Writer's Notebook Post #7

For today's class, we had to read an article entitled "More Equitable Literacy Assessments for Latino Students" by Robert T. Jimenez.

I knew that this article would probably have something to do with reaching out to ESL (English as a Second Language) and/or ELL (English Language Learners) students, and I was a bit nervous. This is a demographic of students that I have little experience with.

I have just finished my second year of teaching at Mason Middle School (a job which I adore), but in this district, I have little opportunity to work with ESL and ELL students. When I was student teaching at Fairfield Freshman Building, I did work with a few Latino students from ESL backgrounds, but as ninth graders, they had been dealing with the struggles of a fully immersed English curriculum for a long time. I wasn't much extra help to them.

However, this article provided a lot of useful information that could benefit any educator-- whether or not you've worked with ESL students previously.

One concept that this article highlighted that I found incredibly interesting was the idea of "language brokering". Jimenez defines this as "[when] students translate [English] for their parents". Language brokering is a skill that can build confidence in ELL and ESL students, because it affirms their knowledge of the English language (and its everyday applications). I have a personal experience that I can relate to on the thread of language boyfriend. My boyfriend, now 23 years old, is 100% Taiwanese, and his family speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese in the home. In fact, when he's at home, that's pretty much the only language he speaks. However, when I come over to visit (and I have an incredibly limited grasp of Mandarin Chinese), English must be spoken for me to understand the conversations. My boyfriend often has to translate what I'm saying into Chinese, because his parents do not speak fluent English (though their English is ten times better than my Chinese). The language brokering that he does for his parents (and had to do virtually his whole school-age life) undoubtedly aided his acquisition of the English language.

The Language Brokering Journals that Jimenez advocates in his article seem like a great idea to me. Having students record all of the instances where they had to translate English for their parents/relatives/friends would build confidence in their English learning abilities.

As Mason becomes continually diverse and rich with new cultures, I am positive that I will work closely with ESL and ELL students at some point. And I hope that I can foster the warm and inviting attitude in my classroom that Jimenez and his colleagues do so well. At the end of the day, these students are the same as any others. They want teachers who care about them as people and who want them to succeed.