I believe this is a must to read book before teaching in Hispanic classroom. In my case, I never have any opportunity to know, learn or interact with Hispanic, Latinos or Latinas cultures, so this will provide a pre schematic knowledge on them. I believe it will enrich my perspectives as an educator. As I reflect back to a question asked by Dr Stoney to me by asking me what does it mean to be Malay, so I believe as an educator, I have to put pure and conscious efforts not just to critically checking my beliefs on other cultures but at the same time reform and change erroneous and prejudice beliefs towards everybody especially to students.

Actually it emphasize on preparation to be teacher in diversified classroom. In Malaysia, I don’t have Hispanic students, but the strategy provided here will be good guidelines, on how should I prepare to teach my students whose have different backgrounds and understanding. Furthermore, I am a diamond cutter. Thus, it is my job to dig for them and polish them. The reform must be erupted now and then, and I don’t have to wait. It is in Malaysia’s National Education Philosophy a long time ago. Rigorous action needs to be implemented.

This book is about a belief that through education, teachers will be able to turn the history of diversity and multiculturalism in United States to be a success story. It puts emphasis on teachers. Teachers as agents, selling knowledge and students as clients, receiving education. Our target is to reap benefits from this long term investment. We want to make a successful deal. Education is supposed to be a win win situation deal: towards a betterment of our society. It means every one of us can live effectively and respectfully in a cultural diverse society. Also, the writers challenged their notions and assumptions that teachers are perfectly prepared and happy, ready and caring when it comes to educating their students regardless of their background. After finishing this book, the answers for their assumptions are answered by finding out about guidance and strategies provided. Thanks to the writers because putting me into realization that to reap the benefit of this business deal is a long way to go.

I can say that because I did try to answer Question Number 3 on Beliefs about Hispanic Students in Chapter Two. It was difficult because at the end I realize all my answers for the questions were either wrong, biased and they are based on movies. The only answer that I had a confidence to answer was related to their language that they use a same Spanish language. Even this is proven wrong when I reflect back to the discussion in a classroom when one of our classmates explained to us that Puerto Rican Spanish is different from Mexicans Spanish. The only correct answer I know is Jennifer Lopez is a Latina!! Shame on me…

They have a long history. When I counted back, it started from 1492 and it goes on until today. They have more than 500 years of history. It means their cultures are rich of many elements. It is complete; they went through many patterns of oppressions but yet did not stay static. Dynamically they fought to embrace, tasting the meaning of freedom and equality. It means also, they have similar basic needs as human. Yet I wonder what makes them being perceived as difficult in classrooms? Does it show that when teachers always perceive themselves as bearer of equality and justice yet when realizing that in fact we engage in putting prior negative assumptions about a group of students, this lead us to state of denial? As a result of this we put the blame on the failure of bilingual education, not to our own effort of knowing in and out of our students?

I believe as nations that have long history and enriched with many diverse elements within it, they are indeed unique. I soon realized about it when realizing they came from different places such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba and etc. I wonder what will happen to me if I address a Puerto Rican as Mexican realizing that they are a part of U.S territory for about 100 years. They are American citizens. This means they have unique status compared to other arrivals. It goes the same with Cuban American that came here running away from communist system. They were well educated mostly asking for political asylum. Their mentality would be different. Indeed I find that diversity is not necessarily between different groups but it can happen within intergroup as well. Enough to say, Mejicanos, Tejanos, Chicanos reflect how diverse and unique they are because those words bring different meaning.¹

The book focus on Hispanic students, it helps you theoretically to create a mental image of how a Hispanic student would look like/be. It starts from demographics data, reflections of our (majority) beliefs about them (in chapter 2), teaching Hispanic students, understanding Hispanic families (in chapter 3). It is complete. I believe this is crucial because the authors actually are trying to tell readers (teachers especially) to know students as a whole. Knowing name, address and grade is as important as understanding and knowing their history and culture. It also helps us by letting us know what to do and to avoid when it comes to practice later on. This notion is obvious when the writers provide Resource Heaven for readers because you can extent your research and knowledge about them by using the books, fictions and research provided inside this chapter.

Other thing that I like about this book is when the authors provide their own experiences into Authors’ Notes. I value their efforts because basically they are providing hands on applications because teaching Hispanic students was an alien concept to me. Further more, this puts facts and theories discussed in this book in an imaginable context thus lead to understanding. Most of them are related to chapters discussed. As an example, Mary Lou Fuller in Chapter 7, which discuss about Hispanic Families gave a good tip to prepare/bring cookies for the students whenever they are being visited at home. This will be identified and celebrated as concerning effort from a teacher to the students by Hispanic parents. Building this bridge will smoothen the process of knowing and understanding them, and as teachers for Hispanic group, it is important for teachers to initiate first the steps.

