not count a student out that has potential, like Madison did with Juanita. That was completely terrible. The poor girl got into one of the best colleges in California let alone the country and did not have the money to go. These things just should not happen.
2) "We don't think of ourselves as white until someone makes us think of ourselves as white." (pg. 70) - I think this pretty much solidified everything that this book has been talking about so far. This same student also said "We make ourselves racial" (pg. 70). Unfortunately, the world is not a perfect place as we all seem to think it is at times depending on our background. As I have said before, I come from an upper middle class, mostly white town where everyone is pretty privileged and I have to admit that about myself. I think that it is true that we do not have to apologize for being white. We do not have to apologize for being born into that environment and being raised the way we are, just like they do not have to apologize for being raised the way they are, as well. I try to be culturally conscious and politically correct as much as humanly possible, but it is human nature to criticize. It surprised me how much those students were aware of such pressing issues in our society. It recalls my own parents saying, 'Just because we're white does not mean we shouldn't be considered for financial aid' when I was applying to colleges. I worked myself very hard in high school and put in a lot of effort and belonged to clubs and activities so that I could go to college. While my parents did have some money stored away, I feel that a very small percent does not just have the money to go to college. That is where affirmative action has its pitfalls. I am happy that they are helping people go to college who otherwise would not be able to, but at the same time is that not privileging others? It brings about the issue of fairness in society. I know I should not gripe about something I do not fully understand, but it aggravates me sometimes that people who I know do not work as hard as me and do not even care that they are in college waste their scholarship money and financial aid to just party and fail out. Obviously, the school does not know that's going to happen, but financial aid should not be based on ethnicity. It should be based on need, like it says it is supposed to be. Students everyone should be treated equally and accolades should be given to those who deserve it most and not have to worry about offending anyone in the process.
3) "Many U.S.-born students feel that 'immigrants are given everything'; the Latinos feel that newly arrived immigrants are pulling them down" (pg. 79) - I think that these feelings stem from inexperience in that realm of understanding. Immigrants are definitely given opportunities and especially international students attending universities are given a lot of money and probably deserve it because they work hard to get here. I think people need to remember yet again that people who move here are not moving here to "take over", they are moving here for a better life and for better prospects. I think I would prefer to live somewhere where there is no genocide and no political strife and I as well as my family could receive more benefits. Everyone on earth deserves to be happy, healthy and have a roof over their head no matter what. I am not exactly sure what the Latino students mean by newly arrived immigrants pulling them down; I guess maybe it means that they work really hard to gain a reputation and to assimilate in society and then the new students come, do not speak a lot of English and maybe these Latino students feel obligated to help them when all they want to do is fit in with the other students in the school. One cannot exactly blame them for wanting to learn English and to assimilate as best as they possibly can. However, while they should not feel obligated, they should probably at least have some desire to help students just out of the goodness of their heart, not so much obligation. They should remember that they probably felt the same way when they moved here, and to sympathize with them a little.
4) "Students in the 'high' college-preparatory classes and students in the 'low skills' classes...feel a sharp sense of identity tied to those placements" (pg. 82) - Believe me, I have totally been here. I have many friends who have been here and that is why I chose this quote. I was in the Honors/AP track in high school, but I was not there at first. I was in academic track until my freshman year of high school when one of my teachers finally told me, 'Kelsey, you need to be challenged. I am recommending you for honors.' I had to prove myself at first to everyone else in the class, because I had not been with most of them before. I was friends with a lot of them already but at the same time I still felt pressured to become like them. Eventually, my only friends were people in the honors track and I had pretty much forgotten my old friends from the academic track and I still feel pretty guilty about that. I think in retrospect I was being snobby and I still feel like I do that sometimes. I have my moments where I think, 'oh well, they do not know that, they must be stupid' and it is really terrible of me to think these things, but I was conditioned into it. I had some really amazing, brilliant teachers in high school and I cannot say that I am unhappy that their teaching has influenced me greatly in my life. At the same time, the low skills or remedial students feel like they are being pressured to not do well in school and therefore not go on to college, which we do not want either. We still want them to try, but they feel burdened by their peers and by their teachers (sometimes inadvertently) to stay in the low skills track. That is where teachers and administration need to come in and have high expectations. If we do not have high expectations for them, they will not have them for themselves.
As I did with my last post, I will pick a few quotes that really stood out and why I chose those particular quotes for this blog.
