In her article "Digital Designs English Language Learners and Readers Review in online fiction" Rebecca aims to bridge the gap between school-based literacy practices and student interest. Student disinterest has become a wide spread issue for teachers in the 21st century. Teachers are now being provided ways to keep students focused and engage their interest while simultaneously instilling academic values. Black 's article and research adds a new perspective to this old conversation. Black focuses on English Language Learners. The topic reminds me of a story I've told often since it has happened. After sitting in an ESL class one period where the students needed constant reinforcement and direction, I witnessed one of the students from the class in a car blasting the newest rap song! Loudly he yelled "Nothing can stop me I'm all the way up!" no reinforcement was needed, no need to repeat the directions. This occurrence showed me that with or without the teacher, students are learning. This article can be very useful in helping teachers combine interest with learning. By spending time with my students I've learned that Ashely loves blogs, Jamil has watched every movie ever and loves to share his opinions on them, and that Malik is a huge 90's rap fan and can tell you more about these rappers than their own parents can. Having these students write about what is of intrest to them while teaching them and helping them come up with different ways to express these ideas would be a feel good moment for I'm sure not just me but any teacher.
In the second article, I was introduced to a new term : Translanguaging.Translanguaging means allowing our students to use their home languages actively in the classroom. If I am to be honest once I was finally able to wrap my mind around what this meant (it was a bit confusing at first) my initial reaction was " that would mean a lot of chaos in the classroom". But once thinking about it I figured anything done with structure in the classroom has the potential to succeed. I've always been an advocate of culturally responsive teaching, in that I do believe that students should be able to celebrate and be proud of their culture in the classroom. But oddly enough, I completely disregarded language as a part of culture. Students cannot truly incorporate their cultures into their learning if they completely put aside their home languages. Translanguaing can be done in multiple ways in the classroom. One example is allowing students to take notes in whatever language they speak. Which to be honest I've been doing for awhile now. For example in history class I use slang to define the larger words I may not understand. I tell my own version of historical happenings. In this way students can have an emotional attachment to what they are learning.
Another way of incorporating trans language in to the class is by assigning projects where students explore, investigate and share with the class their languages. To be honest I've never heard or even thought of such idea as translanguaging. And I am sure a lot of fear goes into teachers hearts when they first hear of it. Language holds a sense of power. And who ever is outside of the language being spoken feels as though, they hold no power. Though it may seem scary, power in any classroom should be shared and balanced. I hope that students will take the opportunity and ability to write in their home languages seriously. Because often kids test boundaries and play jokes and games and say mean or inappropriate things in their language where the teacher will not be able to pick up on, it just what adolescences do ( even some adults do it). But as I mentioned earlier, anything with structure has the potential to succeed. Once I was able to grasp the concept I realized translanguaging in the classroom has the potential to be a beautiful thing
No comments:
Post a Comment