1/25/13
Yesterday the same group of students had another science sheet to work on.  They decided they could work on it without me.  They asked some of the other students, who understood more English to help and once in a while, asked me for help, but they were working autonomously.  That made me happy, to know that they felt they could take it on their own, with some support.

Modifications:
Using notes,
peer help,
teacher help,
bilingual dictionaries,
partner/team work.

Working with my Middle School New Comers is a whole different world however.  They are just learning, in 7th  grade, to spread their wings and do things for themselves.  They do not have the self confidence or higher level thinking skills to take what they know (prior knowledge) and apply it to what they see.  Quite often they don't see the obvious things and have to be lead or reminded.  This is developmental.  So I have to teach them the English and the critical thinking to be able to help themselves.   By 8th grade there is some kind of emotional and mental growth spurt and they are beginning to use the thinking skills and be more autonomous.

Last night my Juntos (Together) 4 H club hosted the first of 5 workshops designed to educate families on how the educational system works, how to help the student have success in school and go on to higher education.  The families that came were all Hispanic - mostly club member families.  It was interesting to see them work on projects in mixed groups of mothers, fathers, students and some grandparents.  It seemed that In one project they had to create a bridge with very limited materials.  Creativity was needed.  It seems the women did most of the work.  Granted there were more mothers in attendance than fathers, but it makes me wonder. Maybe the dads were just tired. Maybe they don't seem much stock in creative thinking?  If it's not practical it is not important?

Part of the reason I say that is because of a speaker I heard once, whose topic was living in poverty.  My family had lived in poverty at a jobless time,  without really realizing it and much of what the speaker said hit home for myself and my husband.  It showed us too, that God had us experience poverty so that we could see what our students might be living through.  Many teachers have never lived in poverty so they have NO CLUE.

This speaker talked about how the average words spoken to a child of poverty (or of uneducated parents) per day is so much lower than that of a professional.  [http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/slc/LS/30MillionWordGap.html]  I feel that critical thinking skills go along with that.  The parents don't use the words, have the skills and are too tired.  It's just not important.

In my family word games and thinking creatively are pastimes for us.  We try to out pun each other and we try to create with what we've got.  I save things for repurposing in my classroom.  Therefore I have to teach my students the skill of repurposing too.