Prompt #3 (Question #5)

Throughout my service learning experience i have realized that i am capable of making significant progress within the hour and a half that i spent with my students two days a week. I was delighted to hear that only after one month of working with my two assigned students that their reading test scores have risen dramatically. Although i was happy to hear this news it got me thinking that if i can make this much of a difference in such a short period of time i wonder how much of a difference and influence the chidren's homelives make considering they are only in school 6 hours a day and the rest of the time spent under the guidance of their parents. If a child is surrounded by a poorly structured environment at home then the learning that occurs in the class is likely to be suppressed or undone by issues going on in the household. If a child has parents who are constantly fighting and yelling at eachother then it becomes difficult for a students main concern to be getting good grades when they are faced with greater challenges that distract them from their schoolwork. Some parents may be very busy and work several jobs, which prevents them from being availabe to answer their childs homework questions, make sure their assignments are complete, monitor their exposure to negative media, make sure they get a decent amount of sleep, provide a nutritous breakfast, and/or read to them before they go to bed. Since each family has a different sociocutural background their attitudes towards how to raise children may differ dramatically. While some parents make an effort to make sure their child is on track and become actively involved in the school community other parents may feel as if it is the childs responsibility and allow them more independence than should be given at such a young age. As a teacher it can be frustrating when so much effort is put in during the classroom but that a childs homelife can reverse the progress and supress their education.

As the culturally competent teacher that i strive to be i will try to find ways to address these challenges and create programs that will diminish the negative effect that dysfunctional homelives can play on children. I would work towards making sure that my school has an after-school program that lasts for at least two hours long, which will provide students with peer mentors, tutors, games, sports activities, and snacks. Therefore, students who usually return to empty households are able to spend their after school time productively while still having fun. Another way to address these challenges would be to speak with the parents whose child is struggling or seems to be upset or angry due to issues that may be occuring in the home. This conversation with the parents may be very tricky and i would make sure that i do not accuse the parents of being lazy or careless but rather draw their attention towards the child and try my hardest to reach them and make then genuinely concerned. I am aware that families who financial situation is suffering may not have the time to focus on the children due to job hours or that a family may be enduring so many issues that their son/daughters acedemic performance is the least of their problems in retrospect to other problems. In this situation i would stress the importance of education and the consequences of failing a grade. I would be very sensitive to the concerns and contributions of the parents and take what they have to say into consideration.

A very strong factor that is likely to come into effect while communicating with the parents is the possibility that they do not speak English at all or that they know very little of it. Perhaps a parent is incapable of helping their child with their homework because they themselves do not know how to do the assignment correctly. All these situations must be prepared for. If i knew i were to be teaching in a school where a large percentage of the students main language is spanish then i would try to learn as much spanish as i could so that if a student could not understand something just because it was spoken in English then i could explain it in spanish. I believe that schools with such diversity should have translators availabe or a few teachers availabe who are one-hundred percent proficient in spanish so that after school tutoring sessions can be available so that spanish speaking students do not fall behind just because of a language barrier. I believe that theorist Goldenburg would like these ideas since he symphathizes with students who are english language learners and are disagrees with the fact that ELL's should be making progress at the same rate as all the other kids without any sensitivity in the pedagogy style towards their situation. Goldenburg draws attention to the significantly lower difference of in reading and math scores of engish language learners in comparison to non-english language learners. He believes that ELL's are expected to learn too much and are often not explained the meaning of english words and are overlooked. It is important to remember that as teachers we are not suppressing other languages but supplying students with the English language as a neccessary tool to be successful in society.I must be aware and sensitive to the reality that students whose main language is Engish are more likely to have an easier time in school than students who only speak English in school and are then surrounded by Spanish speakers in the home. This is the same for any student whose main language is not English, whether the language being spoken at home is spanish, portugese,etc. If a parent were to tell me that they did not have time to sit down for thirty minutes a night or that they do not speak English and could therefore not help them with homework then I would make it a point to request that the child stay after school for ten to twenty minutes each day so i could help him start the assignment and make sure he/she understands it and is able to do it own their own later on that evening. It is the little efforts and accomodations like these that can make such a huge difference in an individuals education experience and guide them onto the path of success.