April’s Teaching Blog

I think that my favorite part of blogging is making up the titles.  I love to rhyme and play with words, maybe that’s why I love teaching kindergarten. 

The reading on CALP was particularly eye-opening because I really struggle with the best way to reach ELL students.  Having only taught for one year, I have only had one ELL student that I could call my own.  Manny (name has been changed ) came to me with no school experience and very frightened, understandably.  Manny had an older sister in the 4th grade and I was really thankful for her.  She helped me communicate with Manny (she came after school when I would work with him one-on-one) and when Manny had some behavior issues, she was able to relay messages home to their parents when my limited Spanish ability could only communicate bits and pieces.  His family was WONDERFUL about coming in and meeting with me and the were so happy to work with Manny at home. They were great.  Manny had no problem communicating with his peers, he had so many friends!  But just like Joaquin in the reading, he could not answer questions in class when I asked him.  I thought that he was nervous to speak in front of the class.  He always brought items for share time, but never wanted to talk about them, he just wanted to show them to the class.  I would encourage him to talk about his objects, but until around winter break, he always declined.  I spoke as much Spanish as I could to him, and he really liked that.  Around Christmas, I asked him to start sharing in Spanish and he really liked to do that. He had plenty of BICS, but his CALP was where he was struggling.  He was one of my brightest students, and given a puzzle he could put it together faster than I could, and he could build structures with blocks that looked like an architect had designed, no lie.  His artwork was gorgeous, I asked if I could keep some of it and displayed it proudly on the front of my desk.  He was gifted.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I read on page 3 of the article “Rather than students like Joaquin being written off as stupid…”  SKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKIRT! (the sound of squealing tires) WHAT?!?  STUPID?  Who would write a child off as STUPID?  As a teacher, I am called to teach.  Not make a judgement about a child who cannot speak my language in the classroom setting.  I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be.  But I would NEVER say that about a child.  I may say a child is struggling within the classroom, but STUPID?  Jeesh.  I want to help ELL children learn English WHILE maintaining their Spanish and help them to be successful.  That right there is deficit thinking at its worst. 

Reaching ELL students is so important.  These children have just as much to offer in our classroom as students who speak English so to marginalize them as “stupid” is just absolutely redicuolous.  I did like the article pointing out how important it is to recontextualize for our ELL students (as well as english speaking students).  I think that the key is respect thier language differences and to try and bring as much of their language into the classroom as possible.  ELL students in our classrooms did not choose to come to a school where no one spoke their language.  It is our jobs as teachers to make them feel as welcome and important as possible.