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The end of the book really helped me see that there can be silent struggles that students can go through. Ones that we might not even notice, like Joe being quiet to not get picked on and bullied. Or how Ravi has a lot of internal struggles going on from his own assumptions, and assumptions made about him by other people. It made me realize even more why it is so important to get to know our students, and never just assume we know who they are. As teachers, we really have a huge impact on our students. We need to decide if the impact we have on our students will be positive, or negative. We all have thoughts and things going on that we shouldn't have to deal with alone. This includes children, and they need adults that they can rely on to help guide them through their struggles. Had Ravi's teachers got to know him more at the beginning of the book, they would have known he had an accent, but also was a native English speaker. The same goes for Joe, if his teachers got to know him more, they would have hopefully found out he shut down from past and current bullying. This book also helped me see how a student might feel in my classroom if I don't take the time to get to know them, and just make my own assumptions about them. Multiple times in the book, Ravi was kind of walking on eggshells around his teacher, Mrs. Beam. Even in chapter 35, he was questioning if he did something wrong and if Mrs. Beam couldn't read his handwriting. Then feelings of failure hit him about his accent, and past feelings from encounters with her that were negative. It really made me happy to see him finally tell Mrs. Beam that his name is not RAH-vee. With this, I see the only reason he told her was because she was kind to him, and he finally felt it was a safe space to do so. I will make sure my classroom feels safe, and that my students can tell me things like this, after finishing this book. I will also again make sure to really get to know my students and foster an environment they feel comfortable in to thrive. I don't want my students to ever feel like they must hold back and cannot be themselves. I also think the ending of Joe saving a seat for Ravi at lunch is so important. One friend can make all the difference for a child. A child needs to have a sense of belonging and a sense of who they are. Had Mrs. Beam got to know both Joe and Ravi on a deeper level off the bat, and not made her own assumptions, she could have probably brought them together to be friends much sooner.

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I really liked this book and overall I feel I came away with most of what everyone else in our group came away with. The most major thing I came away with is how important the relationship between student and teacher is. After Mrs. Beam pronounced Ravi's name correctly, you can see how much better he felt about his time there. Or how Joe wanted to get his teacher to praise him, like his older teacher did. While I cannot say this book was eye opening for me because I went through much the same things as these two boys did when I was EL student, I am glad that everyone liked it. I am glad everyone understood the silent struggles students go through. And while I can see us trying our best to get to know those struggles, the relationship factor cannot should not be put aside. Motivated students can move mountains if they feel welcomed in classrooms.

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This book was such an eye opener into the experiences of children that can sometimes be overlooked by teachers. Something that stood out to me about Ravi's experience is that I went into beginning to read this book expecting to learn about an EL's experience in school but it really wasn't that. Ravi didn't have trouble speaking English at all but was more having trouble feeling a sense of belonging. Another thing that stood out to me as I read this book was how much of a main character I think Dillon was. I would have loved to have every other 3rd chapter be his perspective. Ultimately, I feel like his bullying was overcompensating for some kind of feelings he was having. The last thing that stood out to me was the connection Mrs. Beam was able to finally make with Ravi by just complimenting the cookies his mom had made. I felt like it was a teacher win for her because once she did that, Ravi became comfortable enough to speak up and say how his name is actually pronounced.

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Save Me A Seat By: Sarah Weeks & Gita Varadarajan

A connection I made right away with the book and our class materials, would be where Ravi is feeling frustrated about the teachers bringing up ESL and not understanding him because of his accent. English is his first language, and he doesn't need ESL services or materials to get rid of his accent. This would make it so he is assimilating, and getting rid of his accent would take away a big part of who he is. It would also be doing him a disservice to be placed in ESL, when he already knows English, as it is his L1. I couldn't imagine English being my L1, but I have an accent, so I get put into ESL. Even suggesting this for Ravi was wrong, and I was surprised to read that his teachers would even suggest ESL in any form for him. Building up relationships with our students is so important, and this showed that Ravi felt that his teachers aren't trying to get to know him at all. "Mop top doesn't even know me, and now she is criticizing the way I speak" (Weeks & Varadarjan, pg. 83). This leads me to the connection with one of our module 4 reading. "The overt request overlies a covert demand that students embrace a curriculum that either dismisses or derogates their ethnicity and that they respond caringly to school officials who often hold their culture and community in contempt"(Valenzuela, pg. 25). Ravi's school officials are doing just that, holding his culture, including his accent, in contempt. This is subtractive schooling as far as I see it.

