Tuesday, May 29, 2007
This Course can help our "Regular" Education students
I have learned that eventhough I do not currently have any ELL students in any of my classes this year at Rahway Middle School. But I still wanted to be able to apply what I have been learning about in teaching English language learners. One way to do this was to use and understand the diverse cultures in my classroom. So when I was introducing the novel The Outsiders to my sixth grade language arts students and teaching them about stereotypes and finding out the students did not know what a stereotype is I had about 8-10 studnets tell me and the class about their culture and then asked them questions. For example a student was tell the class that his mother and father came to this country 13 years ago from China. Then I asked him what are some things that people say about his culture. And he said that because he is from Asia he is very smart. Then another student raised his hand and said because I am Mexican people may think I am dumb. I told them that these where both great examples of stereotypes. I thought this was a great way for students to learn about eachothers culture and for them to realize that what they say about people because of ones culture can sometimes be considered a stereotype. By having the students use their own cultures to learn about stereotypes I find that I made them very motivated and it was easy for me to teach them a brand new concept.
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5 comments:
I think it's great that you are successfully finding ways to incorporate what you have learned throughout this course, into your lessons. Although the material is geared towards ELLs, I also feel that many of the techniques and strategies will benefit all learners. I am eager to begin student teaching next semester so that I too can start applying what I have been learning to the classroom. I agree that it is important for the students to understand and become familiar with each others culture. I like the way you tapped into the students’ prior knowledge, to introduce a new concept- which in this case was stereotypes. By doing this you also helped make the lesson more meaningful to the students because you connected it to their own lives and experiences. It's great that you are using what you have learned in this course to enhance your lessons.
Good job on incorporating the children's personal lives with the book you are going over. I always appreciated it when my teachers tried to link up an in-class subject with something I was dealing with at home. Early introduction to one another's culture is the best thing. We need our young ones to be more open and welcoming to students who are not like them. By teaching tolerance we are promoting safer and more respectful future generations.
I agree with you that what we learn in this course can be used even if we have no ELL children in our classrooms. It gives us an appreciation of all cultures. Diversity should be celebrated. You seem like you have done a good job incorporating what you have learned in this class so far, in your junior field classroom.
I also agree that most, if not all of what we are learning through our readings in this course can be applied to all learners, not just ELL's. All students are unique and require certain accomodations that may or may not have to do with not being able to speak or understand English. There are endless issues that educators must take into consideration and learn how to address appropriately and effectively. For example, any lesson that a teacher delivers must reach all of the students in the class. Think of the amount of diversity that's present in most classrooms today. You have students with various ability/skill levels,learning styles, cultural backgrounds, etc. all in one classroom. So whether the variation is primary language or not, it doesn't really matter. Bottom line, it's still a variation, and although they all can't be dealt with the same exact way, the basic strategies and techniques can be applied across the board.
I knwo this is an old post but I saw it when I was counting up how many posts and comments I did and jsut felt it was important to comment on. I think this class opens everyones mind and helps to make teaching skills more efficient. Regardless whether you are teaching english speaking students or english language learners the information from this class is very applicable.
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