Made in America Ch 7

First I would like to discuss the questions from last week followed by the reading.

1. FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY - The teacher uses a task based, learner centered approach in his classroom. Students use a specific program called Read 180. It incorporates group work, silent reading time, and computer tasks. Group work includes work on circle maps together, reading a passage together and then answering questions about it individually, or playing a game of some type. The teacher uses only English in his class room. The kids are allowed to speak Spanish (this includes asking him questions, giving responses, or writing vocabulary words in Spanish). He always responds to them in English no matter the situation unless he really wants them to get moving, them he says "Andale" which means hurry up.

2. FOCUS ON STUDENT INTERACTION - The kids codeswitch between English and Spanish. Talking amongst themselves, the students generally speak in Spanish. Although, every now and then I hear them speaking in English. The students do not always talk regularly in class. The teacher likes them to stay focused on their tasks and not get distracted. They don't have very many group discussions as a whole -- only in small group work for about 20 minutes of the 90 minute period. Otherwise, they are expected to be quiet and work the rest of the time. There is more S-T interaction than S-S interaction. He incorporates a lot of IRF in the small group station. The questions he asks leads to a lot of higher thinking from the information they gather in the reading.

Chapter 7 talked about creating a supportive place for immigrants -- understanding backgrounds, religions, and cultures. Without this understanding assumptions about students are made. Teachers assume the students and/or parents are irresponsible if the child does not come to school fed or that because the child does not understand what is going on, they belong in special education. Apart from cultural factors, I think in order to create a supportive place for immigrants, teachers need to understand the age they are dealing with as well. Preteens and teens are very vulnerable to the society around them and this definitely affects their development and motivation in the classroom. In my practicum right now, 7th and 8th graders are dealing with issues of pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, and gangs. However, that is nowhere to be seen in the 5th and 6th grade classrooms. Teachers need to be supportive of their students during these tough times of change rather than brush it off and tell their students to 'focus' more.

I don't like the name given to the Newcomer school. It classifies the students immediately. I understand it was created for the purpose of helping immigrants with a highly trained and specialized staff, but couldn't they give it a different name?!