Blog #8 "Aria" and Observations

 “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.