The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of her or his students, families, and communities when planning for and delivering instruction.
Prior to entering my VIPS experience, I knew the ethnicities my students held were going to be very diverse. Like mentioned in my previous blog, I had an understanding that the area of Providence where the school is placed consists of a high population of minorities. I am now here to report that I have not volunteered with one white student in my 5th grade classroom; solely due to the fact that there is NOT one Caucasian student in the classroom.
The Infoworks data on this elementary school supports my observations. The website’s numbers illustrate that the school inhabits 64% Hispanic, 24% African American, 6% Asian, and 6% White students. Even though this site separates the students into categories, I see them as a whole. And after observing their characteristics linguistically, ethnically, and socioculturally, I am pleased to share how well they can communicate and work together. There is no language barrier between them or any student with a heavy accident.
I was fortunate enough to give a spelling test one afternoon. One of the words being language, I asked the class if they knew how to speak another language. Six students raised their hand! You would never be able to tell by looking and/or listening to them that English was not their first language.
Claude Goldenberg brings about the issue how 4th grade English Language Learners (ELLs) score 36 points below non-ELLs in reading and 42 points below non-ELLs in math. This is a clearly a concern for the development of our society and its minorities but honestly does not make me concerned with those six students. I completely understand Goldenberg’s argument in Teaching English Language Learners and agree with it. Why should students, who don’t understand or speak English well, be forced to learn at the same rate that everyone else is learning, plus learn English? Clearly, this is not fair. They also must learn how to communicate with their fellow peers using slang and later learn proper and academic English in class. Without a doubt this is confusing and intimidating. What concerns me the most is when students who are so confused that they resort to unproductive and dangerous activity with fellow students who share the same issue.
Again, I am thrilled to mention how smart those 6 bilingual students are. Some days during my tutoring sessions I sit down with a few students to help them catch up. Those bilingual students are never the ones who are behind in their math or writing. I have actually corrected three sets of spelling tests. Those students received the highest grades! They also received a smiley face sticker. I sound like a proud teacher right now and I am proud of them. Hearing all the negativity that comes with being an ELL in FNED forces me to see the issues some of those students may have over come. I’m humbled. These students can help break down language barriers. And lastly, I’d like to hope that theorists like Goldenberg will continue to write articles to raise language issue and put forth a change in our society.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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Hey Courtney!=)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post! It was very uplifting and eye-opening. I was surprised to see that there was not one caucasian child in your classroom! And I thought my classroom was sparse, with only three caucasian children! But aside from this, I thought it was awesome that you had so many bilingual students in your classroom. I think it's very good to have diversity in the classroom; and there is a lot in your's. Also, what surprised me a lot about your post was the facts and information about your school and the children in your classroom! It was surprising to read about how much the bilingual students excelled in your classroom! Also, with going with what you said, I do feel like that there is some negativity through our course with ELL children. I feel like it is somewhat taught to us ELL children are always the lowest performing children in the classroom. Because they typically do struggle with performance in the classroom, I was shocked but pleased to see that your students proved otherwise! They really showed that just because they are bilingual doesn't mean that they are not intelligent. Good post!