As I mentioned before, this book will be a strong base of my next plan. It provides frameworks for my future task as an English teacher and at the same time multiculturalists when I go back home. I don’t have any intention to stay firm following exactly as the way it is in Malaysia now. It does not work for unity when the system supports racism. As we build up/contribute to pollution, we too help building up racism if we don’t put an end to it. All of us have shares and that’s why, there must be a strong reform. Furthermore, I realize equality and freedom is the basic human needs, and I will have supporters. “It is important for us teachers, those who understand to put a stop to racism”. I do realize as well, there will be antagonists that will strain upon my way. They might inflict pain upon me but that does not worry me much. I have read how Martin Luther King and El Hajj El Malik Shabazz² were killed; I have seen what Apartheid did to Nelson Mandela. Physically they were incarcerated, but their struggles and souls fly upon to the heart of alive human. No force can stop them.

The writers focus on education to change and up heave the Hispanic community. Education can only work if it is conveyed successfully to the target groups. In order to achieve that, the language barrier must be broken down by improving bilingual education. In bilingual education, we appreciate the culture of our students. Appreciating culture of others and not denying their existence is cores to ensure unity. It is like killing two birds with a stone. Hispanic students wont be lag behind, their identity wont be jeopardized and at the same time they learn other subjects. This idea is very beautiful. When I reflect back of my experiences in Malaysia, I realize among the many reasons Chinese or Indian parents send their kids to Chinese and Tamil vernacular school because they don’t want their offspring to be “Malaynalized”. I remembered when I was 10 years old in Standard Four, most of the stories in our National Language Text books, told about Malay fairytales, Malay warriors, Malay legends, and I did know about Na Zha³ and the flying wheel of fire from comic books instead from “National” text books. I guess no efforts were being made to translate Chinese or Indian fairytales. It is an obvious example of how students’ cultures are not celebrated and welcomed.

I like Chapter 5 the most. This semester I am taking ESL Bilingual Education, as what I am being taught in the subject, it is important to have accurate assessment to ensure academic success. It is interesting to note here that our bilingual students might use two languages at one time but most of the time, there will be only one dominant language within them. It means proficiency is very much dependent on the language that they are familiar with. In order to ensure success for Hispanic students, the assessments made by school personnel must be exact. This is to avoid them to be replaced in a classroom where they can speak English but do not understand most of the lessons because their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency is not on par with Native American English speakers. This is to ensure they are not left behind or being felt to be left behind because of their language inadequacy. Also, accurate assessment must examine all aspects of students to ensure it is adequate. Among the criteria that need to be taken seriously are Performance based assessments, observation by focusing on language used to interact with peers and not to forget the demographic of the students because it will determine the percentage of English language used. For example, Hispanic students who come from highly populated white area will have better English commands due to more interaction with Native American English speakers.

It is interesting as well when the writers mention that we can’t force them to perform in any language that they use in order to accurately assess them. In fact, teachers must provide opportunities for them to listen, speak, read and write in both languages. Teachers’ job is to listen and observe attentively to ensure accurate assessment. From the careful and accurate observations, then the teacher can determine either his/her students are dominant in Spanish or not, needs to work more on English vocabulary and etc. Most importantly, labeling them as slow, or any derogative remark is out of teaching ethics because it is lethal. It means, as teachers, students’ limited abilities to express themselves should not be a wall for us to not encourage them to use languages that they prefer. What we can do is to always encourage (without putting coercion) so that it will help them to low their affective filter.

There is no unique formula to teach Hispanic Students but there are ways to help us at least to build basic understanding of who they are. This will be the first step towards the success. The ways are closely integrated ranging from families (as their cultures are family and group oriented), economics, communities and cultural background. As teacher, it is wrong to be eccentric and denying the existence of our students culture. The actions will lead to miscommunication, ethnocentric judgments. It will shove away Hispanic students from us. In order to avoid that, teachers need to have concrete knowledge of particular culture in order to develop understanding of particular cultural group. Lacking concrete knowledge of Hispanic culture will lead to misinterpretation and assumptions. As a teacher, I don’t want that to happen because misinterpretation and assumptions are basically the key factor to denying the existence of particular cultural group.

