As I was reading Gerald Campano’s book, Immigrant Students and Literacy: Reading, Writing, and Remembering, I felt compassion for these students. I wanted to help them as Campano did. He gave every student the opportunity to express themselves and their ethnic backgrounds. I cannot imagine teaching in a classroom full of fifth graders that spoke fourteen different languages. I feel like that would be very overwhelming, rewarding, but overwhelming.
One of the students Campano mentioned stated, “I want to be part of both cultures.” It is important to help keep a students culture alive in all aspects of their life. Teachers are the ones that need to help keep children’s cultures alive in the school setting. For this child to want to keep “both cultures” alive is refreshing. I love when students share about their cultures because I not only learn from them, but the other students do as well. It gets the students interested in learning about new cultures.
I do not have much experience working with English Language Learners, but I do have some. I have subbed for an ESL teacher many times. Before I subbed for her I worked across the hall from her for three moths. Seeing the passion that this ESL teacher has when working with her students sometimes makes me want to become an ESL teacher. This particular teacher is so passionate about her students. She goes above and beyond what most teachers do. She gives up her lunch to work with students and often even works with students during her planning time as well. She makes sure that each every one of her students is receiving the support that they need to be successful.
I had a second grade student in my class last year that was an ESL learner, but she did not require much support from the ESL teacher. She spoke Spanish at home and English in school. It amazes me that these young students are able to do that. This particular student did very well in the classroom. I also had a student whose family was from Macedonia. My student was born here, but the rest of her family was born in Macedonia so she had unique experiences to share with the class. I enjoyed having diversity in my classroom because my students could all bring different experience to the classroom. This was especially beneficial during the writing of our class book. During my second grade teacher position last year, I was filling in for a maternity leave. For a writing piece, I convinced the students that their teacher was not home taking care of her baby, but that she was really traveling the world. We did this because we were working on the skill fantasy or reality. Each student chose a different place to write about. My students from different countries were able to write about those places and add their personal experiences to their writing. This was interesting for me to read and the other students loved it as well. These students were so proud to be able to tell us about their culture.
The last time I subbed for her, I worked with two Spanish students that were new to the U.S. We worked on basic tasks such as labeling body parts like arms, legs, and head. The students were very polite and attentive. They had difficulty spelling some words. I was helping them and realized part of the reason they were having so much difficulty. Both of the students confused the letters “e” and “a.” I took Spanish for six years in high school, so I have some knowledge of the language and customs. In the Spanish alphabet, the letter “e” is pronounced like “a.” Once I made this realization, I could better help the students. It was something small, but it makes all the difference. It is important for ESL teachers to have background knowledge about a student’s culture and language in order to help them succeed.
Teachers need to keep in mind the different backgrounds students come from when planning instruction. We are always taking into account different learning abilities, but I feel that we so easily forget about ethnic diversity. Embracing this diversity can bring so much to a classroom.
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