Chapter 8: Collaborative Empowerment at the Preschool, Elementary, and Secondary Levels

The Bilingual Mini-School in East Harlem

“The mini-school was founded in 1973 in response to Latino / Latina parents’ requests for a bilingual program that enhanced students’ knowledge of their own language and cultural heritage together with teaching them English and other core subjects . . . All of the teachers are bilingual. The school transitions students into greater amounts of English instruction over the course of elementary school but maintains a strong focus on developing students’ language and culture” (N.I. 242).

Giving students the opportunity to learn through their native language is essential especially in elementary. If a language other than English is the only language they know going into school, I don’t think it is fair to students to have be thrown in a class that solely speaks English or solely speaks Spanish. I understand that children are able to acquire a second language at a faster pace than adults, but if they aren’t being allowed to use their first language, they will eventually lose it. By allowing students to continue their education in a bilingual setting, educators are empowering them by giving them a head start in the real world where many languages are spoken on a daily basis. The Bilingual Mini-School in East Harlem didn’t just teach core subjects in Spanish, they integrated both English and Spanish in there lessons and slowly reduced the amount of Spanish they used to educate students, which I find is the most beneficial and empowering way to go about educating students who are bilingual.

“empowerment is generated only through interactions that affirm students’ identities and extend their conceptual horizons. The creation of power in these interactions is at the core of genuine educational reform” (253).

As stated, empowerment is generated through interactions that support students’ identities. I personally am a strong advocate of allowing students to use their native language to make sense of new material because it’s the only way to help them become successful and give them the opportunity to acquire a new language. Teaching Spanish to high school students can be difficult because most of them have not had any previous exposure to Spanish other than the slang they hear as they walk around the school campus or the little Spanish they hear in commercials or in movies. I allow my students to make sense of the Spanish material they are given in English. I believe that this is a way to empower them and help them become successful in learning a second language.

Chapter 6: Bilingual Education: What Does the Research Say?

“The pattern of research findings suggests that the level of proficiency attained by bilingual students in their two languages may be an important influence on their academic and intellectual development (Cummins, 1976; 1981a). Specifically, there may be threshold levels of proficiency in both languages that students must attain in order to participate effectively in instruction and avoid falling behind academically and a second, higher, threshold necessary to reap the linguistic and intellectual benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy” (170).

Research shows that if a student is able to demonstrate proficiency in more than one language, he/ she will most likely be more successful in their academic and rational development. I notice that students who constantly ask questions, and intellectually challenge me, are the ones who are most likely going to retain a lot of Spanish. They are taking learning into their own hands by asking challenging questions about the language as well as what it means in comparison to English.

The Thomas / Collier (1997) Study

“They report that the amount of formal schooling in L1 that students have received is the strongest predictor of how rapidly they will catch up academically in L2. This factor is a stronger predictor than socioeconomic status or the extent to which parents may or may not speak English” (N.I. 181).

This study shows how important it is to consider the students’ backgrounds as well as their life outside of the classroom. Some students do not have any other exposure to Spanish other than the 60 minutes they spend in my classroom, which I have to take into account at the end of the year when they aren’t fluent in the second language I have been teaching them are year long. I also have to keep this in mind at the beginning of a new school year—that is, there is a possibility that after the end of the previous school year, they might not of have been exposed to the language. Some parents do speak both English in Spanish, but does that mean that the student is being exposed to it at home? What if the student doesn’t communicate much at home? These are all factors that need to be considered when determining the level or time it should take a student to become proficient in another language.

Chapter 5: Understanding Academic Language Learning: Making It Happen in the Classroom

“students will be reluctant to invest their identities in the learning process if they feel their teachers do not like them, respect them, and appreciate their experiences and talents. In the past, students from marginalized social groups have seldom felt this sense of affirmation and respect for language and culture from their teachers. Consequently their intellectual and personal talents rarely found expression in the classroom” (126).

