Prompt 6

In our classroom I can think of many students' whose native language is Spanish. One student who sticks out the most *Tatiana, who is very articulate in conversation with English, although her native language is Spanish. She may be a terrific speaker but she cannot pass a single spelling test. In Goldenberg's article, Teaching English Language Learners she states that, "it's not sufficient to learn English so you can talk with your friends and teacher about classroom routines, what you are having for lunch, where you went over the weekend, or who was mean to whom on the playground. You have to learn what is called academic English." The first time I distributed a spelling test, I noticed that *Tatiana was struggling more than others whose native language is English. Though she has mastered social English, she is falling behind in academic English. Academic English in the words of Goldenberg, "refers to more abstract, complex, and challenging language that will eventually permit you to participate successfully in mainstream classroom instruction." Not successfully learning academic English could cause a lack of encouragement and discourage students like *Tatiana. In order to help *Tatiana with her academic English *Mrs. K provides her with a different level of phonics workbook. Although she is behind in her phonics more than other students, each student has an IEP either way. In order for her to take any steps forward, she must take steps back to learn the phonics. As her "tutor" I went over each letter in the alphabet with her, using words that were related to her native language and English. An example of a word would be bicicleta. I'd then ask her what it started with, she would respond correctly. The next letter is i, which I would include the b with; using the word bi. Now what letter comes after the b, I would ask, saying b-I-i-i- I-I-I over emphasising the I in bi.

The next step I needed to take towards making *Tatiana's learning experience more valuable, was to pair her up with another classmate to study and copy each spelling word various times. This demonstrated sensitivity for sociocultural differences by having a student who knew the words because of her native language English, and Tatiana who knew verbal language be pair up. This would help Tatiana learn from another peer and encourage her to want to learn what her peer already knows. They both could work together to create a way to study and understand the words, to successfully complete the next spelling test. "The speaker and listener must know the meaning of the words and understand the sentence structures and other nuances that communicate the intended message", Goldenberg states in her article. "In order for the student to spell the word they should know what it means. In each work book I believe the student should have a picture next to each word, describing what each picture is. They could visually understand the picture and relate it to the spelling word. I will instruct them if their spelling word was bicycle. I would say, now what's that a picture of. They would reply a bicycle. I would then ask another question, Now what does one do with a bicycle, and they should respond with an answer such as, you ride a bicycle. I will then follow up with the question, now what does bicycle start with, and hopefully they will answer, B. I know this method works with students' because a student in the classroom that I work the most with loves firetrucks. He knows what they look like, what they sound like, and what they are used for. He also knows how to spell the word faster and more accurate than most words.

Those are just a few key examples I have demonstrated sensitivity and responsiveness to sociocultural linguistic differences in the classroom. As a future teacher I will take into account that each student is different, coming from a different background, which could affect their learning in different ways. As a future teacher I hope to respond in the correct manner and be sensitive to the differences of my students as I have while observing my classroom this year.