Post 4

Post: four
Connection: Johnson

My personal history/sociocultural characteristics may intersect with those of my students. When I think of the word intersect I think of how two groups are similar. My students and I may have many differences but there are things we have in common that should not be overlooked. The students at The Garden Academy are similar to me on a small scale and on a large scale. On a small scale we both have a place to live, clothes to wear, access to clean water, a school to go to, transportation to school, and the right to receive a college education. On a large scale, we both are humans, who live in a state, who can think about things and who have a potential to do something.
My family and I are Italian. This contributes to my ethnic background. We value family meals on Sundays, family time, respect for elders, and celebrating our religion every day of the week. Other than that, we value reading, art, classical music, talking with others, hiking, picnicking and traveling together. According to the Salt Survey, 39% of the Students at the Garden Academy are Hispanic or Latino. I do not know much about Hispanic or Latino ethnic traditions. Their traditions may not be exactly the same as my family's. But their culture may cherish and celebrate the same ideals as mine. Often times when my family and I go on picnics, go to national parks, museums, or monuments, we see Latino and Hispanic families also doing these things. So, after all, are we really that different?
I could have both challenges and advantages teaching in this classroom. One challenge I may have is communicating with the parents, or parent in some cases, if they only speak Spanish. I may also in some cases have trouble communicating with the students if they don’t speak English well. Other than the language barrier, I could also have trouble relating to the kids. I may not know much about their lives outside the classroom. It could be challenging to find out about their lives outside the classroom. I can assume certain things but, they cannot always be backed up. Also, I can not assume that they have ‘necessary’ things at home. I cannot assume they have a computer to do homework. This may make me think twice when asking them to ‘type’ up a book report or research something on Google. I also cannot assume that they get the Journal or have cable television. So I may think twice before I say to the fourth grade, “Did you see the article on the front cover of yesterday’s paper?” If they don’t get the newspaper, then they didn’t. These would be some of the challenges I’d have in the classroom relating to what they have “access” to. On the contrary, I have some major advantages if I were to teach this class. I am a well-rounded person and I have much to offer to the classroom. I have traveled all across the country and I could share with the class all that I have learned about different cultures and different lifestyles. I know how some things work, I know about traditions and the living environment in other places. In my travels I have seen poverty and people living in shacks or trailer parks. I have seen white, black and Native American children with their parents waiting to sell some of their goods at train stations. I am eager to know about the unknown as well. I will listen to my students (Vygotsy). Another advantage I will have, five years from now, is a college education in the field of Education. I believe that this is one of the biggest advantages I will have. I would have learned just what to do to teach children. Other than a college degree in education, the most important thing to me is having a passion and a desire to be in the classroom helping kids. I believe that when a teacher is passionate, the classroom is a better environment. A teacher’s passion and desire would lead to a desire to want to know the student’s background and ethnicity to make yourself a better teacher so you can teach them better. Johnson’s thinking would support the ideas presented in prompt four that the culturally competent person should be aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her society and investigate the sociocultural factors that influence learning, and be able to integrate this acquired knowledge into his/her life.
I have encountered many misconceptions about various cultural groups while at The Garden Academy. One misconception I have encountered is that Asian Americans are the ‘smart’ ones in the class. When observing Liu and the other Asian Americans this theory proves true. But, I can guess that this is not true in all cases. I have also encountered the misconception that most poor schools have no white students. My class has two white students as a matter of fact. Another misconception I encountered while at The Garden Academy was that families in poverty may not outwardly show care about their kids. This is not true. While walking in to the Garden Academy, I could see parents dropping their kids off and giving them hugs and kisses. I could see parents waiting with their kids at the bus stop and talking to them. Also I have heard talk about the things the children do with their parents. The parents do care about their offspring. I have confronted many misconceptions at The Garden Academy.
As stated in the prompt, the culturally competent teacher understands and investigates sociocultural factors that influence students. Johnson supports understanding of how some people are privileged and says “we have to…. change…. how we think about the world….. and how we live our lives in relation to it.” Johnson supports finding out about people and being sure that we do not treat certain people as more important than others. He supports everyone becoming aware of how people are treated so that the world can be a better place for all. As a teacher, it is important to be aware of student’s backgrounds and sociocultural factors that can influence my teaching and student’s learning.