There are factors that propagate the growth of Hispanics’ students learning. Firstly, teacher can provide education that fulfills the needs of them. This can be done by giving them access to opportunities and resources. For example, if they need more time to develop their CALP⁴, it should be taken seriously and granted as this will ensure their academic success. In this case, we must always remember the fact that teachers are nurturers. Secondly, avoiding stereotyping is a must as it can lead to teachers ignoring the fact that Hispanic cultures are rich in diversities. Also, teacher must have teaching strategies that related to the needs of Hispanic students. Among the strategies are:

a) Focusing the lessons on group rather than individual. Teacher must as well create a cooperative atmosphere in the classroom. This is a must for them because they have a strong sense of community. This can be done by having group problem solving, discussion in groups and etc. Due to this matter, it is wrong to punish them in public, this will devalue their pride.

b) Lessons must be highly informal too, ingrained with family-like atmosphere. I believe, eating together (with class members) by everybody participating in bringing food is one of the good methods to develop relationship and knowing each other better.

c) Having Hispanic Family Day or Hispanic Open House at school where Hispanic parents are invited to school. They can come to school for the sake of visiting without worrying about have to meet teachers discussing about their kids performance at school. It is a way to show hospitality of school administration where Hispanic Parents will be invited to have lunch or dinners (Hispanic food are prepared of course) with their kids’ respective teachers. This should be a yearly event where all of school communities anticipate in it. Hopefully this event will be catalysts for them (parent and teachers) to interact more in the future related to students’ achievement and improvement.

d) Teachers or school administration can develop social networking to promote assimilation and diversity. I get this idea from International Buddies program offered by Kansas State University. We can change it into Hispanic Buddies program so that it will give opportunity for Hispanic students in their transition and assimilation process. This program will be free. It is targeted so that it will improve their English skills. It can also provide free tutoring to the Hispanic students. They can meet an hour per week to discuss, do activities together.

Actually I am impressed when reading Fuller’s Author’s Note in page 102 whereby she instructed her preservice teachers to have significant relationship with Hispanic parents. This program managed to change perspective of her preservice white, middle class teachers. From their responses, Hispanic cultures are beautiful because they respect and value the teachers generally and emphasis on cleanliness which is as same as theirs. This is another great strategy to enhance cultural understanding between two different groups.

I believe Jones and Fuller are not just writers but they are practitioners of bilingual education. They put into practice whatever that they believe and write. I notice the theories, methodologies and applications in this book are deep seated and well matched the CEEE Guiding Principles (Center for Equity and Excellence in Education.) Each Hispanic student is unique (due to the fact that they are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students or CLD), so any instruction should be build on their previous education and thus should not be neglected. They are welcomed, accepted and valued as they way they are. In order to fulfill the notions above, teacher must understand and apply the concepts, theories, research to that appropriate to them to help to learn in and out of classroom setting. It is a must for teachers to create a motivating learning environment and at the same time know and understand the variability of his/her students in learning academic subjects.

I do believe that the writers of this book try to combat negative views such as Hispanic students will be in failure category, left behind, hopelessness of any appropriate educational helps and risk of academic failure. I feel this happen not because of racism that entrenched within us but our failure to provide enough and good training on differential learning strategies and development of Hispanic group. In Malaysia, for those who major in education and plan to be teachers, Multicultural Education is not a core subject, it is just an elective, and thus it is not compulsory. I hope it will be made a compulsory subject for teachers to have it before they go to school teaching students. Hopefully, it will help to improve teachers’ attitudes towards racial and ethnic minorities. This is among the reformation process that I will do if I become a Malaysia Education policy maker one day. Wish me luck!!

As conclusion, both of the writers do a great job to instill cultural awareness in me. I am greatly indebted to them. In fact, their points of view must be and should be frameworks before we embrace Hispanic students.

I would like to end my reflective responses to this book by quoting Sonia Nieto’s statement which is available in page 29, “a constellation of attitudes, behaviors, behaviors, and structures and a mismatch between home and school expectations all work together to produce success or failure.”⁵

References:

1. A CQ Press College Division Publication. (2002) One Name, Many Communities:

Issues In Race, Ethnicity and Gender, Selections from The CW Researcher. CQ Press

174.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X ( retrieved 10/6/2008)

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nezha_(deity) (retrieved 10/6/2008)

4. Herrera S. G, Murry K.G,.(2005) Mastering ESL and Bilingual Methods. Pearson

Education Inc. 9

5. Nieto,S (1992). Affirming diversity. New York: Longman

]]> http://leadhumancapital.com/2008/10/teaching-hispanic-students-required-reading-response/feed/ 0 http://leadhumancapital.com/2008/09/reflective-journal/ http://leadhumancapital.com/2008/09/reflective-journal/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:18:12 +0000 admin http://leadhumancapital.com/?p=140 Event/Behavior:

My students failed reading test badly. The test is based on reading passage that I explained and taught them during class. Half of the class got 25%. Highest scorer was 45%. The test was based on article about Maze Tour in USA. I took it from SAT English sample. When I marked their paper, most of them did not answer questions, they left the paper blank except for some common sense questions. Before they handed in their test paper, I stressed to them that their final exam questions level of difficulty will be like what I provided them today.

