What's goin on?

In class on Monday, our professor set up a simulation of how an English language learning student would feel in a classroom by speaking Patois while going over a quiz. Personally, it was hard for me to understand the dialect so I did the best I could to not participate and remain hidden from the teacher. In an English speaking class, students who are still learning English most likely feel the same way. Even though they know the material, they do not want to, or cannot, participate in class discussion because of the language barrier. Most often these students get put into the remedial classes, even though they know the lessons, because the teachers are not equipped to help them with the language. In the Sleeter and Grant article "Teaching the Exceptional and the Culturally Different," I liked how they suggested that students do peer tutoring and class discussions about the material because the student-student interaction will help the English language learning students build on the language and understand the lesson. This also helps the students who are tutoring the other students better understand the lesson. In the article, they also talked about parental involvement in the students' lives which I believe is extremely important for the student to succeed. I liked how it said for the teachers to do anything possible to get into contact with the parents, for example "meet parents on the parents' turf rather than in the school." I thought this was interesting because not only might parents not have time to meet during the designated parent-teacher conferences but the parents who speak a different language might not want to try and maneuver their way around the school when they cannot read the signs. I never thought about this aspect before but it makes sense because people do not want to go to places that make them uncomfortable. Parental involvement is important for the child to succeed in school because they need the guidance and support from home in addition to school.

In the Rita Tenorio article "Brown Kids Can't Be in Our Club," Tenorio describes some of the activities that she does with her first grade class to bring up the issue of diversity. I feel that these activities are more helpful than hurtful because it is a great way to show students at a young age that difference does not mean deficient, it simply means difference. These activities also show the similarities between different people. I liked the "Me Pockets" the best because not only does it show the cultural background of the students, it also shows the personality and the similarities between the students. It also gives a chance for the parents to get involved in the projects because the students will ask them questions about their family and heritage.

http://www.diversitycouncil.org/elActivities.shtml
http://www.diversitycouncil.org/midActivities.shtml
http://www.diversitycouncil.org/hsActivities.shtml

I could not think of any good activities for bringing up racial issues in my classroom so I looked online for other examples. These websites explain interesting activities and projects to bring up the issue from elementary school to high school.