About me!

Hi, my name is Kali. I am a sophmore at Rhode Island College. I play lacrosse and I work at an ice cream shop. I also have a huge family and I want to be an elementary special education teacher.

Prompt 6 theorist: Vygotsky

Teachers should be sensitive to the students language issues. By being sensitive and taking time to help students become more fluent with the English barrier students will learn the language better. In my classroom the teacher is very sensitive to the students needs. She understands that not everyone speaks English at home. Although I have not heard any accents from the students when speaking, I think she might have because she gives verbal reading assessments. When I asked her about the assessments she told me she doesn't grade based on the way the say something she grades based on their knowledge of the subject. She seems very kind and understanding to their language barriers. She also understands that these students come from low income families. She realizes that they can't always afford to buy the materials needed for class. She goes out and buys them for her students. She gives them pencils, folders, and any other material she may need. They end up costing her a lot of money. She also understands that these students have a different background then her. They have different values at home which come out in the classroom. At home homework isn't valued so the teacher has to work twice as hard to make students participate in classwork in school. She also has to work to make a good class culture that values participation, hard work, and finishing classwork. The teacher and the students need to interact with each other and become partners in learning. They need to develop relationships with each other to see what the other person values.
Vygotsky believes in two different planes for learning. He believes learning is first social then become psychological. If the student and teacher are interacting with each other to become partners in learning and coming up with shared values they will take these values and internalizing them. These students will have a better chance of learning and become active parts of the classroom. They will have shared values and help each other learn. I hope this is the type of classroom I have, one where the students and I both participate in creating values and the course syllabus. These are part of the ideas Vygotsky discussed in his article. Although his article was with children with disabilities it also applies to children without disabilities. Every child needs these two planes to help learn. They need to start learning with social situations and then it becomes part of the psychological learning.

Prompt 5 theoritst: Goldenburg

I believe one problem I would have with teaching this classroom would be with the parents. The parents are mostly English Language Learners and some don't speak English. Having parent teacher confrences would be hard. I would have to have a translator or the child present to translate what I am saying so the parent would understand. The problem with the student translating is whether they are translating what you are actually saying. The other problem I would have with these parent in this classroom would be whether the parents show up or not to parent teacher confrences. By talking to the teacher I found that most of the parents are not involved in the classroom or their childrens learning. This would be an issue for me because I want to be a teacher where I am constantly involving the parents so they can see what is going on in the classroom and can be an active member in it. The parents right now are not active memebers. Most of these students do not get their homework done and are struggling to read because the parents are not helping at home. One girl didn't even go to school for a week because it interfered with her moms schedule. This would be a big problem for me. I would want parents to be not only bringing their children to school daily I would also want them to volunteer in the classroom and other activites for the school.
I related these ideas to Goldenburg. Goldenburg explains about English Language Learners and how it is important to teach in both languages. I want to be a teacher that can help students and parents learn in both English and their native language. I want to incoperate their native language into their learning. I think that by involving the parents into their education you can also involve their native language. With bringing their parents in they can learn in both languages. Eventually you can learn more in English then in the native language at school and these students will do just as well as students who speak only English or English as a first language. This is Goldenburg's main pionts in his article. He discusses learning in both languages and I agree with him. Both languages should be taught in classrooms. I think it would be a great way to solve the problem of parents being involved. They would want to be in classroom and helping if they knew that their accent and language would be accepted.

Prompt 4 theorist: Delpit

When I went to elementary school there was almost no diversity. Everyone including teachers were middle class and white. I believe I was one of the few students who got reduced lunch until 3rd grade. My mom was going to school still and couldn't afford the things other kids in our school could. My mom was also one of the only single parents. I felt like I was one of the only students who was getting free lunches and had a single parent. So going into this classroom I felt like my personnel history could relate to the students now. Not only does my past elementary background relate to them but also my family now relates to these kids. My family consists of many different minorities. My seven younger brothers and sisters were all adopted from foster care. So I can see how the type of family background these kids are coming from. They are all relieving reduced lunch like I was and they also are coming from poverty. I did not have the extreme poverty they had but my family was not as well off as the other students in my school. I think I would have many advantages to teaching in a classroom like this. I can see where these students and parents are coming from and also be able to hopefully help them. I can picture myself teaching in a low income school when I graduate. I would love to help these students and let them know I can relate to the same issues they are going through. I was a little surprised that there was not one white student in these classrooms. I thought there would be at least a few. I know most white students are considered middle class but the fact that there was not one in this classroom still shocked me.
This classroom proves Delpit's theories of power to be correct. Delpit's five theories state:

• that there are issues of power in classrooms
• there are codes or rules for participating in power
• the rules of the culture of power are ta reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power
• if you are not already a participant in the culture of power being told the rules will make it easier to acquire power
• those with power are least likely to realize it or acknowledge it; those without power are most aware of its existence

These codes of power are existing in the classroom. The students and teachers realize it exists because they can see it in different schools. Some of the public school get new material every year and have new computers and equipment where these students do not get any. If their parents grew up knowing the codes of power they might not have been in this poverty stricken neighborhood.

