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Post by hoonze88 on Jun 8, 2016 22:53:32 GMT
As Jack says, I think its extremely important to note a students cultural differences when learning any category or content area. When I took my multicultural diversity class, this was a popular issue discussed. As a first generation Cuban-American, I have definitely noticed the differences in how I learned material growing up in Miami versus how those of non-Hispanic origins learned material outside of Miami. There is definitely a cultural gap and that can quite impact the learning process for students. I grew up around a lot of ELL/ESOL students, and I noticed a difference when the teacher took time to consider their cultural differences. The ELL/ESOL students weren't always hispanic; I remember this one kid (cant remember his name) who came from the Middle East in 7th grade and just had the hardest time with teachers because he wasn't quite getting the language as fast nor the material and the frustration on the teacher was just obvious. As I mentioned in class during our separate group discussions, I think a lot falls on the teacher to bridge these gaps and facilitate learning. Just because the teacher is knowledgeable in a content area does not mean he/she is the right person to teach the subject. In this regard, teachers need to be consciously aware of cultural differences and incorporate a way to help these students out. Am I going to sit here and say it is easy to do? Absolutely not. But to sit here and just place ELL/ESOL students in separate classes and say they are someone elses problem is just as detrimental. The big question is, how do we handle this situation in a respectful and educational way?
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ksbarber
New Member
Hello, classmates. My name is Kathy. I have my BFA in Film and adding a teaching certificate.
Posts: 18 
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Post by ksbarber on Jun 9, 2016 0:56:56 GMT
I strongly agree that it is important for teachers to recognize out of school experiences and informal language practices of students as worthwhile resources relevant to science learning. When a student comes up with a correct answer in their own way through their own self-taught resources and background experiences, they should not be chastened for not "doing it the right way", but praised for reaching the correct answer, then shown "here is another way you can also find the answer. This used to bug me when I did math differently than the teachers, and still bugs me when today's teachers don't give students credit for figuring out the answer through another process.
The strategies in Reading 8 for ELL students is the same as some I learned in my earlier ESOL education courses. Connecting discourse practices into plays and song lyrics provide bridges for students to express their understanding. Allowing ELL students to take part in student-directed instruction and collaborative group work provides English language support from peers, and a teacher being able to code-switch using key vocabulary words from the home language and English provides concurrent translation that helps the ELL students participate in the moment rather than having to wait until later to understand the discussion.
I also agree the hands-on inquiry method of teaching in science provides all students a better opportunity to develop understanding since it depends less on formal language and more on "doing". Also like Tobin's idea of multiple short activities in each lesson to keep things fresh in the classroom and encourage participation of all students.
I especially like the idea of providing key science vocabulary words to ELL students in both the home language and English so they themselves could easily begin to learn the English and after some code-switching become more fluent in using English in their classroom discussions.
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