“Aria,” “Teaching Multilingual Children,” and "New Rules Hurt Bilingual Students"

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“Aria,” “Teaching Multilingual Children,” and "New Rules Hurt Bilingual Students" 

First, I read the article about the new rules in Rhode Island that would cut the time that ELL students get to spend in classes with ELL teachers. Instead of requiring 3 periods per day with an ELL teacher, the students would only be required to have 1 period per day, and that is just for beginner ELLs. This proposal would not guarantee that any intermediate or advanced ELLs get any instructional time with an ELL certified teacher. The proposal stipulates that the teachers who have ELL classes need to only confer outside of class with an ELL certified teacher and that that teacher doesn’t even have to meet the students. This is just ridiculous. It was apparently voted on January 30th. I looked up what happened, I guess it passed because now the department of education is being sued.

The next article I read was titled, "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez. I probably should have read this one last, but I still got a lot from it. This story made me pretty sad because the nuns basically caused his family to crumble. They came from a place of power, and while their intent was good (to help the Richard/Ricardo and his siblings learn English) they still imposed their own language on the family, and it turned out to be really oppressive. 

The last article, "Teaching Multilingual Children" was not my favorite article. I felt like it was not so helpful because I do not think I know enough about teaching language. I felt like they were just telling me all of these things that I had to do and I didn't even know where to start and I felt overwhelmed. Some of the stuff seems doable, like allowing students to code-switch and don't teach in a way that eliminates their first language. However, some of the other stuff like being aware of how students acquire a second language at different social, emotional, psychological stages, is so difficult. I basically know nothing about this. Or I know it in the abstract and don't know how to apply it. I think this is where the videos come in. Videos like the one linked, Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One!, I think will be more helpful by showing me actual strategies/methods to use in the classroom. I had 4 newcomers this year, and it was rough, for all of us. I had no idea what to do. There was so much to think about, from making sure they felt welcome, to introducing them to the other students, to make sure that they understand classroom expectations/norms, let alone teaching them content. Also, I had to keep in mind that even though they wanted me to put stuff in Spanish, their native language is Quiche (the e has an accent and I don't know how to put one in here...) and so they only have a level of Spanish up to an elementary school level, so I had to be careful even how I wrote things in Spanish. I really really tried to help them, but I know I am not the most qualified, and I think that is one of the reasons the Department of Education is being sued-because people like me are teaching newcomers in a regular ed class. 

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