Feelings:

• Frustrated
• Angry
• Ashamed

Thoughts:

I had a discussion with my colleague, a Geography teacher about insufficient general knowledge among students have, including this particular class. Since I am coming to United States soon, I thought it would be a great idea having them reading on Maze Tour in United States. This would be additional information for their general knowledge. It also will help to expand their perspectives on various interesting places in the world.

Also, I thought my students would feel bad and worried because they could not answer the questions. I thought that it was really bad of me because I don’t prepare their background schemata on the subject matter (Maze Tour in USA). I thought they must be afraid and stressful to sit for their English final paper soon. They must be terrified of my class in the future because I did sudden “pop quiz” to them.

Learnings:

Step One:

I assume all materials are okay to be used in classes as long as they are in English, and academic/subject related. (Geography, History and etc)
I assume students always ready to understand any kind of materials without considering their background schemata.
I assume students would like to read and learn what I like (in this case, I chose the article because I am coming here soon)
I assume students always ready to sit for any test.
I assume my teaching and instruction is clear.

Step Two:

It is my mistake to assume that students always ready to sit for any test. I should give them time to digest everything that I taught them on that day. It is not even valid because when I reflect back, I did not really know what I want to measure from that test. Is it their understanding, main idea from the passage? Furthermore I took the materials (reading passage and test questions) from SAT booklet. It is not culturally related to them, and Maze Tour in USA must be an alien concept to them because we don’t even have that in Malaysia. Basically, they don’t have any previous knowledge about this topic. Shame on me!!

Again, I put them on my shoes. My mistake is assuming my students are ready to learn any kind of materials that I bring to the classroom. This is actually putting students’ motivation and perceptions into risks. The materials may not suit them well due to the differences in their abilities and the materials are indeed difficult to them. I was wrong by putting them on my par. In this case, I use an approach called “myself centered” not student centered because what really mind to me when choosing the article was the excitation of coming to USA. I was selfish and did not care what my students need.

It is my grave mistake to assume my instruction and teaching was really good. They were not asking any questions to me. Being quiet is not always good. As a teacher, you have to suspect something is wrong when the silent is unusual. It is a sign of lack understanding. They just kept quiet when I explained to them because this is something new to them. They need time to process this new information. I just was neglecting the silence by explaining more and more. The time bomb exploded during the test. It reveals lots of my mistakes. I supposedly interacting with them and putting them into group so that I could see their interactions among them. Through their interactions in the group, I can see how far their understandings are. Sadly, I rushed them into pop quiz. I guess having a ticket out of asking what they understand from my everyday lesson is a good way of knowing their understanding and my teaching performance.

Step Three:

The idea of studying at United States was overwhelming to me since I was a teenager. I had the opportunity of having some friends studying abroad under scholarships. I requested them to send lots of beautiful landscapes pictures. I really admire them for having the opportunity to feel the enchanting experiences of other new places. This feeling lead me to search more about those pictures that they sent me, thus give me exposure to new ideas and vocabularies from it. On the other hand, my students might not have friends who study abroad like what I have, so their interests won’t be same like me. They might have different views on travelling.

My students are unique. They have different world that much more different but I believe interesting enough to explore. I hope I can explore on their individual preferred interests/hobbies. This will open up limitless possibilities of topics such as electronic, gaming and etc. in classroom lessons and discussions that I can use.

Application:

Step One:

I read today that students play an active role in construction of meaning by teacher assisting them in creating an environment of meaningful, context based contexts.1 Based on this, I should consider preparing lesson that not just related to language and content but at the same time celebrate their culture. This includes developing their background schemata as well.

Schemata are important for understanding. They are backbones, because when students read any texts, their brain will connect the text information to related knowledge and experience that are familiar to them.2In this case, the text is unbearable and difficult for them because of many reasons. Firstly, it is a SAT comprehension reading exercise, it is not their level and most of the words inside do not belong to their schemata. Thus, it does not fit their understanding. Secondly, they have never seen maze before. It means they can’t relate to their existing knowledge. They might have seen it before in television but still, it does not really build the concept/understanding of what maze is. It might be about something else such as agronomy of corn rather really focuses on Maze Tour in USA.

According to Jeff Zwiers (2004), teacher can connect the text information to students’ schemata by focusing on visualization technique. It is to create mental images and associations so that students can adapt their understanding to the text given.3 In my case, I should introduce to them what is maze by providing pictures first. A documentary video viewing session on the topic should be helpful too. These I believe will help to create vivid mental images that can assist understanding of the text.

