This week in my FNED 246 class, we got the chance to read Aria by Richard Rodriguez. This reading was about a student whose Spanish was their first language and English was her second. The student had trouble communicating due to the language barrier. They had to attend a parent/student-teacher conference and her teacher told them that they needed to start having English as their first language. The teacher told the parents that they needed to start speaking English more in the household to have a better education without language barriers. By the teacher says this the parents are offended because they were told that they need to speak more English than their own culture's language. The parents became distant with the student because they began to speak more English. The parents could not understand so it was always quiet throughout the house.
At my placement for Instipring Minds, I work in a 5th-grade classroom. Most of the students can speak English and Spanish but some can only speak Spanish. I know only a few phrases or words in Spanish but I am not the best at speaking it. I can understand a few words that they are saying so I can help them a little bit when it comes to their assignments. Some students need to translate to a teacher what the other students are saying because not all teachers in the building can speak Spanish. I adore my students in the classroom and it's so fun to be with them every Thursday. I get to play with them at the gym and in the classroom I can help them with their reading and math skills. They have standardized testing coming up and they are going to do amazing!
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I had a great time reading your blog post! I love how you talked about the reading and then related it to your placement. I relate because in my placement there are also a lot of spanish speakers. I don't speak spanish but this has encouraged me to learn at least a little so I can help the students.
ReplyDeleteA really great blog! I can really relate to the idea of a mainly Spanish-speaking classroom with a low proficiency in the language. It can be very difficult when my young students start to speak full sentences in Spanish, and I can barely pick out a few words. I wish I could attempt to bridge that gap but with my students being 3/4 years old, it is so complex to use two languages.
ReplyDeleteHi Taryn, I really like how you connected this reading to the clinical with inspiring minds, it was really upsetting to understand that the dynamic of his household changed because they weren’t understanding each other as much, it must have been hard for him to go through. Great post by the way!
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