“Aria” by Richard Rodriguez and Observations From my Clinical Placement
Quotes
1.
“Had they been taught (as upper-middle class
children are often taught early) a second language like Spanish or French, they
could have regarded it simply as that: another public language” (Rodriguez p.
34).
This quote reminded me of the Finn
reading where Finn compares the schooling of students in working class, middle
class, affluent professional, and executive elite schools. In the working class
school, students are often not taught another language until middle or high
school. In the instance that Rodriguez is talking about, his native language (Spanish)
was not considered a public language and he was obligated to speak English in
school from a young age. I know people who attended private schools or public
schools in wealthy neighborhoods, and they were taught a second language
beginning in kindergarten or first grade. Those people continued to learn the
language for the remainder of their k-12 schooling and exited school essentially
bilingual. This language learning was encouraged and expected of them at these schools,
but for the author “as a socially disadvantaged child,” his Spanish was not
encouraged and was kept private/at home.
2.
“Following
the dramatic Americanization of their children, even my parents grew more
publicly confident” (Rodriguez p. 36).
I think that this relates to SCWAAMP and the value of
Americanness and what is considered the most American and how this can affect one’s
social standing. For this child, his parents became bigger participants in
their physical community. The author states “my father continued to use the
word gringo. But it was no longer charged with the old bitterness or distrust.”
This families use/strong encouragement of English changed the way that they saw
themselves and others.
3.
“One Saturday morning three nuns arrived at the
house to talk to our parents... ‘Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage
your children to practice their English when they are home?’ Of course, my parents
complied. How could they have questioned the Church’s authority which those
women represented?” (Rodriguez p. 35).
This quote also relates to SCWAAMP and the value of
Christianity. The nuns told this family to have their children speak English at
home instead of Spanish and the parents took that order, as they felt who are they to question
the church.
Observations from my Clinical Placement
My clinical placement is in a first-grade bilingual classroom
at George J. West elementary school. When I arrive each week, the students are working
on spelling. They had each been writing on a whiteboard on the rug and holding
it up for the teacher to see, but over the past couple of weeks they have been
transitioning to writing the words in workbooks and moving from the rug to
their desks. They are working on writing words with -ea, -dge, and the
magic/silent e and they are doing a great job. I go in on Thursdays and I know
that throughout the week they are expected to practice this spelling and
reading at home to prepare for there quiz on Friday. Some of them clearly are
doing this practice at home, but some of them are not and the teacher does call
this out and tells them they will not be prepared for the quiz if they are not working
on it at home. After this the students go back to their seats and the teacher
sees small groups of them to work on reading while the rest of them work on
i-ready. During this time, I work with individual students on reading practice
out of a workbook. They read words, sentences, and a short story. Then I talk
to them a bit about the story and whatever else they want to talk about. For
the most part, the students do very well and don’t even really need to sound out
the words. There is one workbook I use for the students more at grade level and
another one for the students below grade level.
Some of the students have trouble sitting safely on the rug
and paying attention to the lesson. There are two boys and one girl in the class of
17 that have the most trouble. They do not pay attention or participate in the
lesson and then they do not know what they are supposed to be doing next. The teachers
try to get their attention. Besides these instances, the students do not really
have any disruptive behavior during the time that I am there.
When I arrive, the students greet me with “good morning” and
when I leave, they all say thank you, goodbye, and see you next week. Some of
them thank me directly for reading with them and I am sure to thank them for
reading with me because they really are doing a good job, and it is exciting
for them when they can figure out tricky words on their own. Their classroom
has student work hung up on the walls, but there is not much individuality as it
seems that each student completes the same projects. Each student has a third-grade
buddy, and they have drawings of them together (first grader and third grader)
with their names and fun facts hanging on the back wall of the classroom. The
project that they started last week is a research-type project where each student
is working on a different topic and will be using multiple sources to get their
information.
