Teaching Multilingual Children by Virginia Collier

I wanted to talk about Colliers article mainly because I am now seeing and dealing with issues that she brings up.  The article starts off by say how it is difficult to try and teach kids that do not speak english enough english so that they are able to comprehend and succeed in their class.  This is very difficult to do especially if you don't speak their langue. Right now the second grade class that I have been helping out in five of the kids do not speak a word of english, and as for the teacher she is slowly learning how to speak spanish to try and communicate with them. So now she has less then a year to try and understand spanish, and then try to get the kids to learn english.  I did not realize how difficult it was going to be to teach these kids that did not speak english until she had me work with three of the kids.
I do not know how to speak spanish and having to try and work with these kids I felt over whelmed.  They could not understand what i was saying and tried to ask me questions in spanish but I could not understand them.  After trying to use blocks and drawing pictures to get them to understand the kids became restless and gave up all together. Luckily the teacher brought the kids back into the big group shortly after.
The article then goes on to talk about seven guidelines in teaching kids english as a second language.  One of the guidelines to use is "to not teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language." I strongly believe that this is very true mainly because a teacher should not try and get rid of a persons culture or language but to simply just help the student into understanding how to succeed and learn the most affective way.


Reading this article to me seems like it is going to be a big help not only to me but to other people in the class that have to work with kids that do not speak english.  the next time I go to work with my second grade students I will use some of the guidelines that Collier talked about to see if it helps with working with these kids. Who knows maybe I will even be able to get these kids to help me learn spanish this way I can help them out even more by being able to talk to them in their first language.

White Privilege by Peggy Mcintosh

After reading "White Privilege" by Peggy Mcintosh I have realized that this reading continues with the previous articles we have read in class.  So far all the articles we have read have had to do with race and realizing how not everyone is the same.   I wanted to first start off by relating this article to Lisa Delpit's article "Other People's Children." In both articles the authors bring up white privileges and the fact that white males have the power. They both believe that white males hold the power in the society that we live in and believe that changes need to come in order for other race, or gender to go further in society.  In my eyes Mcintosh does a better job explaining and dealing with this issue over Delpit and does it all in a not so aggressive way.
"Privilege, Power and Difference" by Johnson is also a good article we have read that connects to what Mcintosh is talking about. Both of them want to get the message across that gender, race, and sexuality are big factors in our everyday life.  No matter where we go you can see types of racism happing.  Both authors also want us to take a step back and look to see whats going on.  They want to makes us realize we can be part of the solution as long as we start to stick up for other genders, sexuality, and race.

After reading Mcintosh's article I realized more and more people believe that white males are in control of society and anyone that is different does not get treated the same. At first after reading Delpits article I thought it was just a few people that believed this and expressed it in a very poor and aggressive way, but after reading Mcintosh's article I have realized it is more people then I thought. This has now got me paying more attention to the way other people are treated and how much it is still really going on.  Just hanging around campus you can see how different students react to different things and how it is not fair for some people to be treated the way they are. I have now made it a goal to step in and stick up for different people if they are being treated badly, and hopefully can help in making a difference in the world we will in.

Introduction

Hello my name is Christopher De Tora this is my fourth year at Rhode Island College and I have finally found a major that I like, Health and Physical Education.  Im currently employed at Stop and Shop and enjoy playing any sport when I have the free time. Right now I live at home with my Dad, Mom, Brother, and two Dogs.  Also I am a huge Yankee fan and can not wait to see them win again this year.