I was placed in a 7th grade English class in Hillside.
The schedule of classes is not the standard period. Instead, they have block scheduling that lasts about an hour and twenty minutes as opposed to a 45 minute period. This means that we only have three classes a day. In each of the three classes, there are students from many different cultural backgrounds. However, I did not notice any that were ELL. I asked my cooperating teacher and he said that he did not have any in his classes. However, there are 2 students that come from another country in one of the classes. They are both African American. One is a male whose parents were born and raised in Nigeria, but he was born in London so his accent is very interesting. The other is a female who I am unsure which country in Africa she came from. For some reason they don't get along with one another at all. The male student is always getting beat up by the girls. Other students make fun of him when he reads because of his accent. That really makes me feel bad. Its sad that they cannot embrace the differences and appreciate them. Instead they have to judge everyone thats not exactly the same. Hopefully, they will learn their lesson sooner rather than later.
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Wow, that is pretty unfortunate! It makes me wonder why the females seem to have authority over this male student. Maybe in his country men are submissive to females in certain situations, may be he is just nervous? I feel that it would behoove both of these students to become friends just so they can share their commonalities with one another. Having someone to talk to who is dealing with a similar situation is always easier than going at it alone! You can’t force people to become friends thou, we all know that! All too often we are inclined to judge people and I doubt that is just an American quality. For someone coming over from another country 1st impressions are sometimes all they have to rely on.
Wow that really is sad that the two can't get along. Middle school is tough. The kids there are unforgiving and pick on each other relentlessly. Other students may see this certain student as an easy target. I agree with you that the girl and boy would benefit from becomming friends. They seem to have a lot in common.
It really is sad that students, such as your 7th graders, have difficulty accepting each others differences at such a young age. The beauty of learning and being educated is learning about different cultures and constantly interacting with those that come from different countries. Your students could really learn a lot from each other if they could just accept the fact that they are also considered "different" with "accents" to those that are not familiar with their own culture.
Kids can be so mean! Just this past week, the students were making fun of a boy in one of my classes. I believe that the boy is from Mexico or a similar country. Anyway, this particular student doesn't talk very much. So some of the other students were saying that he doesn't know how to speak. Then they next day they were talking about how only people from this boy's country are only allowed to work in Taco Bell and you can't speak English in order to work at Taco Bell. I felt so bad for the boy! I yelled at the students at fault and told them that it wasn't nice to make fun of other people and to leave the boy alone. I cannot believe how cruel they were to him!
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