Step Two:

I will focus on knowing inside out of my students. Students are uncut diamonds.4A good diamond cutter will examine every angle of it to produce the best glimmering diamonds. When they keep their mouth shuts over something that they do not understand (i.e. my lessons), it means I created a gap. This gap might be due to my being excessive self centered by providing materials that matters to me and neglecting theirs. I am selfish.

I will also consider what kind of materials to be used in class. I can’t be too ambitious. Difficult test questions, SAT or GRE might have list of powerful vocabularies list but they are not necessarily good for my students.

When I was at college, I hate sudden pop quiz. Usually it is based on my memory retention ability rather than understanding. The main reason is I was not prepared. By giving them the quiz, it leads to no where. I should have told them and have my objectives fixed. Furthermore, comprehension takes time to develop. In this case, I repeat again the vicious cycle introduced by previous teacher.

In conclusion, providing meaningful learning experience is fundamental to my teaching. I must not neglect that. This can be achieved if my students understand my lessons and teaching. I believe this can be achieved by putting variance strategies into practices. I hope I won’t neglect this in the future.

References:

Herrera S.G.,Murry K.G,(2005) Mastering ESL and Bilingual Methods: Differentiated Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students. Pearson Education, Inc.,(pg 216-217)

Zwiers J. (2004) Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12: A Toolkit of Classroom Activities. International Reading Assoc. (pg 54)

Ibid,(pg.56)

Jones T.G.,Fuller M.L (2003) Teaching Hispanic Children. Pearson Education Inc. (Preface), xi. It is taken from a Hispanic mother talking about Hispanic students in Arizona, “Our children are worth a little care..they are uncut diamonds, but no one wants to bother to dig from them and polish them”

In today’s world, much is spoken about what a real man is or isn’t. Perhaps a man is one who can be a father. Obviously, every fertile male can become a father- in the physical sense. But it is the transformation of males into men that are capable of fulfilling their role in this life that we need to focus on because becoming a man is a process that many males never complete.

A vast majority of boys enter a second childhood instead of manhood and many more fail to recognize what their purpose in life is. Others are slow to figure out what it takes to become a contributing member of society. They fall short of understanding what it means to be a father and thus a man. Some realize what food fatherhood requires but lack the necessary tools- patience, resolve, commitment and diligence.

This is much true, we mind of our “physical need” (shame on us, (men, fathers) more than anything else) than the need to be well prepared emotionally starting on the first day of tying the knot ( read Arabic nikah, English marriage). Later on, the bad impacts (consequences) will be on our off springs. This deficiency must be avoided to stop this vicious circle, i.e an abusive father will harbor an abusive son and this same abusive son will be an abusive daddy 25 years in the future. Nauzubillah.( read English May Allah stay us away from this calamity). Even I am not!!

Someone might ask what and how to determine that you are ready emotionally? Well, I admit this is difficult question to answer because no one knows better than your own self. If you have this kind of questions before getting married, I think that’s good enough because you will be searching for answers for those questions insha Allah later on. The questions are:

My greatest fear as teenager was that I wouldn’t be a good as father as he had been to me. I feared I wouldn’t have the financial ability to support a family. I feared I wouldn’t have the resolve and patience. I feared I wouldn’t have the commitment and diligence that he had. I feared I wouldn’t grow into a man.

These are the checklist (questions) for those who said they are ready to be fathers. 

Are you comfortable and satisfied with the way you provide for your family?

What kind of man do you think you are? Compare yourself to your father.

Do you think you can be a better father than him?

Are you a person your children will be proud of?

Do you feel you can be a man whose children and wife trust in him, respect him, love to be around him and are ready to support him?

These might initiate something positives in soon to be your perfumed garden, insha Allah amen:

“Fathers should revive what fathers used commonly to be for their families: protectors from harm and sources for security and satisfaction.”

“real men have a sense of pride and yearn to provide as best they can for their families- as a result, these men tend to have children who are also proud-pleased with their fathers and appreciative of the hard work their fathers put in while they themselves were growing up”

“I pray the day comes when Muslim men stop thinking about multiple marriages when they can barely take care of one. Men who have not yet matured and they come in all ages- view women as objects reserved simply for their service. Are they ignorant of the fact that the notion of qawamah (read English leadership in family) given to them in Islam requires that they be real men- good husbands to their wives and loving fathers to their children.”

p/s: all the quotes are taken from an article which is written by Saleh Ali. I got it from a free Jumuah Magazine at Manhattan Islamic Center,USA.

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