My article was called Teaching All the Children: Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting. The authors formed a group of experienced and inexperienced teachers throughout the Chicago Public School District and asked them to talk about their experiences working in “some of the most challenging schools”. The teachers that were interviewed worked in schools with mainly African American students whose families were at or below the poverty line. I found this quite interesting because in my placement on Thursday, my teacher showed me some statistics about the families in the Lansing Public Schools System. We found that there is an average of 82% of the families with students in LPS are at or below the poverty line, and my school specifically was around 78%. So while this article was based on teachers in Chicago, their observations, fears and experiences have relevance right here in Lansing.
I found some similarities between the issues that the interviewed teachers discussed and things that my CT has talked to me about. One of them is that teachers need to develop sensitivity to students and families without extra resources. The article noted that some teachers spend a lot of their own paychecks to buy materials for the classroom and the students, like notebooks, snacks, band-aids, etc. My teacher has talked a lot about having compassion for the students and their families. She said that teachers need to understand the kinds of issues that they students are dealing with at home (violence, alcohol, not enough sleep, adult responsibilities…) while still trying to keep them focused on the classroom lesson at hand.
Another similarity between what the teachers in the article expressed and what I’ve seen at my placement is working with students across a wide range of reading abilities. Some students come with lots of literacy knowledge while others cannot read. As teachers, we have to find ways to incorporate those different abilities into the classroom, but, as the teachers in the article stated, it takes a lot of time and energy to adapt the work to all of the different reading levels in the classroom. However, it is important and necessary to do in order to make sure that every student is learning.
Some of the teachers from CPS discussed how they feel that they have to play many different roles in the classroom; they have to be teachers, disciplinarians and caretakers all at once. The students come to them needing someone to talk to about out of school issues, and the teachers start to take on the role of a counselor, as well. In my placement, the home life of many students is less than ideal, and they talk to my CT about their problems. From what the teachers in the article and my CT expressed, it is important for the teacher to find a balance between all of those different roles for the students.
My article was called "Assessing English Language Learners in Mainstream classrooms" by Lenski. Allie, I found the article that you talked about quite interesting as well because I am also placed within Lansing Public Schools. I found that many of my children and their families are below the poverty line, too and it is heart-breaking and eye-opening to see how much these students do not have access to within their homes. I sometimes will get frustrated with a student for giving up easily or having an attitude with me until my CT explains what's happening in their current home situations. It is important to truly get to know your students in order to best help them succeed, and I see this every time I'm in my placement.
ReplyDeleteI felt really connected to my specific article on ELL students because TESOL is one of my minors, and teaching English to speakers of other languages is a dream of mine in the future. The article states that, "Whether ELLs are newcomers to the United States or from generations of heritage language speakers, they are disadvantaged if assessment, evaluation, and the curriculum do not make al- lowances for their distinctive differences," and I completely agree with this statement. I think that these differences are definite struggles for our students, and it does put them at a disadvantage. This article discusses the importance of assessing our ELL students, and one of the most important aspects this article mentions is truly getting to know your students before you assess them. This is crucial with all of your students! However, ELL students come from all types of backgrounds and levels, and before we assume that they are "low" we need to explore the question of "why?" I think this applies to all of our students - we can't just assume our students are "naughty" when in reality they might be having an issue at home that is causing them to act out this way.
I think that whether our students are ELL's or come from rough home situations, we need to learn about each individual in our classroom in order to assess them, educate them and really help then grow.
- Kelly Prior
Thanks, all of you, for your thoughts based on the articles you read. Getting to know ELL students may be harder than getting to know another child. I liked the profile idea. How do we get to know families when there's a language barrier?
ReplyDeleteDominic, that's a ton of work you are doing with students in the after-school program. From what I've heard it may be true that parents and/or caregivers cannot provide help at home, due to shift work and so on. However, I think the kind of family-support program mentioned in the article can work with other community members as well. I do know for sure that we have to be really careful about equating refusal to do homework at home with not being supportive of a child's learning. I even read a book once that made the case that homework is undemocratic, because it advantages children whose parents are able to be at home to help their kids. Also, many boarding schools attended by rich kids build study time into the middle of the school day! I think we must find creative ways around the current system that assumes kids can work after hours at home with support.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Chicago article, care-giving is important but cannot take the place of high expectations and the teacher moving Heaven and Earth to see to it that the kids learn! For example, there's the movie "Stand and Deliver." Have you all seen it? Those kids did their homework without the help of parents, and looked after a ton of littler kids, too. Their teacher believed in them and brow-beat them into working hard. That teacher did, also, supply practical help but he never allowed the students to do less than their best. Moreover I just heard about a school (I think in the South) where all the teachers were fired because they said their students were struggling too much in their home lives to focus on school. The teachers were known for all the extra financial and emotional care they provided, but the new principal said you are either in this to make the kids succeed, or you are not in at all. I'm just mentioning this because such attitudes are out there as districts try to deal with the "failing schools" problem.
ReplyDeleteKelly, have you seen the movie "Stand and Deliver?" If so, how does it compare with this article? If not, can you ask me about it in class?
ReplyDeleteIt is true that teachers sometimes need to supply practical and emotional help, but ALWAYS keep the goal of learning a priority. The ELL article suggested using a Language Experience approach to value kids' cultural resources. I thought that may have been a way to deal with the children who were too full of their problems to focus on the prescribed reading lesson. Do you know what the "Language Experience" approach is? Please ask me in class.