Race, Poverty, and ELL Classroom Scenarios EN456 Multicultural Issues In Education Insignis Honors Project Tyler James

Nadeau March 6, 2014

 The scenarios in this presentation are inspired by real

events that have happened in my educational experience or they have been inspired by
A White Teacher Talks About Race-Landsman Engaging Students With Poverty In Mind-Jensen How the ELL Brain Learns-Sousa

Scenario #1
Your class is reading a book that took place in Nigeria and

the reading has been going well so far. You and the students decided that today you would do a popcorn read just to make class more interesting. The desks are in rows and all of the students know each other well enough to choose other people. A student is reading along and then decides it is someone elses turn. You anticipate that this student will read well as he is one of your brightest students, always knowing how to pronounce words and never hesitating with even the slightest stutter. He is reading along when all of a sudden he comes to a place in the text and without hesitation reads, As they were rowing down the nigger river What do you do next?

Scenario #2
As a 25 year biology teacher, you have once again begun your evolution unit and are planning your many wonderful activities to get kids thinking about what evolution has meant in the history of the world. You begin your lesson with an introduction and the whole class seems to be amazed at what you are telling them. You ask the kids to read their chapter for homework and that you will see them tomorrow. The class leaves and

you feel accomplished once again. The next day, however, your principal is waiting at your door with a letter in hand. I thought you might want to take a look at this, Mr. Jones, we need to have a meeting later on today. Your heart stops as you open the letter and notice that it is an email from a parent addressed to you and your principal. This is what the letter says:

Dear Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Jones, Under no circumstances should my child be forced into learning all of this evolution bullshit! We are a Catholic family and creation is the only way that this world started. I cant believe that Mr. Jones would try and convince my child that evolution occurred and that is where humans and all other animals came from! I am very disappointed and I think that Mr. Jones should be fired! I am also ashamed of you, Mr. Hamilton as you go to mass with us and allow this type of ludicrous teaching to take place in your school. I hope you both burn in hell, Mrs. Stanley (Timmys mom) What do you do next?

Scenario #3
Ron is an African American student in your class. He has been in trouble with

the law several times throughout the course of his school career. Each time he has been in trouble he admits that someone is just out to get him and that he actually is not the one committing the crimes. Just a month ago, he was at a bar eating a hamburger, when the two guys next to him started fighting. He was only in the mixture because people were trying to break it up. When the police arrived, it looked like Ron was involved so he was arrested immediately and had to sit in jail for 4 days until the bartender could tell the real story and other witnesses were contacted. He ended up failing all of his class because he was not able to take his final exams. Your principal and his teachers decided that he go on with his next semester courses and just take summer school coursework to finish up so he can graduate. Today you hear some funny behavior taking place in the boys bathroom. You signal to Mr. Brooks to investigate as you are a female. Mr. Brooks immediately calls school security. Police arrive and arrest all of the boys in the bathroom. The story goes that 4 boys were trying to get Ron to transport drugs home to his older brother. The boys didnt want to get caught in that part of town as there were some people out to get them. Ron told police that he had refused to take the drugs to his brother and that the other boys placed the drugs on him. When searched, they found several packets of cocaine on Ron. Most were in his pockets and backpack which was still lying on the bathroom floor when the students had been taken out. In an instance you remember all of the bad luck that Ron has been put through, and you believe his side of the story. What do you do next?

Scenario #4
This year, you have found out that you have a student in your

class that does not take regular showers. Some of his past teachers have warned you of his awful stench. From the very beginning of the school year you have preconceived ideas about how horrible your class will be with this kid in it. You decide to place him in the back of the room so maybe that way less people will notice. On the first day of school, the kid comes to your room, practically as any other teacher has described him. After the first day he requests that he be moved to the front of the room as his parents are not able to afford glasses for him to see. Against your cleanliness, and by making appropriate accommodations, you give him the opportunity to sit in the front. After a few days, the girl that sits behind him comes to you after class and asks if she can be moved because of the awful stench. You tell her that moving her would only cause a scene and you would see what you could do about making sure that this kid came to school in better shape from now on. The next day in class, the girl stands up, plugs her nose, hollers, I cant take that awful smell anymore! and leaves your class. What do you do next?

Scenario #5
This year, you have decided to give vocabulary quizzes

every week on 15 words that the students will be able to 1. Memorize the definition, 2. Correctly identify word parts, and 3. Use the word correctly in a sentence. The work that you are doing in class to prepare for this seems to be going quite well as students are making vocabulary cards for all of their words and studying with their peers. The first test comes and you have a few As, several Bs, several Cs and only a few Ds, with only one F. The student that received the F has been identified by your district as a child coming from a low socioeconomic status home. After class, you ask the kid to stay after to discuss how he might be able to better prepare for the vocabulary quizzes. When you ask him what went wrong the kid says, Well I tried to get my dad to study with me and he was too busy at work. I then asked my mom and she told me that she couldnt even pronounce these words so there was no sense in me studying them. What do you do next?

Scenario #6
You are a kindergarten teacher and your room is filled

with such excitement and joy every day. All the kids seem to be getting along and you have implemented smooth transitions to make your classroom extremely efficient. There is one girl who seems a little shy, but she puts on a happy face when she needs to and isnt too afraid to work with some of her friends. One day you are getting everyone bundled up to head out to the buses. The shy girl comes up to you and says, Please dont make me go home, my daddy always yells at me and my mother. Last night he made me go to bed with him and I am not sure why. What do you do next?

