India: Calcutta Calling-
-The first girl, she feels like in claremont people stare at her, she feels like she doesn't belong, she loves indian food.
-Lizzie thinks americans are materialistic, Indians play soccer too!
-the girls go to India to visit the country and are amazed at what they see. They realize that it's not like what they had thought, and that they feel just as much like outsiders there than they do at home. They ended up eating ice cream and mcdonald's while there! One girl claimed she would not be able to survive living there (and feel bad for eating in front of all the people around that have nothing to eat).
Vietnam-
-always stay connected to past- tradition, customs, etc
-his father was kept as a political prisoner
-60% of population is under 30
-very conservative, anxious about kids using the internet and finding new things
-changed market to capitalism
-as far as food, the faster the better, "but no fast food please"
-since sept.11 vietnam is safest place to travel in asia, geting more tourism
lately gov helping more, but werent in the past
-poor rice farmers
-marching soldiers reminder of it being a communist capital
-used to be a crime to speak english
-teenagers born long after war ended, don't know much about it
-water puppets- farmers, scholars, and kings- history/memory- but for foreign tourists
- the last moments of the video when he was in the water concentrated area and people in small boats was really cool! The woman that stopped by with goods in her boat to sell was interesting.
-insists vietnam is a country that insists on staying hopeful and resists change culturally
Differences:
India seemed to have a lot more poverty than Vietnam
-just had completely different ways of life
-languages
-religions
-customs
Similarities:
-lots of color, colorful walls and clothing
-a lot of poverty
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Ch. 6 Reflection
Theories and Methods of Bilingual Education
I found the page on "Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education" to be interesting. Many things in it (such as "total immersion" in a language is the best way to learn language) were things I had heard before. It's interesting to know that many of those things have no real credible evidence backing them up and that a lot of common things we hear about language are not really true.
I also thought it was interesting about how "The Hispanic Dropout Project found that teachers may make one of the two choices that undermine minority students' achievement: either to blame the students and their families for school failure or to excuse the students' poor performance..." I know as a teacher it is important to know how to balance many things in the classroom, and you also must balance your bilingual students in a way that you are treating them fairly. You shouldn't be too hard on them, but you shouldn't let them slip through the cracks and let them go either. As always, parental support and involvement is most always a very helpful tool for children in school.
I also like the idea of Newcomer Centers. I think it is a good idea to allow children new to this country a chance to be educated in an "emotionally safe educational atmosphere." Where it allows rapid development of english and improves self esteem instead of lessening it. It can be terrifying to be totally submerged in an english speaking classroom of kids and not knowing any of the language. This can quickly become detrimental to self esteem and participation in the class as a whole.
I found the page on "Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education" to be interesting. Many things in it (such as "total immersion" in a language is the best way to learn language) were things I had heard before. It's interesting to know that many of those things have no real credible evidence backing them up and that a lot of common things we hear about language are not really true.
I also thought it was interesting about how "The Hispanic Dropout Project found that teachers may make one of the two choices that undermine minority students' achievement: either to blame the students and their families for school failure or to excuse the students' poor performance..." I know as a teacher it is important to know how to balance many things in the classroom, and you also must balance your bilingual students in a way that you are treating them fairly. You shouldn't be too hard on them, but you shouldn't let them slip through the cracks and let them go either. As always, parental support and involvement is most always a very helpful tool for children in school.
I also like the idea of Newcomer Centers. I think it is a good idea to allow children new to this country a chance to be educated in an "emotionally safe educational atmosphere." Where it allows rapid development of english and improves self esteem instead of lessening it. It can be terrifying to be totally submerged in an english speaking classroom of kids and not knowing any of the language. This can quickly become detrimental to self esteem and participation in the class as a whole.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Ch. 8 Reflection
Cultural Diversity
I thought it was interesting to flip through and see the different contributions to our country from immigrants of different backgrounds. The chapter showed what types of influences the US has accumulated from different groups such as asian americans, african americans, hispanics/latinos, native americans and arab americans. Thanks to immigrants we use a lot of things in our daily lives, including music, that were brought to us or heavily influenced by immigrants.
However, the chapter also points out the exploitation of immigrants. I agree that this problem still exists today. It is also troubling to think of the poverty issues and the inadequate pay, without healthcare, inadequate housing, etc. I like that the chapter points out that being poor also entails many other things. This is important to keep in consideration when teaching children, especially those of high poverty. Instead of coming to a conclusion that their parents don't work, you may think twice and realize both parents may be working and their labors might be exploited. A child in this situation may face interferences in learning due to factors of social and political matters, lack of materials or even lack of nutrition. (I personally will keep snacks in the back of my classroom and inform my class at the beginning of the year that if someone didn't have time for breakfast or something like that, they can grab something quietly in the back.)