1) "So for us, school is just, you come to classes and you just sit there. And if you sit there long enough, after four years they give you a diploma...we just don't matter." (pg. 60) - As a future teacher and someone who really values education, this is tough to read. I cannot say that I totally relate to this statement but there were times in high school, even though I was at least being challenged by my teachers and I had a good array of activities and friends, I did feel like I was just a number. I went to a school of 4100 students, and it was difficult not to get lost in that sea of people. I think that the problem in schools of that size and of a lot of schools in general is that the teachers just do not have the time or resources to provide the amount of individualized attention that their students so desperately need. This goes especially for the ESL students who need more attention and more help with their studies and everything else. It broke my heart that they did not even like being in school and just wanted to get their diploma and leave. At the same time, I was glad that they actually wanted to graduate, which I feel is a bit pathetic in my opinion. Students should want to graduate to pursue higher education or pursue a career, not just graduate to graduate. I think another problem these students face is the issue of higher education. Even though I am an avid supporter of more education, students who do not want to go to college should not be forced to and vice versa. Do not count a student out that has potential, like Madison did with Juanita. That was completely terrible. The poor girl got into one of the best colleges in California let alone the country and did not have the money to go. These things just should not happen.
2) "We don't think of ourselves as white until someone makes us think of ourselves as white." (pg. 70) - I think this pretty much solidified everything that this book has been talking about so far. This same student also said "We make ourselves racial" (pg. 70). Unfortunately, the world is not a perfect place as we all seem to think it is at times depending on our background. As I have said before, I come from an upper middle class, mostly white town where everyone is pretty privileged and I have to admit that about myself. I think that it is true that we do not have to apologize for being white. We do not have to apologize for being born into that environment and being raised the way we are, just like they do not have to apologize for being raised the way they are, as well. I try to be culturally conscious and politically correct as much as humanly possible, but it is human nature to criticize. It surprised me how much those students were aware of such pressing issues in our society. It recalls my own parents saying, 'Just because we're white does not mean we shouldn't be considered for financial aid' when I was applying to colleges. I worked myself very hard in high school and put in a lot of effort and belonged to clubs and activities so that I could go to college. While my parents did have some money stored away, I feel that a very small percent does not just have the money to go to college. That is where affirmative action has its pitfalls. I am happy that they are helping people go to college who otherwise would not be able to, but at the same time is that not privileging others? It brings about the issue of fairness in society. I know I should not gripe about something I do not fully understand, but it aggravates me sometimes that people who I know do not work as hard as me and do not even care that they are in college waste their scholarship money and financial aid to just party and fail out. Obviously, the school does not know that's going to happen, but financial aid should not be based on ethnicity. It should be based on need, like it says it is supposed to be. Students everyone should be treated equally and accolades should be given to those who deserve it most and not have to worry about offending anyone in the process.
3) "Many U.S.-born students feel that 'immigrants are given everything'; the Latinos feel that newly arrived immigrants are pulling them down" (pg. 79) - I think that these feelings stem from inexperience in that realm of understanding. Immigrants are definitely given opportunities and especially international students attending universities are given a lot of money and probably deserve it because they work hard to get here. I think people need to remember yet again that people who move here are not moving here to "take over", they are moving here for a better life and for better prospects. I think I would prefer to live somewhere where there is no genocide and no political strife and I as well as my family could receive more benefits. Everyone on earth deserves to be happy, healthy and have a roof over their head no matter what. I am not exactly sure what the Latino students mean by newly arrived immigrants pulling them down; I guess maybe it means that they work really hard to gain a reputation and to assimilate in society and then the new students come, do not speak a lot of English and maybe these Latino students feel obligated to help them when all they want to do is fit in with the other students in the school. One cannot exactly blame them for wanting to learn English and to assimilate as best as they possibly can. However, while they should not feel obligated, they should probably at least have some desire to help students just out of the goodness of their heart, not so much obligation. They should remember that they probably felt the same way when they moved here, and to sympathize with them a little.
