Susan Neate
Reflection 11
11/14/07
The Cochran
Smith article offers practical advice for the beginning teacher. First and foremost, Cochran illustrates why
teachers should have high expectations for all their students regardless of
background. Students continuously amaze
me with their perceptions of learning. I
often enjoy eavesdropping in on students’ conversations to see just how
academically laden they really are.
Hopefully, most teachers are trying to incorporate learning objectives
geared toward improving higher-order thinking skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy specifically lists the
processes that address these higher-order thinking skills.
The second
principle Cochran Smith suggests is to build on the previous experiences a
child brings to school. This can also be
referred to as tapping into prior knowledge.
Information is more readily retained when a student can attach meaning
to something they are already familiar with.
By doing so, a teacher also can utilize a commonly known ESL strategy called
scaffolding. Learning is basic at first,
and more complex skills and greater depth build upon one another until a
student achieves the mastery level.
Cochran
Smith also recommends that teachers get involved with the community. We just had parent-teacher conference day,
one of my favorite days of the year.
When you have the parent’s support, students are more likely to study
and be involved in learning at home. By
becoming involved with your students’ lives outside of school, a teacher is
more likely to be in tune with a child’s interests or difficulties when they’re
in school.
Cochran
Smith talks about the inequities presented by standardized tests. By utilizing multiple modes of assessments,
such as projects and portfolios, a teacher encourages thinking outside the box
and more creativity in demonstrating acquisition of content learned. Multiple forms of assessment are more
personalized to the students’ needs and restrict others from categorizing
children by their test scores.
This
article discusses the principle of instilling empowerment and social change
through education. In my classroom, I
have a large library of multicultural books that I read to my students and lend
to teachers to share in their classrooms.
I believe that by promoting tolerance and diversity education at a young
age, students will carry those values into their adult lives. In addition to multicultural literature
study, my former students have participated in diversity celebrations and
language clubs. I believe this instills
pride in my students and relieves the pressure to be Americanized.
The
Carger article brought back quite a few memories for
me. When reading about Alejandro going to his graduation, I remembered my two
sister students from
Alejandro’s
character reminds me of my former Puerto Rican student. I saw the name of the Latin King gang in the
story, and I remembered how much trouble Raul had gotten into for drawing that
same gang symbol on the school bathroom walls.
I remembered how, like Alejandro, his dad complained about the number of
times girls called their house in the evening.
In addition, I remembered how, like Alejandro, Raul would swear up and
down, “Yo soy un good boy.”
Raul
struggled in school just like Alejandro.
He had difficulties in reading English, and he could not write very well
in either language. Here is an essay he
wrote for me:
In the year 1990 Raul was porn at gujomo puerto rico.well
hi gru up at the geto lets
huts say that it was a good naberhud.well hi started
to get in trubel with the law in viginia,Vinton,at
school and stuff well raul is a good kid but thers is part of him
that is not good like go to parties and stuff.and noe raul is in home arrest his goin crisy abut it.andhis graind is goin down fast.well now raul is duwing his bests to pass
10s gared cuz hi only haf 2 years in school.hi wats to go to the air force wenn
hi gets out of school.in 2006,aguts 23 hi mift to vigrginia hi don’t like
it up ther well theis is my
life..
Be.Raul A.Vega
For: mis.niet
Contrary to his writing, Raul was one
of the smartest kids I knew. When it came to getting out of trouble, he
was especially talented. He had already learned the ins and outs of the
American system even though he had only been living here two years. He
went through girlfriends like water, and he liked to be the class cutup to
cover his weaknesses in learning. In the year that I spent with him, I
think through a little encouragement he became much more mature and
responsible. Hopefully, he will find his dream working in the armed
forces.
There were two things that struck me out of the Cervantes
article. First of all, I was glad someone had finally addressed the
problems of changing names in records. The two last names for Hispanics
really seem to throw the secretaries off. I hate it when the child’s
second last name is dropped or made into his middle name. Recently I
discovered that this also appears to be true of Vietnamese students as well.
In addition, very few of my students have a middle name either!
In Abden’s interview, I enjoyed his comment, “I like
English, and I need it to work, because bilingual is better than one language.
It can pay more.” How true this is! I recently read an article
relaying just how much there is a crisis for interpreters and individuals
capable of working abroad due to a lack of Americans who learn a second
language. Frankly, I feel in the language department, Americans score at
the bottom compared to most other nations. I always tell my students’
parents to do everything they can to retain their child’s native language
proficiency. It will always pay off in the future. We pay out
translators $35/hr!
The VLAB report was interesting. It seems the
statistics presented here mirrored those given by the VDOE at VATESOL. I
think there are only three counties that reported not having LEP students,
drastically lowering from twenty-some in the past five years. The
recommendations make sense even for American students. All children
should have access to highly qualified, trained professional instructors, and
all students and their parents should be well informed about pathways that lead
to higher education and higher-paying jobs. Unfortunately, until the
DREAM Act is passed, college educations will always be limited to Latino
immigrants.