Scenario #7
Joe is a student in your Algebra 2 class this year. He has struggled

with his math classes all throughout the course of middle school and high school. Your principal is now requiring that every core class administer a practice ACT test every other week in their content. You have been doing what you have been told as your administrators say that if every student in your class isnt at a certain score by the time the ACT test comes, your evaluations will be taking a hit and you could risk losing your job. After Joe scored very low on his first practice test, you have been working with him after school. He seems to be getting what you are teaching him and does really well on problems that you work on together. However, even though you have been putting in a lot of time in with Joe, he still seems to be doing poorly on these practice tests. He brings his worries from home to school every day and only seems to focus when you are working with him one on one. You hand in your score reports every time you give a practice test and your principal is still on you about his poor achievement. He even said, Apparently what you are doing is not working, try something else, you only have two more months until the ACT, good luck! What do you do next?

Scenario #8
You are attending a monthly school board meeting and

your district is struggling financially and academically. You and other teachers have made it a point to come to these meetings to express your concerns for not having enough textbooks, outdated textbooks, no access to technology, and in some instances, not even enough seats to have everyone in your class be seated during class. Some classes have even exceeded 35 students as teachers have been laid off. Nothing seems to be done and you and your colleagues are getting reprimanded for poor student achievement even though you are doing the best you can with the resources at hand. The issues have been brought up that the school is on the lowest-achieving schools of the state and it is time for your superintendent to address the board and audience. She says, It is sad what this school has come to, but someone has to be last. The room is silent. What do you do next?

Scenario #9
You are a high school English teacher and you have had an ELL

student in your class for the entire year. You and the student have been working hard on building vocabulary and the student has actually been doing fairly well on his assignments. You notice however that his word usage is sometimes mixed up and more often than not, his answers to your questions do not make sense. He is really trying and really wants to try and learn to use English words appropriately in his written responses. The family has actually even hired a private tutor to assist the student in learning the mechanics of the English language. At the end of the school year, you have assigned a research paper. You ask the ELL student if the assignment will be manageable, and he tells you that he is ready to take on the challenge. When he hands in the paper, it is nearly flawless. You cannot believe how well written the paper is. It doesnt really compare to any of his most recent work. You wonder if possibly the tutor had written the paper for the student. What do you do next?

Scenario #10
Jose is an ELL in your fourth grade classroom this year. His family

recently migrated to the United States from Nicaragua. The familys recent move was difficult in that neither of Joses parents speak any English. The family has moved into an apartment complex. Luckily, they want their child to be in school. Jose has been doing very well in your class during the first couple weeks, especially succeeding in the math portion of the lesson. Even though his English is not very good right now, he can at least partially communicate with you. He tells you that math sort of has a universal language and he is able to understand what you are teaching. Your class decides that they are going to be putting on a math day for some kindergartners at the early elementary school in your district. You send home permission slips to all parents and say they need to be in two days before the trip as you will need to take a bus. Every student returns their permission slip besides Jose. The day before the permission slips are due, you remind Jose to turn his in, he does not say much. The next day Jose still does not bring in a permission slip. You try to contact the parents and no one answers the phone. The office tries to contact the parents and nothing is working. You decide to write to the parents the night before the field trip, even having the high school Spanish teacher translate it for you. No note or permission slip comes back the next day. You feel terrible because Jose has prepared an awesome math game for the kids to play. What do you do next?

Scenario #11
In your high school math class this year you have an

exchange student from Africa. The girl can speak somewhat fluent English and does extremely well on all class content. Since day one, she has wanted reassurance on every detail of every assignment you give. Most often, she is scoring well into the 90%-100% range on all work, including tests, yet everyday she insists that you work on some of the small problems she had with the assignment. You are worried that she is taking too much of your time after school and that you are not able to help other students who could really use the help. What do you do next?

Scenario #12
Recently, one of your students has been coming to you

for some life advice. This makes you feel really uncomfortable, but it is taking place during class, so you simply tell the student that you cant spend much time on this as you have 28 other students to talk to everyday. A few days pass and the student comes to you once again. She asks you, Do you think it is wrong for me to be gay? My parents told me that if I am gay that I have deceived God! What do you do next?

Scenario #13
Jacob is a student in your history class who has just

been struggling in general with everything. Nothing seems to be motivating him. You try every trick in the book about motivating students. You have talked with his parents and they dont have any answers either. They have tried motivating him with anything and everything that they can think of. One day, you decide to sit down and talk with Jacob about what might be going on. You ask why he isnt motivated and what you can do to help hm. He says, Well my teacher last year, Mrs. Guild told me that there is no way that my parents could ever afford college, so I just figured there was no reason for me to try anymore. What do you next?

Scenario #14
It is your favorite night of the year, parent teacher conferences.

You love being able to get to know parents and build a stronger rapport with them and their student. You are always eager to share what the student has done in your class. Sarahs mom and dad come into parent teacher conferences and you are always a little nervous. Sarahs dad is always very concerned with her grades and is often on her back even when her grades are in the B+ or A- range. He always tells her that these are not good enough if she wants to get into college. Tonight at conferences, you have that Sarah had received a B- on a recent science test. The entire class had not done very well and you had agreed that you would not place the scores on their most recent progress report and would allow the class a redo. All parents are very acceptant of this and you explain that the trouble was due in part to your horribly written test as well as some confusing material that the class didnt really grasp. Sarahs dad, however, is not acceptant of the fact that she had received a B-. He thinks that no matter what, she should have done better. What do you do next?

Scenario #15
As a teacher, you really want to make your classroom fun

and engaging. You want your students to have the very best experience possible; however, your district is not providing any funding other than for only necessities in the classroom. You really want to do this awesome lesson that would require a few materials. You do not have enough money to buy the supplies yourself. You ask the building principle if there is anything he could help you. He says that you must either pay for it yourself or dont teach the lesson. You wonder if you could ask students to bring in money or supplies. You then realize that some students in your class would not be able to do this. You are really disappointed that you will not be able to teach this lesson. What do you do next?