4) "Students in the 'high' college-preparatory classes and students in the 'low skills' classes...feel a sharp sense of identity tied to those placements" (pg. 82) - Believe me, I have totally been here. I have many friends who have been here and that is why I chose this quote. I was in the Honors/AP track in high school, but I was not there at first. I was in academic track until my freshman year of high school when one of my teachers finally told me, 'Kelsey, you need to be challenged. I am recommending you for honors.' I had to prove myself at first to everyone else in the class, because I had not been with most of them before. I was friends with a lot of them already but at the same time I still felt pressured to become like them. Eventually, my only friends were people in the honors track and I had pretty much forgotten my old friends from the academic track and I still feel pretty guilty about that. I think in retrospect I was being snobby and I still feel like I do that sometimes. I have my moments where I think, 'oh well, they do not know that, they must be stupid' and it is really terrible of me to think these things, but I was conditioned into it. I had some really amazing, brilliant teachers in high school and I cannot say that I am unhappy that their teaching has influenced me greatly in my life. At the same time, the low skills or remedial students feel like they are being pressured to not do well in school and therefore not go on to college, which we do not want either. We still want them to try, but they feel burdened by their peers and by their teachers (sometimes inadvertently) to stay in the low skills track. That is where teachers and administration need to come in and have high expectations. If we do not have high expectations for them, they will not have them for themselves.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Observation Week 1: Feb 21 and 23
For my practicum experience, I am doing some hours at Heartland Community College in two Reading 3 ESL courses. The level for these courses is intermediate to intermediate-high English skills and the course objectives are to give students a better understanding and insight into reading academic English; according to Sue, the instructor, the students read some novels like "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Giver" to enhance their English reading and discussion skills. Both of the classes are adults; the ages range from around 22 to about 40 in both classes, and the backgrounds of students vary as well. Most students are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, or Asiatic countries like China and Japan, among a few scattered other countries like Iran, Morocco, and Russia.
I noticed in my general observations for this week that the teacher exhibits a lot of the behavior that one would expect from an ESL teacher, which I found very interesting because I was talking with Sue (my cooperating teacher) and she does not have an ESL background. She actually worked at Heartland for about 4 years as a English reading and writing tutor and they ended up hiring her to teach some courses. I would never know that she did not have any background in it because she works so well with them! She exhibits such great teacher talk and behavior; she is really comfortable with the students and the students seem like they really respect her and value her opinion. They are all very talkative and very willing to participate in discussion; I was glad to see that there was a lot of laughter and joking around with the teacher, and an excellent rapport has clearly been established. Something I noticed right away as well was that Sue has an English-only policy in her classroom. Some of the students in the night course I am observing are very prone to talking in French (their native language), and she squelches that right away, saying "I don't hear English over there, remember what I told you guys the first day of class?" and the students immediately went back to talking in English, but they lapsed back into it again. Sue also is very good at praising her students and encouraging them to talk when they are too quiet' she tends to call on a random student and ask what they think of the question, and says things like, "Oh well (blank), I know you are really good at conjugating verbs. what do you think the answer is?" She makes jokes a lot, and gets them laughing so that they will talk more and feel more comfortable.
I also observed that some students are really inclined to talk in their native language with people that also speak their native language, which of course is an obvious behavior that one would expect in an ESL classroom. Since they are adults and in a college setting, she does not do much to stop it because she admitted that she does not want to treat them like high school students. She does keep an eye on them during class and does the typical teacher method of proximity to get the talking to stop, which is always a good non-invasive classroom management method. Sue does a lot of paraphrasing as well when she speaks, which we all know as ESL teachers we need to do with our students, no matter what age. She also listens very patiently when they are answering a question and then comments on their answer, saying, "Oh, you mean 'this'? Yes, that is very close, but I think maybe you meant..." or "So you're saying that..." and helps guide their answers to fit what she is looking for.
The students in Reading 3 use a reading textbook and a lot of the textbook are based on TOEFL examples and common activities; this class also seems to do a lot of error correction in order to ensure that their grammar improves along the way. I was pretty impressed because they seemed to know a lot of the proper names for grammar terms, like past participle and past tense, among others. I felt like I did not know any of that until at least high school, unless I learned it in grammar school and it is my native language so it is basically inherent for me. She also handed back their quizzes; I thought this quiz was really comprehensive and extensive. The quiz was divided into 1) vocabulary, where they had match words to definitions, and 2) syllable stress of the words. Even I had to think about it and I speak English! I think it is hard for us as native speakers to break things down to such a basic level; I feel like that about Spanish too sometimes when I have to identify a specific verb conjugation. I have been studying it for 10 years and now it is my second language. It is such an eye-opening experience to see how difficult English is to learn. The students complained every now and then about the weird grammar rules that we have, and I totally agree with them. Every language seems easy in comparison!
As for my upcoming observations, I will be looking at classroom management skills, teacher talk, what type of metholodgy the teacher uses, among many other concepts.