Prompt number three

Connection: Jonathan Kozol
Prompt number three

“Where is JoKwan?” asked Mrs. LaKing. “He went to Puerto Rico,” said Carlos. “Yes, now I remember. You’re going this summer aren’t you?” Carlos agreed. Mrs. LaKing was doing a formative assessment with Carlos just now. From this simple conversation, we can already tell a lot about Carlos. One, he knows English, two, he is going out of the country this summer and three he is observant and knows that JoKwan is out of the country now.

While looking through the piles and piles of books in the library at The Garden Academy, I saw many different books about unique living conditions, including living in a two family home and life with a single parent. Some of the books talked of holidays different cultures celebrate. By looking at all of the books in Mrs. LaKing’s library, I could see that she was responsive to the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of some of the students in the class. The teacher could use the books for an formative assessment of how well the children could read. The children could relate to these books because they take part in some of the culture shown in the books.

Last month one of the students brought their own culture into the classroom. Liu arrived speaking boisterously, “I got you one last night!” I watched as she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a fortune cookie. She gave it to Mrs. LaKing and Mrs. LaKing thanked Liu very much. Liu talked about how they went out for Chinese last night and she got a fortune cookie for the teacher. Liu is of Chinese descent. She is one of two Chinese students in Mrs. LaKing’s class. Being Chinese contributes to who Liu is and on that one particular day, she decided to share her culture with Mrs. LaKing. The teacher could administer a formative assessment to Liu by asking questions about Liu’s experience to see if Liu can recall facts, tell feelings, and mention problems and solutions.

Although the teacher has students that are aware of their linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics and she has books that respond to the characteristics, the ‘assessments’ given do not portray the same spirit. When looking at the assessments that the kids are given they are orientated toward schools for children who live in middle class and upper middle class families. They include names like “John” and “Sally”. This is ironic because when you walk in the school, the signs are in English and Spanish and the place seemed responsive to the student’s different backgrounds, yet in the assessments, things are different.

Every week the Palm Pilot comes out for summative testing. Each student is asked to read a passage and a list of words to track fluency and progress. Mrs. LaKing must “type-in” the response from each of the students onto the Palm Pilot then the Palm Pilot is connected to her computer and the scores are tracked. The passages and words that they read are far from diverse and do not incorporate the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of the student. The only positive to using the Palm Pilot is ease of data entry and production of reports.

This can be related to Jonathan Kozol’s article: Still Separate, Still Unequal. If the principal of the Garden Academy read this he may say, “My school is open to the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural backgrounds.” From a distance, they are but when you look closely, they are not responsive to the backgrounds of the children as far as assessments are concerned. Kozol says in his article that most schools still take part in “segregation” even though that supposedly ended decades ago.

If Mrs. LaKing decided to incorporate linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of the students into the classroom assessments, she could compose her own formative assessments. She may use names like JoKawn, Liu or Carlos. She could also write about things they are familiar with. Assessments now incorporate stories with words that rhyme or words that describe experiences like flying a kite on a lush green hill. Instead, she could assess with stories about crossing the busy street to play in the city park. These small changes may make the stories relate better to the kid’s lives and they’d possibly have an easier time reading it. If things were changed, Kozol’s theory of segregation being present would be negated to an extent, which is good for everyone.

Blog number two

Connection: Goldenberg

Prompt number two

“Sound it out, what does the first letter say?” I ask. “Hhhh” says the student.

“Good! Now say the ending.”

The child responds (slowly, hesitant) “aaa…n…d”

“Now, put it together,” I say.

The child responds (confidently), “and!”

“…not exactly, what sound does the first letter make again?” I ask.

“H”

“Add the ending.”

“h…and?”

“Good! Hand.”

Reading can be a struggle for second grader Mayra. Every day I go in, we work at sounding words out and figuring out what they mean. I have seen some improvements since my work with her. I have observed that Mayra is of Latino descent and that Spanish is spoken at home. She speaks English with a ‘Spanish’ accent, as do most of the other students at The Garden Academy. When looking at the demographics of The Garden Academy as a whole, 38% of the students are speaking the Spanish language at home. This information can be determined from the web and just by walking into the school. The school has signs in English and Spanish. I have seen some of these Spanish-speaking students and observed them first hand in the classroom. I can tell that reading is hard for most of them.

