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1. As you look at Table 1.1, try to answer as many of the questions as you can regarding your family traditions. For example, when you think of family, are you thinking about your mother and father and perhaps a sister or brother or are you thinking of hundreds of cousins, uncles, and aunts who get together every year for the holidays? Compare your answers with those of another adult. What are the similarities and differences?
Activities 39Activities 39
2. Take the opportunity to visit a school near you that enrolls newcomer students from other countries. Obtain permission from the principal to visit one of the classrooms. As you observe, try to find out where the students are from and what kinds of special help they are receiving.
Use a checklist containing questions such as:
What language(s) do the students speak? What assistance are they receiving? Is there a para proprofessional who speaks the students’ language(s) or does the teacher use the language? Are there special materials available in the student’s home language? What kind of program would you design for these students to promote language development and content-area learning if you were the teacher?
3. Meet with a teacher who specializes in teaching English as a second language. Ask his or her views about the effects of students’ cultural and prior educational backgrounds on their school performance. What accommodations does the teacher make to help students adjust? What kinds of programs does the teacher consider
best for English learners (ELs) and why? What type of materials or activities have the teacher used with success with ELs?
4. Talk with a child who is learning English as a non-native language. Ask what it is like to learn English in school; themost challengingt part is; what has been fun if anything; and how long it has taken so far. Ask the student to tell you what program, materials, and activities seem to work best for her or him.
5. In a group, read sections of the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) that relate most to your content area or grade level. Do the statements concerning the Standards make sense?
How will you teach them? Do they make sense in terms of teaching ELs? If so, how will you teach ELs at beginning levels, intermediate levels, or advanced levels?
6. Begin an informal study of an ethnic group that you would like to know more about. Begin charting information about the group by listing and noting specific information from Table 1.1, such as family structures, life cycles, roles of men and women in the culture, discipline structures, religion, values, and the like. In addition, after you’ve gathered descriptive information, look for literature to read by members of that
group to get a sense of the culture from an in side view.
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