I noticed in my general observations for this week that the teacher exhibits a lot of the behavior that one would expect from an ESL teacher, which I found very interesting because I was talking with Sue (my cooperating teacher) and she does not have an ESL background. She actually worked at Heartland for about 4 years as a English reading and writing tutor and they ended up hiring her to teach some courses. I would never know that she did not have any background in it because she works so well with them! She exhibits such great teacher talk and behavior; she is really comfortable with the students and the students seem like they really respect her and value her opinion. They are all very talkative and very willing to participate in discussion; I was glad to see that there was a lot of laughter and joking around with the teacher, and an excellent rapport has clearly been established. Something I noticed right away as well was that Sue has an English-only policy in her classroom. Some of the students in the night course I am observing are very prone to talking in French (their native language), and she squelches that right away, saying "I don't hear English over there, remember what I told you guys the first day of class?" and the students immediately went back to talking in English, but they lapsed back into it again. Sue also is very good at praising her students and encouraging them to talk when they are too quiet' she tends to call on a random student and ask what they think of the question, and says things like, "Oh well (blank), I know you are really good at conjugating verbs. what do you think the answer is?" She makes jokes a lot, and gets them laughing so that they will talk more and feel more comfortable.
I also observed that some students are really inclined to talk in their native language with people that also speak their native language, which of course is an obvious behavior that one would expect in an ESL classroom. Since they are adults and in a college setting, she does not do much to stop it because she admitted that she does not want to treat them like high school students. She does keep an eye on them during class and does the typical teacher method of proximity to get the talking to stop, which is always a good non-invasive classroom management method. Sue does a lot of paraphrasing as well when she speaks, which we all know as ESL teachers we need to do with our students, no matter what age. She also listens very patiently when they are answering a question and then comments on their answer, saying, "Oh, you mean 'this'? Yes, that is very close, but I think maybe you meant..." or "So you're saying that..." and helps guide their answers to fit what she is looking for.
The students in Reading 3 use a reading textbook and a lot of the textbook are based on TOEFL examples and common activities; this class also seems to do a lot of error correction in order to ensure that their grammar improves along the way. I was pretty impressed because they seemed to know a lot of the proper names for grammar terms, like past participle and past tense, among others. I felt like I did not know any of that until at least high school, unless I learned it in grammar school and it is my native language so it is basically inherent for me. She also handed back their quizzes; I thought this quiz was really comprehensive and extensive. The quiz was divided into 1) vocabulary, where they had match words to definitions, and 2) syllable stress of the words. Even I had to think about it and I speak English! I think it is hard for us as native speakers to break things down to such a basic level; I feel like that about Spanish too sometimes when I have to identify a specific verb conjugation. I have been studying it for 10 years and now it is my second language. It is such an eye-opening experience to see how difficult English is to learn. The students complained every now and then about the weird grammar rules that we have, and I totally agree with them. Every language seems easy in comparison!
As for my upcoming observations, I will be looking at classroom management skills, teacher talk, what type of metholodgy the teacher uses, among many other concepts.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
2/29 Reading
References: "Made in America", Intro through Chapter 2
First off, "Made in America" is a very eye-opening book. I had heard good things about it from the other practicum students from last semester, and I can definitely tell that they are right. What I really liked about this book is that the author picked a very common, normal high school where these problems are rampant. The comments that people make in this text are just appalling at times, heart-breaking at others. I know that I come from a very middle America, white background and my slightly conservative Italian/Polish family thinks I am a bit of an alien for caring so much about racial and ethnic issues; when my parents make comments about other races and I catch myself making comments without thinking, I have to cringe. It is really difficult to break out of that thinking when you have experienced it for so long! I think we just have ideas engrained into our heads from birth, and I know especially when I came into college, I have grown exponentially every year in personal and intellectual development.
I thought that this book was very thoroughly researched and by a woman who does an excellent job in explaining her point of view. I think that she picked the perfect people to interview for this book, because they say so many things that we have learned about in our TESOL classes and really prove that this country has a long way to go. In Chapter 1, the author mostly describes the makeup of the community in California where the book takes place, and then described how the changes occurred by way of looking at the past yearbooks for the high school. I thought this was a very telling way to demonstrate how the diversity in the community has changed over the decades. It gives the reader a great overview of the political and social climate of this California community.
In this post, I am going to choose a few specific quotes from this book that really stuck out to me, and explain why I chose them.
