Teacher Discussion Forums

While reading a case student in a required reading text, I found it interested that the teacher infused her personal background to shield an ESL student from the same persecution her immigrant parents dealt with when they came to America. Although the teacher's intention were good her method of deli...

I believe that if this model of guiding teachers of ESL students was combined with "best practices", or even if the facilitator had other ESL teacher sto help her manage her schedule or get through to the reluctant teacher this program could be successful. However, the ESL teacher was over worked an...

Recently I visited the website usenglish.org and viewed the vast number of English only bills waiting to be passed into law and it struck me as odd the numbers, or lack of support many of this bills have. For example, the National language Act of 2009 only has 14 co-sponsors out of 100 senators that...

According to the Government Accountability Office in the years of 95-97 only 200 non-English language documents were printed from a government printing office and of that number the majority were for social services agencies and the social security administration office. tThere is no direct correlat...

How often do policy makers or even teachers ask the students for input? I strongly believe that if we continue to ignore the students and think for them we will continue to fail them. Inner city school districts and districts with high ELL population having consistently failed year after year decade...

I am currently teaching pre-k in a semi diverse school district. There is a good mix of blacks, whites, and Hispanics in the classroom. A few weeks ago I heard one of the non-Hispanic boys calling the hispanic boy non- American; he stated the boyHas just a mixture of brown and white. A light bulb we...

The debate rages on between the cost of BE versus EO, and the overwhelming cost seems to favor BE; however, if NNS students fall a full grade or two behind when they are forced into SEI classes, how is keeping a population of students in schools, with already tight budgets, who will remain a grade l...

I am in agreement with the post above regarding not being able to choose a side in the debate between English only and Bilingual education. I am torn with the NNS students who come to school and are pushed in special education programs because there is no qualified teacher to properly teach them. On...

The discussion of BE began in the early 1960's and serious progress was made with the passing of the BEA of 1968 and the 1975 Lau Remedies; however, the US seems to go back and forth on the topic of BE vs EO in public schools. Moreover, the growing concerns facing failing public schools breathes lif...

I believe that the problems in California and Arizona go beyond the passing of their indivdual propositions. The research I have read in [i]Forbidden Language (hopkins,gandara 2010) highlights data comprised both before and after the passing of their propositions. The findings do not categorically p...

While reading Forbidden Language by Patricia Gandara and Megan Hopkins several thoughts occured to me as the authors bought up the notion that denying bilingual education to ELL students may actually violate their civil rights. At first I imagined a time when states would not educate, or restricted ...

I have two sons ages four and seven and they both watch Dora the Explorer and Diego. I find that, as we all know, children learn through play and imitation and by providing a child with a fun and educational format to do both is highly benefical. On the other hand, I find that the older the child be...