Starting my year as a first year Spanish teacher was difficult, but I knew if I was going to be successful in any way shape or form, it would be by building relationships with my students. I had a tough experience during my pre-teaching practicum that allowed me to see the importance in having a strong connection with students. I thought the relationship came with the title of the teacher, but I was wrong. I realized it was a trust concept for the student—students have to believe I am their ally in the world of success in order for them to have any interest in what I say. When I was in high school, I heard teachers say, “you don’t have to like me, but you do have to do as I say.” Which I still don’t understand, even going back and speaking with some of my former teachers who still pose that mentality that students have to do as they say regardless of their relationship. To some extent this is inevitable, but I feel that teachers should focus on investing time in creating a relationship with their students. I care about how my students feel towards me, I understand that a student-teacher relationship has its boundaries and I respect those boundaries, but without that relationship, I don’t think I’d get very far in my teaching, so I do care how students feel about me. Building that relationship with students helps guide teaching for the educator—it allows me into their life and how they go about learning in their every day life, which I find to be important in the teaching profession because it allows the educator to utilize the information to help his/her students become successful. At least that’s how I feel it helps me.

“in second language learning, our prior knowledge plays a major role in helping to make the second language input comprehensible . . . Thus, a major rationale for activating students’ prior knowledge on a particular topic or issue, building it with the students, is to make the learning process more efficient. Prior knowledge represents one central aspect of what students bring to the learning situation that makes input more context-embedded and comprehensible” (N.I. 127).

Activating prior knowledge is essential in helping students learn and become successful in whatever subject it is that they are learning. If students are given the opportunity to reflect on concepts and other information they already know, students will find that learning a new concept isn’t as difficult as they thought it might be. It also keeps students engaged through out the learning process. Although activating students’ prior knowledge is only one piece of their learning, it is an integral one—the more you know about what your students know, the easier it is to move forth with the lesson instead of lecturing them on concepts/information they already know because it can lead them to boredom and then, you can lose their attention; consequently, failing to get the main idea or concept across. Anticipation guides, journal prompts, KWL charts, and brainstorming webs are all examples of tools that can be used to activate prior knowledge. As educators, we automatically activate our prior knowledge, but students haven’t necessarily acquired those skills. It is our job to help students piece together their previous knowledge to the new information being presented to them in order to help them be successful.

Chapter 4: Reading and the Bilingual Student: Fact and Friction

“administrators in schools should be competent to provide leadership in addressing issues of underachievement in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. In particular, they should know enough about the reading process to guide teachers towards coherent and effective ways of teaching reading to ELL students (N.I. 85).

For me, English Language Learners aren't the students who I face on a daily bases, rather Spanish Language Learners.  I personally do not have sufficient experience in teaching to understand everything that is required to help students become successful in a second language and unfortunately, neither does my administration--my administration doesn't have a background in Spanish. The foreign language department is on its own as it is an elective class. Nonetheless, it is important for administrators in schools to be knowledgeable to an extent where they can provide educators with the material necessary to help students become successful, and in my school, I believe administration understands the difficulty and importance of acquiring a second language, and how difficult it can be to teach students whose primary language is not the same as the subject the educator is knowledgeable in.

“An implication is that teachers should encourage students to continue to develop their knowledge of the world and curriculum content in their L1 while they are acquiring English since this knowledge increases their cognitive power to comprehend and acquire English” (N.I 90).

Although Spanish is a different language from English, I find that it is important for educators who teach Spanish to consider the methods in which ELL students are taught while they teach Spanish Language Learners. Students learning a second language always have to be given tools in order to be successful in the language they are learning. I tell my students to learn the language by watching movies in Spanish first rather than in English and afterwards, watch the movie again in English to see if they were able to grasp any of the concepts. This is a way to challenge themselves and if they are challenging themselves, they are becoming independent learners in a second language.

In the classroom the teacher is to explain the objective of the day’s lesson to the students, give directions on how to proceed, and teach students. The students are guided for the most part, and for a great portion of the class, their job is to listen. When students are given the opportunity to speak, it’s all in small increments of time—that is, speaking opportunities are only given to students when called upon by the teacher to share his/her answers with the class or when the student is engaged in think-pair-share activities that require him/her to listen to the responses of his/her partner, and later repeat those responses. These speaking exercises are accompanied by SDAIE strategies that include graphic organizers, seemingly an organizational tool used to facilitate the comprehension of all students. These tools are not only for English language learners, although many were developed for that reason, but a Spanish teacher can also utilize them. At the end of the day, these exercises are brief—students only spend 60 minutes a day being exposed to the second language he/she is attempting to become fluent in. I find it difficult to acquire a second language if you don’t make it part of your daily life, and that’s why I tell students to watch movies in Spanish so that they continue to be exposed to the language. Even though they are not practicing how to speak the language, they are being exposed to it.