Prompt #2 and Goldenberg

The linguistic, ethnic and sociocultural characteristics of the students in the classroom which I am tutoring in are characteristics that are very different than what I was surrounded by when I was in elementary school, and even when I was in middle and high school. My observations of the linguistic characteristics which occur in my classroom would revolve around one main point: that many of these students speak another language, predominantly Spanish, and may even speak that language better or more often than English making them English as second language students.


Seeing this dominant trait in the classroom brings to mind Claude Goldenberg and his articles about teaching English language learners. Now, granted my students seem to speak English much better than those students Goldenberg referred to in his writing, there are still areas of comparison. For example, I see the struggle the teacher I work with sometimes goes through because of language, like when we did ‘R’ words and Mike, and obviously Hispanic child, couldn’t help but roll his ‘R’s’. I thought about the school I went to and the school I was in at that moment and it brought to mind when Goldenberg talked about how expectations created by state academic standards are sometimes overwhelming for teachers. After all, how could our states government expect the same results from a school with 22% of ESL learners compared to my elementary school with 4%. The ethnic characteristics go hand in hand, for me, with the sociocultural characteristics of the students in the classroom which I tutor.

Considering the ethnic and sociocultural characteristics, it is fair to say that the students being immense cultural capital or cultural force to the class. There are of course many ways to see where the students are coming from, but my favorite example would be when I was talking with my student Jason who I do a lot of one on one work with. He asked me if I had ever had a Sammy Burger. When I asked him what it was, two other boys overheard our conversation and came running over to tell me how much they loved Sammy burgers. By chance they were all Hispanic children who I knew lived in the same area. It was just interesting how we all lived in the same state, not even 45 minutes apart, yet the differences in our location created differences in other aspects of our lives. But perhaps I am more aware of the cultural capital which the students bring to the classroom because the school which I tutor at is so different than the one which I attended as an elementary student. Depending on the individual who is asked, there are obviously many assets that can be developed that will strengthen our society and democracy.

What I feel is most important is that we being to focus less on our more affluent schools and praising them as it is clear that they do not need our help, and rather on the struggling schools and developing them to the point at which they can start to even be compared to the schools that have been successful and are at the stage where the y should’ve been all along. Our education system seems to focus too much on closing the “gap” between white and minority students, rather than just bringing up failing school to where they should be.