1) "...there had been some student who had taken off his turban because he couldn't take the pressure anymore" (pg. 39). The students in the ESL classes that the author observed used this as a metaphor for being forced to assimilate to American culture. It is amazing that the students have pressured someone so much that they have to remove something that makes them different from everyone else. It brings to memory a moment when I was talking to my dad about my ESL classes when I began taking them, and he said jokingly and fondly to me, 'How did I ever get such a tolerant daughter?'. My parents grew up in the 60's and 70's, a hugely important and changing environment in the United States; the Civil Rights Movement was in full force. My grandparents grew up in the 30's and times were even more different then! My parents had grown up with religious and ethnic intolerance, and that was all they knew. The Civil Rights Movement shook everything to the core with them and they learned how to assimilate to a newer society. I wish that people would take cues from these movements in history and learn that people are not what the media portrays them to be. No one is a stereotype.
2) "Skin color, religion, and language seem to define being 'American' or not" (pg. 40). Whoa. This is a singularly strong statement and probably stuck out the most to me out of this book so far. It surprises and enrages me to a certain extent. What does being American even mean? I honestly do not know! I feel that we are such a rapid-fire, ever-changing society in which fads come and go in like a week. I feel that students coming in from other countries see us from the media as well. When I was talking to a friend that I know here from Malaysia, he said that he thought Americans were all basically hillbillies like he saw on television from old reruns; he said that he was also surprised at the amount of diversity that exists here. He said that in Malaysia, he only saw TV and media about white, middle-class America and did not realize the amount of African-American people that lived here and the racial categories that exist in this country because of it. They are under the same delusions (for lack of a better word) that we are under about their countries. We do not have a clue about what goes on in the outside world; our media only covers local or regional news at best. European countries get news from every single country in the world! We are only aware of what exists in our little bubble and it saddens me that everyone seems perfectly fine with that.
3) "Most Americans like free time...they go outside and have fun. I always see most immigrant people in the library because they sit and study there. They want to do good in school" (pg. 48-49), and also "I can't believe that Americans have very good conditions about education but they don't want it" (pg. 49). Believe me, this is totally preaching to the choir for me. I cannot believe every day at the amount of people (even at this university!) who completely take education for granted. I am always a person who approached school as something of utmost importance and I take it very seriously. I often do not allow myself to have fun as much as I want to because I feel a huge responsibility to do well. Most people when I was growing up thought I was 'weird' or a 'freak' because I wanted to read all the time and not be as social as everyone else, but honestly, it did me good in the long run. I met people in high school who were exactly like me and could relate to my feelings, and all of my immediate and close group of friends are all almost college graduate and about half are going on to graduate school. We have fun as much as anyone else, but we all understand how serious school work is. I do not think high schools do a good job of emphasizing the importance of education; I was extremely lucky that I grew up in a wealthy community with a great deal of resources, but others are not so lucky. The fact that teachers take school for granted too is appalling.
4) The table on page 57 of "Reasons we immigrated" and "Things we think they think about why we're here" (they meaning Americans). I feel like this list, including, work, political strife, economy...these are all things we have discussed in previous TESOL classes as reasons for students and their families coming here. I think that all American students should be shown this list and we should tell them, 'What you guys think about them is not true!' How are we supposed to blame a baby for wanting to take a job? It makes no sense. We should be proud that people want to come and live in this country, not be blaming them for wanting a better life. You do not exactly see people from the USA moving to the Congo or Serbia and there are clear reasons why. We do not get the same freedoms we do here and people think it is shocking that that stuff goes on in the world, but as I said, we live in a bubble. We are so lucky to be native Americans. Why not help people out when they get here? We're socialized into thinking that the US is the best country ever in existence and not to question what those society values are and why. I only have done that in college. I know when I am a teacher, I am going to copy this list and show it to my students. Even if I am the only person giving them awareness, at least I am making them aware at all. It's increasingly important in this changing climate to promote tolerance and acceptance in our classrooms.
First off, "Made in America" is a very eye-opening book. I had heard good things about it from the other practicum students from last semester, and I can definitely tell that they are right. What I really liked about this book is that the author picked a very common, normal high school where these problems are rampant. The comments that people make in this text are just appalling at times, heart-breaking at others. I know that I come from a very middle America, white background and my slightly conservative Italian/Polish family thinks I am a bit of an alien for caring so much about racial and ethnic issues; when my parents make comments about other races and I catch myself making comments without thinking, I have to cringe. It is really difficult to break out of that thinking when you have experienced it for so long! I think we just have ideas engrained into our heads from birth, and I know especially when I came into college, I have grown exponentially every year in personal and intellectual development.
