Module two: Labels, English Learners, and...More Labels?

MODULE TWO: Labels, English Learners, and… more labels?

CONCEPT ONE: Labels

Summary:

Woolfolk covers a very wide variety of important ideas in chapter four. This chapter discusses the many different types of learners, learning styles, and learning needs of our students. Because every student is so unique, Woolfolk discussing many broad types of students’ needs in the classroom and some ways we, as educators, can best support all of our students. In chapter four, Woolfolk discusses students who are gifted, students who have special educational needs, and the role that IQ scores play in education.

Reflection:

As I read and reflected on this chapter, I thought of all of the labels that we have that surround children each and every day. From the time they are born or enter preschool they are faced with so many labels about who they are, where they fit in with their peers, how intelligent they are, or what “disabilities” they have. It’s exhausting, really?

This chapter discussed the concept and theories of intelligence and the implications of an IQ test. I understand the reasonings for an IQ test. I have taken enough classes with Dr. Rudenga to know how important they are in a student receiving the accommodations and modifications or special services they might need to receive the best education they can. I know that an IQ test is important because it helps determines if a student has a learning disability or an intellectual disability. I know that, generally speaking, knowing where a student falls on the learning curve helps to determine what services, work, and learning will best benefit a individual student.

But I also know how I felt taking that IQ test. I know that sometimes there is so much focus on a students’ academic achievements or flaws that people forget that a student is more than their test score or IQ score or disability or gifts. Bill Ayers, an educational philosopher, discusses in his book To Teach: A Journey in Comics the importance of seeing the “whole child” and how sometimes labels stop us from doing that.

In my own life I have been labelled many different things. As an educator I have seen students labelled many different things and confined to those labels. I think that it is important that we have these “labels” in order to provide the best instruction for all of our students, but I think it is so much more important that we do not focus on those defining labels. Woolfolk reminds us that “Every child is a distinctive collection of talents, abilities, and limitations” (122) and we, as educators, are called to love them and fight for them no matter who they are and because of who they are; disability, IQ, intelligence, and all.

 CONCEPT TWO: Language Learners

Summary:

In chapter five, Woolfolk discusses the importance of language development, language diversity, and immigrant education. In earlier chapters Woolfolk discusses the growing amount of diversity in the United States and how that will be reflected in classrooms. In this chapter she talks about what that diversity will look like in the classroom. Along with language, she discusses the implications of culture in the classroom and how to work with families. Additionally she discusses some considerations when teaching students who’s first language is a language other than English.

Reflection:

In my two years of college so far my major has always been education. I entered college not sure of many things, but certain that I wanted to be a teacher. My minor, however, is a completely different story. In the past two years, I think I have changed my minor three times officially, and probably about seven times mentally. I started with special education. Then I entered college and met a senior who had done so much teaching overseas and loved it. After that I thought ESL minor. Then I was unsure of my ESL minor and ended at Diverse Learners which is really just a combination of the two of them with fewer classes in each. And we’re only halfway done so who knows what will happen in the next two years…

When I started taking my SPED classes, I was ready to give up the ESL part of my minor because SPED classes where so fun. But then I got my first placement. I know I talk about this class a lot (my only other one I was in the class for less than ten hours..) but it apparently had a big impact on me.

Worth Elementary is a very diverse elementary school, much more diverse than my elementary school. When I first met my placement teacher she told me that there were several students who had moved here from other countries, and a few who had moved very recently. One student had moved from Jordan only four months ago. She spoke little English, but her dad said that she understood more than she spoke. I observed this sweet girl and watched as she tried her hardest every day. I watched her gain the confidence to answer a question in class. I watched her look to her neighbor who also spoke Arabic to explain things she did not understand. I watched her learn that when I was there I would help her with when I saw her struggling. I watched her finish her math homework perfectly with little trouble. And when I finished my hours, she gave me the biggest hug. That girl has a real special place in my heart. She (and many of her classmates) are a big reason that I choose to stick with the ESL classes for my major.

Those students taught me so much about what it means to be a English language learner in America today. Woolfolk discusses all the important concepts about what it means to be bilingual; how complicated it is to be learning two languages at once or to learn a completely new language in a completely new country. She discusses the teaching strategies, testing strategies, and the details of developing language. All of those details are very important to know, especially when you have ELLs in your classroom; and yet, it was the (real life) students who taught me so much, not the textbook. The information is always helpful, education is amazing, but in the end, our students are the reason we are here. Always.

CONCEPT THREE: More Labels?

Summary:

Chapter six was a big one. In chapter six Woolfolk discusses the impact of culture and diversity and the ways they are related to learning. She also addresses the ways that the intersectionality of our students impacts who they are and the way that they are learning in the classroom. She writes about many different concepts such as race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation affects our students each day. After examining these concepts, Woolfolk states that the reader should gain a better understanding of “general principles for teaching every student” (217). So yes, perhaps these are more labels. But Woolfolk makes a compelling argument that in order to truly know, understand, and best teach each of our students, we must have an idea of how these labels impact our students in their everyday lives.

Reflection:

Before I read this chapter (and book really), I had a vague understanding of the impacts of all of these concepts on students. I have learned of the impacts of poverty on students, I have been taught a lot about the impacts of race in schools and in the world. I observed the impacts of each intersectionality and the impacts that these unique qualities has on friends, peers, and students. Yet for much of it, I had a limited understanding.

One of the classes I observed in was having a discussion on what empathy was. They listened to a very strange (and admittedly catchy) song on empathy and “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes”. This chapter reminded me of that lesson a lot. In my classroom, I can only be one person. I have one experience in life, my own. And I can not change who I am or the family I was born into. Yet I was reminded of the importance of learning about our students as people and the importance of recognizing, appreciating, and adjusting to the differences of every student.

Yes, sometimes labels limit our views of the “whole child”, but I think sometimes they also allow us to have a new understanding of the who we are teaching and the why a behavior, difficulty, or success may occur. It all goes back to loving our students and recognizing the potential in every one of them.