Category Archives: Urban Adolescents

Academic Support for Newcomers

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“Newcomer students like Perla and Luis are especially likely to fall into this downward educational spiral if their schools don’t provide a socially welcoming and academically structured and scaffolded environment that can meet their particular emotional and developmental needs. To bridge the disconnect that such students may feel between their lives at home and in school, teachers and other school support staff need to bring a sensitivity to the cultural and psychological transitions they may be struggling with in both environments.” (Goodman, 2018, p. 64)

This passage really hit home. As a student teacher at an ESL placement, we encounter students with similar situations from this chapter. I’m mostly exposed to Asian newcomers, or emergent bilinguals that face emotional, social, and academic challenges parallel to those mentioned by Goodman. I’ve also read articles assigned by my TESOL courses about how staff and schools don’t provide enough of a welcoming environment, don’t take the time to get to know students, and don’t use scaffolded pedagogy to support “emotional and developmental needs.” Our newcomers, emergent students may be facing complicated situations that lead to emotional stress, like, trying to keep up with/learn the new language, rebuilding family ties after reunification, missing their old home/routines, and cultural transitions. These challenges that students are faced with can be dealt with, but as educators it can seem hard to give support since we know we’re not with our students outside of class, and we can’t hold their hand throughout the day. But, the chapter includes some ways in which educators can help these students develop new language and at the same time learn from them on a personal level through group work and journals. I also got a little excited when they mentioned pair work and allowing translanguaging because we just spoke about it in our last class. This is an approach that I haven’t been able to use yet since my placement is a school where they strongly encourage students to only speak English, but I definitely look forward to applying it in my future classroom. Even though I find useful the suggestions from the chapter in helping support newcomers, I wonder what activities can other content teachers use or create to support or get to know their emergent bilinguals?

MVP8 How to get rid of poverty in a real life? What is the key?

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

For this week we read the book It’s Not About Grit. In the first two chapters, it talks about poverty and some examples to show poverty in African American and Latino families. Poverty, a critical issue that exists in every single country. From my perspective, poverty is not only referring to the impoverished neighborhoods and suffering from daily life, but I think it also can refer to poor grades, instances of aggression, and other social problems, like selling drugs. There is an example of a 14 years old boy sells drugs. He was unaware that he was selling drugs. He just thought he was watching the mailbox and giving out little brown bags. He just follows what other people in a certain environment(prison). Many people do that, and he wants to have a sense of feeling of belonging. I think he must do something wrong then got catch and stayed in jail. The jail is the place that he is supposed to rethink and regret. However, the entire environment does not allow him to do that. In order to survive, he needs to know how to integrate into the prison circle and how to get along with people in the prison. I am wondering what can the prison really educate people? When a crime or similar problems happen, is the jail the better place to go? And how can people really get rid of poverty? My answer is education. When people are educated, they know how to find a better job and feed themselves well, they know how to behave well. Through education, we can decrease the unemployment rate.

My Destiny Does Not Await at Mickey D’s

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

Although she did not say that her explicit intention was to change social perception of Black, minority youth, it is clear that she understood some of these stereotypes and that her beliefs and actions were in direct contrast. (Basu, 2008, p. 274)

First of all, BRAVO! I admire the 5 students mentioned throughout the article, not only do they beat the odds, but they know they are, and they want to influence other classmates to do the same. As adults and teachers, we know the stereotypes that exist, we talk about them in our courses, and we grew up finding out about them through jokes or media. But I think sometimes we forget to ask ourselves “Do our students know these stereotypes exist?” Well, yes, they do! Some students may feel that how they’re graded or treated is based on the stereotypes that they associate themselves with. But, just because they know the stereotype about their race, class, or economy doesn’t mean they stand by it, they try to “contrast” them through there “actions.” This article is so empowering, and I love how Darlene flat out says that she thinks white people believe that Blacks are destined to work at Mickey D’s, and for that, Blacks don’t deserve charity, or “funding” as she said. I’d love to read more about critical agency in a different classroom setting, it’s a concept I’ve never heard of, but it’s amazing how it’s defined in different ways by different authors. My takeaway from this article is that it’s possible to motivate learning in students by allowing them to challenge the norms that exist at school by exploring them in order to influence a change in these stereotypes.

MVP #8

Blurring the In-School Ouf-of-School Line, Urban Adolescents

“A young person’s goals are often considered agents only if they include large-scale activism, for example, petitioning an elected representative regarding nuclear waste disposal or cleaning up a section of the Hudson River. However, I propose that agency can also be more personal, focused on one’s own life and immediate community.” (Basu, 254)

This passage stood out to me because of the various definitions and interpretations of the word “agency”. I agree with the interpretation that agency is personal, and that a person must use their own power within themselves in order to be able to help other people. I view acquiring agency as taking control of the smaller or simpler things in life, such as walking, reading or writing. Multiple members of my family lost their agency when they lost their ability to walk. They had to depend on family members for their activities of daily living such as grocery shopping and driving. Agency is intellectual or physical power, and part of an educator’s job is to help empower their students, thus giving them agency.

Students in poverty

Urban Adolescents

It is interesting that for students in poverty, I always think about how to help them from a teacher’s perspective, but rarely think how can we bring the topic of poverty to school. I believe it is not only I’m in early childhood and young children may not easily get this concept–It’s also about culture. I think that in my culture, people in poverty are embarrassed with their financial condition and it is not a comfortable topic to be talked in public for them. I love the way how did teachers integrate this topic to their curriculum, I think it is an excellent social studies topic, yet it builds up students’ empathy on people in poverty. However, I do think that educators should be more thoughtful about this topic because I’m sure there are people from other cultures that not quite comfortable talking about their financial situations.

“Teaching students about this history helps them understand the discriminatory housing policies and practices that created conditions of poverty and segregation in public housing and elsewhere in their communities while also learning about those who fought to resist them.” (Goodman, p23)

Goodman, S. (2018). It’s not about grit: Trauma, inequity, and the power of transformative teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.