I thought that this book was very thoroughly researched and by a woman who does an excellent job in explaining her point of view. I think that she picked the perfect people to interview for this book, because they say so many things that we have learned about in our TESOL classes and really prove that this country has a long way to go. In Chapter 1, the author mostly describes the makeup of the community in California where the book takes place, and then described how the changes occurred by way of looking at the past yearbooks for the high school. I thought this was a very telling way to demonstrate how the diversity in the community has changed over the decades. It gives the reader a great overview of the political and social climate of this California community.
In this post, I am going to choose a few specific quotes from this book that really stuck out to me, and explain why I chose them.
1) "...there had been some student who had taken off his turban because he couldn't take the pressure anymore" (pg. 39). The students in the ESL classes that the author observed used this as a metaphor for being forced to assimilate to American culture. It is amazing that the students have pressured someone so much that they have to remove something that makes them different from everyone else. It brings to memory a moment when I was talking to my dad about my ESL classes when I began taking them, and he said jokingly and fondly to me, 'How did I ever get such a tolerant daughter?'. My parents grew up in the 60's and 70's, a hugely important and changing environment in the United States; the Civil Rights Movement was in full force. My grandparents grew up in the 30's and times were even more different then! My parents had grown up with religious and ethnic intolerance, and that was all they knew. The Civil Rights Movement shook everything to the core with them and they learned how to assimilate to a newer society. I wish that people would take cues from these movements in history and learn that people are not what the media portrays them to be. No one is a stereotype.
2) "Skin color, religion, and language seem to define being 'American' or not" (pg. 40). Whoa. This is a singularly strong statement and probably stuck out the most to me out of this book so far. It surprises and enrages me to a certain extent. What does being American even mean? I honestly do not know! I feel that we are such a rapid-fire, ever-changing society in which fads come and go in like a week. I feel that students coming in from other countries see us from the media as well. When I was talking to a friend that I know here from Malaysia, he said that he thought Americans were all basically hillbillies like he saw on television from old reruns; he said that he was also surprised at the amount of diversity that exists here. He said that in Malaysia, he only saw TV and media about white, middle-class America and did not realize the amount of African-American people that lived here and the racial categories that exist in this country because of it. They are under the same delusions (for lack of a better word) that we are under about their countries. We do not have a clue about what goes on in the outside world; our media only covers local or regional news at best. European countries get news from every single country in the world! We are only aware of what exists in our little bubble and it saddens me that everyone seems perfectly fine with that.
3) "Most Americans like free time...they go outside and have fun. I always see most immigrant people in the library because they sit and study there. They want to do good in school" (pg. 48-49), and also "I can't believe that Americans have very good conditions about education but they don't want it" (pg. 49). Believe me, this is totally preaching to the choir for me. I cannot believe every day at the amount of people (even at this university!) who completely take education for granted. I am always a person who approached school as something of utmost importance and I take it very seriously. I often do not allow myself to have fun as much as I want to because I feel a huge responsibility to do well. Most people when I was growing up thought I was 'weird' or a 'freak' because I wanted to read all the time and not be as social as everyone else, but honestly, it did me good in the long run. I met people in high school who were exactly like me and could relate to my feelings, and all of my immediate and close group of friends are all almost college graduate and about half are going on to graduate school. We have fun as much as anyone else, but we all understand how serious school work is. I do not think high schools do a good job of emphasizing the importance of education; I was extremely lucky that I grew up in a wealthy community with a great deal of resources, but others are not so lucky. The fact that teachers take school for granted too is appalling.
4) The table on page 57 of "Reasons we immigrated" and "Things we think they think about why we're here" (they meaning Americans). I feel like this list, including, work, political strife, economy...these are all things we have discussed in previous TESOL classes as reasons for students and their families coming here. I think that all American students should be shown this list and we should tell them, 'What you guys think about them is not true!' How are we supposed to blame a baby for wanting to take a job? It makes no sense. We should be proud that people want to come and live in this country, not be blaming them for wanting a better life. You do not exactly see people from the USA moving to the Congo or Serbia and there are clear reasons why. We do not get the same freedoms we do here and people think it is shocking that that stuff goes on in the world, but as I said, we live in a bubble. We are so lucky to be native Americans. Why not help people out when they get here? We're socialized into thinking that the US is the best country ever in existence and not to question what those society values are and why. I only have done that in college. I know when I am a teacher, I am going to copy this list and show it to my students. Even if I am the only person giving them awareness, at least I am making them aware at all. It's increasingly important in this changing climate to promote tolerance and acceptance in our classrooms.
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