Prompt 3 Theorist: Johnson

As a teacher you should be able to arrange your assessments to fit the needs of a student, whether it be for their linguistic, ethnic, or sociocultural needs. Every student has different needs and to help them get the best education possible, a teacher should arrange their syllabus and assessments to help students reach these needs. The teacher I am tutoring for is somewhat sensitive to these needs. She understands that some students come from a background where their parents are not helping their children learn. I have not actually seen her give tests but I have seen all the students tests hung on the wall. She hangs them all up and there are only three so I am not sure if she has only given three tests all year long. I'm not sure how she judges linguistically. Most students in the classroom have a good vocabulary and do not really have an accent. A few times I've heard her correct students for the "street" language they use. For example, a student will say I ain't going to do that, the teacher corrects them and says you are not going to do that. This is the only linguistic problems in this classroom. Almost all of the students in this school either qualify or are receiving reduced lunch so they all come from the same poverty background. Which means they all have the same types of sociocultural needs. The teacher provides the students with crayons, pens, pencils, erasers, and anything else they may need. She is also somewhat sensitive to their ethnic needs. She realizes that each of these students have different cultures and practice different things at home. She knows that not all these students speak English and may have a hard time receiving help from their parents. I think she assess students according to this. When I was in the classroom she had me sit one-on-one with a student and help them with retells. The little girl I was helping didn't understand how to summarize the story she read back to someone. I help her each time I am in the classroom and the teacher does not grade her the same as everyone else because she understands that at home she isn't getting any help. The only time she gets help is when a tutor comes in and sits with her.
If Johnson were to go into this elementary classroom he would see how alive and well the diversity problem is. He would also see how the poverty is all segregated. Almost all of these students are minorities. This is the problem he sees in the world today. He would like that the teacher is sensitive to the needs of the children but he would also think more needs to be done. This school is a classic example of residential segregation Johnson talks about in his articles. He believes that it is still the rule in the U.S. It is true because these schools are based on where you live you can see that this neighborhood is based on minorities. Johnson would be happy about how the teacher realized the segregation but because she doesn't do anything about it, he would believe she is participating in it.

Prompt 2 Theorist: Kozol

Most of the students in this classroom come from the same type of background. They are all from poverty stricken families. These students don not have enough money to buy the materials they need for school. The teacher provides most of the materials. Using the info works website, I was able to find that ninety three percent of the students in this school qualify and are receiving free or reduced lunch. This just shows that most of these kids are in poverty households. A few students are speaking English as their second language. They do not speak English at home, so it is difficult to transition from their language at home to school everyday. According to info works there are no students receiving ESL services. This does not make sense because quiet a few kids told me they do not speak English at home .These students should be getting some kind of help in this area. Some of these parents do not speak any English so they cannot help their child with schoolwork and reading. In this classroom, all students are Asian, African American, or Hispanic. Each student has a different work ethics and brings a different culture to the class. While I was working with one student he told me that he was going to cook me chao mi fen. I'm not real sure what this is but I think this shows some of his culture, which also helps develop the class culture, Another student I work with read with somewhat of a street accent. It is interesting to hear because he is only in 3rd grade and has one. Some of the students work proficiently and always gets their work done on time, while others need constant reminding of what to do and are always wondering around the class. The teacher brings a whole other culture to the class. She is constantly yelling at the students and I have never noticed her teaching. For all the time I have been there she has never been in front of the class. The culture she brings is discipline.
If Jonathan Kozol was to walk into this classroom, he would not like what he saw. His argument about racial segregation being present in schools would be proven valid here. This school has almost no white children. There is so little on info works that they do not even represent them on any charts. This would be a classroom where Kozol could collect a lot of qualitative research. All of his research is hands on and he would be able to collect a lot of data on racial segregation. He would be able to see how little the funding these schools are receiving. They get a box of twelve crayons for four to five children to share. Kozol wants to close the gap between the spending on rich schools and poor schools. He also wants to close the gap between racial segregation. He believes that by emerging these rich white schools and poor minority schools we could have a better education for all.

Prompt One

The neighborhood around the school isn't very nice. Down the street from the school there was a homeless person asking for money. The school itself doesn't look too bad. The lockers look a little broken but other then that I don't think there is too much wrong with it. Every classroom has a TV and VCR avaliable to the teacher. The classroom I am in is very crowded. It looks like the teacher has saved everything she has ever recieved. It also is very unorganized. She has a hard time finding things. The walls and white boards are covered with different posters and assignments. There are also a lot of papers covering up the counter near the windows. I honeslty am not sure how she finds anything. The students were very friendly and excited to have me in the classroom. They opened up to me easily. They showed me what they were working on and helped me to catch on. They sat in tables not desks so they had a pile of materials in the middle of the table. The teacher told me anything the students used she had to buy out of her own pocket because there wasn't any in the school. I think the teacher likes the students to be independent. I have not really seen her teach the class. She constantly asks the students what are you suppose to be doing. They always have a list of work that they are suppose to do and it seems almost redundent. They do the same papers everytime I'm there except with different problems. Today was my fourth time going to the school but my first time actually working with a certain group of kids. The teacher wasn't sure what I was suppose to be doing. I talked to the literacy coach and she gave me a group of students and different games to play with them. I think the kids in this class listen better then the kids I worked with in a higher class communtiy. It reminds me of the Delpit article. The part were she tells him to get into the bath rather then asking him. Most of them seemed to listen well. There was one student she has sitting directly behind her and facing the white board. I don't agree with this I think she is seperating him too much but I don't know him well enough to say it's wrong. Other then that it seems like a good classroom.