Wow, this week’s blog covers much material that can be related to Goldenberg’s “Teaching English Language Learners”. Goldenberg talks about ELL students in his article and as I mentioned, The Garden Academy has many ELL students. Goldenberg states, “ELLs learn more words when the words are embedded in meaningful contexts and students are provided with ample opportunities for their repetition and use opposed to looking up dictionary definitions or presenting words in single sentences.” The students at the Garden Academy are learning English by using it in conversations with other students and teachers. They are also reading texts where the words are embedded in stories and pictures. This supports what Goldberg says.

Another point that Goldenberg makes is to make “text in English more comprehensible by using texts with content that is familiar to students.” What happens in the classroom could link in an interesting way to this statement but instead what happens sometimes goes against Goldenberg’s statement. The Garden Academy students may not always have background knowledge to apply to school stories they are reading. So, technically, if the teacher made it a point to know what the students do/participate in outside the classroom, she could choose stories that can relate to them. They could also read stories that the teacher writes that relate to their lives from the stories they tell.

Finally, Goldenberg says “to use the primary language for clarification and explanation.” This is happening at The Garden Academy when you enter the school the signs are in English and translated into Spanish. The primary language is being used for support. Goldenberg relates to this week’s blog well.

During one of my previous visits I observed something very interesting and informative. I was working with a group of three boys, Carlos, Felipo and Gonzalo, all of which needed help reading. This is what happened. I ask, “Hey guys! You need some help reading?” Gonzalo responds, “sure, I can’t figure out this word.” “Well, let’s sound it out.” (Eventually Gonzalo understands what the word says after some assistance).

Gonzalo responds, “Thank you!” I ask Carlos if he has any questions? He responds, “No, thank you.” “ How about you, Felipo?” I ask. Carlos (interrupting) states, “Nooo, he can’t read this, he don’t read English.” Felipo (in a convinced manner) says, “I don’t know English. I can’t read this.” I (in a positive, joyful manner) say, “Oh, I think you can knock my socks off and read this. (Felipo then leans back in his chair and lets out a sigh)and says, “you just don’t get it, I don’t speak English and I can’t speak it.” I say, “Well, I think that you are a very smart person and I think that you can. Just give it a try.” Felipo eventually makes his way through the passage and is happy. I praise him and say “I knew you could do it!”

As I moved on, what happened with the boys stayed with me. I started to assume that Felipo’s parents might discourage speaking English at home. In the classroom, his classmates, Carlos and Gonzalo, were convinced he would not and could not speak English. But, he could speak the language. It was kind of funny in a sense, this little boy looking into my eyes saying as clear as day, “I don’t speak English.” One linguistic characteristic of the kids at The Garden Academy is that many students speak Spanish. This makes it difficult to learn to read. But on the other hand the culture the children are living in may make it hard for them to accept learning to speak and read English because it is not their first language.

“Are you going to the St. Patty’s parade tomorrow?” asked Charlotte. I told her I might go but I wasn’t sure yet. She continued to tell me about who in her family was coming to the parade, what they would do after the parade and what happened last year, all in an enthusiastic manner. Charlotte’s socio cultural characteristics and ethnic values were exhibited in the classroom that day. You could tell that her family and Charlotte valued family time and exciting events; it was part of her culture and her family’s culture. She also brought in from the culture that it was ok to talk to other people about what you are doing for fun, verses being silent and not sharing with others. One socio cultural characteristic and ethnic value of the students at The Garden Academy is spending time with family. The Garden Academy has other socio cultural characteristics and ethnic values coming from the parents. Such as being on time for school, listening to the person in charge, and seeing school as a fun and learning place to be. These opinions could also come from influences like older siblings in addition to the school personnel. The students at The Garden Academy bring in an interesting cultural capital to the school.

Fearlessness. The kids at The Garden Academy are fearless. They are never afraid to question someone or something. They also introduce themselves to someone new and say how they feel openly. When looking at the demographics of The Garden Academy on the web, most of the students are in living in poverty. I personally think that kids in poverty come into this world with a lot of burdens and that they must acquire the skill to be confident and stick up for themselves and their rights. Some people can take advantage of people in poverty but, for now, the kids at The Garden Academy are confident and determined. So, I do not think they will be taken advantage of. The student’s determined spirit is motivating to someone like me. The students have a cultural capital of being fearless. It is important to have fearless people in society. Although the students are fearless, they lack a sense of background knowledge and background experiences that can contribute to their ‘well roundedness’. In society if everyone has a sense of ‘well roundedness’ then the society as a whole will be smarter. When our students have an idea about the ‘outside world’ they are more aware and enter the classroom with background knowledge.