Lastly, the chapter touches on more about reasons for immigrants coming to the US (war, famine, economic factors, political factors, family unification, etc) but also goes over some of the US immigration laws. I remember having a friend from Romania, he was very intelligent and made excellent grades in high school. He went on to a really great university, but all through high school he couldnt get a job because he didn't have a green card (permanent resident card) and I remember the trouble this occasionally caused him.
I knew many of the things this chapter pointed out, but I enjoyed that it went into further detail and specifics. I especially liked the detail it went into about the contributions to the US from different immigrant groups, I think it is interesting to know where some things came from that we do in the US.
Picture from here (has interesting info on supporting immigrants).
I thought it was interesting to flip through and see the different contributions to our country from immigrants of different backgrounds. The chapter showed what types of influences the US has accumulated from different groups such as asian americans, african americans, hispanics/latinos, native americans and arab americans. Thanks to immigrants we use a lot of things in our daily lives, including music, that were brought to us or heavily influenced by immigrants.
However, the chapter also points out the exploitation of immigrants. I agree that this problem still exists today. It is also troubling to think of the poverty issues and the inadequate pay, without healthcare, inadequate housing, etc. I like that the chapter points out that being poor also entails many other things. This is important to keep in consideration when teaching children, especially those of high poverty. Instead of coming to a conclusion that their parents don't work, you may think twice and realize both parents may be working and their labors might be exploited. A child in this situation may face interferences in learning due to factors of social and political matters, lack of materials or even lack of nutrition. (I personally will keep snacks in the back of my classroom and inform my class at the beginning of the year that if someone didn't have time for breakfast or something like that, they can grab something quietly in the back.)
Lastly, the chapter touches on more about reasons for immigrants coming to the US (war, famine, economic factors, political factors, family unification, etc) but also goes over some of the US immigration laws. I remember having a friend from Romania, he was very intelligent and made excellent grades in high school. He went on to a really great university, but all through high school he couldnt get a job because he didn't have a green card (permanent resident card) and I remember the trouble this occasionally caused him.
I knew many of the things this chapter pointed out, but I enjoyed that it went into further detail and specifics. I especially liked the detail it went into about the contributions to the US from different immigrant groups, I think it is interesting to know where some things came from that we do in the US.
Picture from here (has interesting info on supporting immigrants).
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Snag
I found this site that is a little more interesting than the regular youtube that we discussed in class. It contains lots of videos and documentaries that I thought you might find interesting.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Effective Teaching in a Multilingual Classroom
For some reason, I loved the intro music to this video. It made me much more excited than the Growing Roots video! The Growing Roots video in comparison was interesting and definitely beneficial and important. However, I found this video much more fun. I also really respected the teacher in this video, she seems passionate about her teaching and seems to really love the children.
Anyway, here are the answers I came up with for the two questions given.
What the teacher does to make the lessons comprehensible:
-breaks things down
-speaks slowly
-goes to board a lot
-holds up pictures
-repeats things and also rephrases them using different words
-gestures
-acting things out
-models new things for them and goes through them and shows them on board, goes through them together so children understand what to do
-pairs them up with partners (preferably ones that speak the same language)
-allows students to discuss lessons together in their native language
-will sometimes pair students up that need extra help with more advanced students
-has students predict things with pictures, asks them different ways to name things, expands their vocabulary and understanding.
-brings in their own culture to connect them to lessons and their own background knowledge. (The owl in El Salvador, what sound does it make?)
-oral presentations to prepare for speaking in front of english-speaking classes in the future.
What the students do in order to learn the language and content:
-listen to the teacher speaking
-pick up on visual cues
-work in pairs
-make connections with the lessons and language
-read
-volunteer answers and ideas
-make stories in english
-ask questions
-listen to each other
Anyway, here are the answers I came up with for the two questions given.
What the teacher does to make the lessons comprehensible:
-breaks things down
-speaks slowly
-goes to board a lot
-holds up pictures
-repeats things and also rephrases them using different words
-gestures
-acting things out
-models new things for them and goes through them and shows them on board, goes through them together so children understand what to do
-pairs them up with partners (preferably ones that speak the same language)
-allows students to discuss lessons together in their native language
-will sometimes pair students up that need extra help with more advanced students
-has students predict things with pictures, asks them different ways to name things, expands their vocabulary and understanding.
-brings in their own culture to connect them to lessons and their own background knowledge. (The owl in El Salvador, what sound does it make?)
-oral presentations to prepare for speaking in front of english-speaking classes in the future.
What the students do in order to learn the language and content:
-listen to the teacher speaking
-pick up on visual cues
-work in pairs
-make connections with the lessons and language
-read
-volunteer answers and ideas
-make stories in english
-ask questions
-listen to each other
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