Teaching Multilingual Children

I read the story teaching multilingual children by Virginia Collier. I really loved what she had to say about teaching kids and how to deal with the difficulties of teaching them English without eliminating their own culture and language. There are three statements that really stood out to me in the list of seven:

• statement 3: Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language.

This stood out to me because I couldn't agree more with it. For kids that come to America or that are here and have parents and family that speak in another language at home have a hard time adjusting and it is also a part of who they are. Children will feel most comfortable with the language they speak at home so I believe that the teacher also has a role in understanding the children's language and structure, as well as how it relates to the language they are being taught.

• statement 5: Do not forbid young students from code-switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code-switching serve.
  

I believe that when children are in the classroom they shouldn't have to change who they are and what they speak at home completely. If a child doesn't know how to get something out in English I believe they should feel comfortable talking in another language and being able to figure it out. Code-switching shows how sometimes things can be borrowed from English and incorporated into their own language. The example that Collier uses is: Los muchachos estan punchando la troca. In the example a normal person speaking Spanish would have used the words empujar and comionela for push and truck. The words that they would use are borrowed and sound more familiar with the English words.

• statement 7: Provide a balanced and integrated approach to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

It is important for everyone in the classroom feels comfortable with the listening, speaking, reading and writing. The more you listen and speak at language the more comfortable you can get with it. You just need to make sure the students are saying and writing things the right way so that they are not being taught wrong. All of these statements make me think about my classroom at Young's Elementary school. I have a classroom that is ESL which means that English is the second language speaking at home. The teacher that is in my classroom with me allows the children to speak the other languages that they know. When she is teaching, they all talk in English, but when they are at groups on their own they communicate in other languages. In the classroom that I am in, I heard Spanish, Chinese, and French being spoken. Although they all know how to speak another language they do their best to talk in English. Some kids are better then others at it but it really is nice getting to help them get a sentence out.

White Privilege

Statement 3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

- I believe that this statement is true, but for both African Americans and whites. Most people, regardless of race are able to live in the neighborhoods that they want to without having someone discriminate against them. We used to have problems with African Americans and whites living with each other and being able to stay calm, as time progresses this seems to get better.

Statement 18. I can be sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge" I will be facing a person of my race.

- I would have to disagree with this statement if the way she is stating it is that only whites will usually be in a place of management. Now a days if you look around their are people of all different races in positions of power. For instance you just have to look at the president, things and times are changing and I just have to disagree with this.

Statement 19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

- I agree that whites do have this privilege even if it isn't intentional. Some police officers see a person of a specific race and think that they could have stolen the nice car that they were in. As well as if they did get pulled over for something minor there always seems to be another suspicion of something else wrong going on.

A lot of the things that McIntosh states I would have to agree with. These problems have been around for awhile and will continue to stay the same unless we as a community and society starts to see things differently. I like when McIntosh talks about how she never realized how real all of these privileges actually were before she wrote them all down. I think this couldn't be more true, a lot of times people don't see what is happening in front of them because they are so used to something.
If everyone took the time to stop and think about the privileges that are still unfair and start the change of the world with themselves then we would be able to get somewhere. Before you can talk to other people about what needs to be changed you have to believe in what you are "fighting" for. I think we can relate this back to Johnson and the way that he looks at the world and what he believes we need to do to change it.

Introduction

My name is Jessica Muraski, I just transferred to RIC this fall. I went to Southern Connecticut last year but my twin sister goes to JWU and I thought it would be nice to be closer to her. We got a house on Pembroke and it has been great so far. I love all of my classes this semester, all the teachers seem to be really wonderful so far. I'm really looking forward to the FNED class and what it has to offer us.