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Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

The direct quote I would like to make a connection with the reading goes as follows, "In summary, ideological positions about American identity and White supremacy result in the association of bilingualism with inferior intelligence and a lack of patriotism in the United States" (Nieto,2009). While this is a heavily loaded quote I want to just focus on the association of "other" in terms of Ravi's time at school. Ravi has an accent and therefore, cannot be easily understood by his teacher, which is understandable. What is not understandable is how Ravi manages to go above and beyond to show his intelligence with the math problem yet still manages to be minimized by his teacher. What I mean is that while the answer was clearly correct, the problem was that it was not done how "we" do it. The we implying US schools. Ravi's teacher clearly associates him with something outside the US and therefore does not take the time to understand how those other places do math. I might be reading too much into but it seems Mrs. Beam has placed Ravi inside a box. A box that is different than the ones her students are in, and so must be worse. Which is probably why she sends Ravi almost immediately to Mrs. Frost, to get him out of that box into the US one.

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Save Me a Seat

By: Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

There are two connections that I would like to make between this book and our course work.

First being that we have learned that every state has to assess students to determine if they qualify for ELL services. "Every state has an initial identification process... [and] assesses their level of English language proficiency using either a brief ELP assessment...or a full scale proficiency assessment" (Allocating Federal Funds, National Research Council, p. 77). In the book, Ravi was not given an assessment but was placed in the resource room to receive services anyway.

Secondly, we know from our coursework that every student deserves an education that is equitable, inclusive, and cultural sensitivity and acceptance. There are examples of Ravi not being treated equitably in multiple chapters of the book. One example is that Mrs. Beam continually mispronounces Ravi's name (Weeks and Varadarajan, p.102). He is excluded from class and sent to the resource room because of his accent (p. 68). Mrs. Beam also makes Ravi feel different because of his accent and the way he does math (pp. 58,59). When a teacher points out a students differences as a negative issue the students will follow.

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Save Me A Seat by

Sarah Weeks & Gita Varadarajan

One connection between Save Me A Seat and Subtractive Schooling is how a student’s social identity can be affected by their L1. In the reading we see how Ravi’s experience at his new school in America is vastly different from school experience at this prior school. At his old school, Ravi and his friend made fun of another student. He recalls laughing at the other student as the student was punished by a teacher. Ravi makes the connection that at his new school, he is the one being made fun of, just as he had done. “Student’s social capital may get thwarted through subtle, yet pervasive forces of exclusion lodged in divergent perspectives in human relationships (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). Dillion is creating an unwelcoming presence for Ravi by beginning to single him out by internalized racist name calling. Though Dillon is of the same background, he targets Ravi calling him “Curryhead”, insults about his smell, and knowingly having him eat beef even though it is morally wrong for Ravi. Because of Dillion’s social status, others are following suit and joining in on making fun of Ravi.

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Questions:

1. I have heard of and seen names of students pronounced incorrectly in a school setting by teachers. This happens right away to Ravi in our reading. Although Mrs. Beam tries, and doesn't get it right, she lets Ravi know she will work on it. I see this as a big deal, as a name is apart of our identity. Our English learners that will likely have not so typical, or "English" sounding names will likely have this happen to them. What else can we do as educators/future educators to ensure that we, and the student's peers, are saying their name correctly?

2. We see that Joe, a child with APD, is bullied and doesn't talk a lot as a result. He mentions he has been called a blabbermouth in the past. Dillon, his bully, is in his class again this year for 5th grade. Have you experienced any students or even your own child being a victim of bullying for being different? What would you do to help a student like Joe, who is being bullied, if he were in your own classroom?

Interesting Passage:

"At the end of August when Mom found out Einstein was looking for a new lunch monitor, she applied for the job without even asking me first" (Weeks & Varadarajan, 2016, pg. 36). Joe realizes that his mom was nurse, and couldn't find work after getting laid off. But he is upset with her for taking the lunch monitor job at his school without asking him. I am sure he isn't getting that it is upsetting for his mom to have worked so hard to become a nurse, to take a job at his school. His mom working at the school as a lunch monitor is causing him issues with his bully, Dillon. But he might not see that his mom needed a job. He might not see it like this, as he is just a young kid in 5th grade. I hope to see some sort of resolution at some point in the book, with the bullying that is happening to Joe.

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1) Making each chapter come from the view of Joe or Ravi is was very interesting. What did you guys think about it? I don't think I have a read a book that does that yet.

2) I might have missed it or it might come up later, but what was Dillon's problem? It might have just been me, but his behavior and status were perplexing to me.

Instead of a passage I found the entire first chapter interesting. Mostly because of how much nostalgia it brought to me. As a kid, I also was nervous and just stayed quiet because of my lack of English. Instantly from this chapter I knew that I could trust this author to tell and authentic story about Ravi and Joe.

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A question that I wanted to address is that the SPED teacher, Mrs. Frost, was asked to help Jo and Ravee. Is she the EL teacher AND special education teacher?

I have two items to address that I found interesting. I only had the one question. First, on page 7 Mrs. Beam assumes that Ravee is less intelligent than his English speaking classmates based solely on his accent. His grandmother also makes assumption when she thinks all Americans are "beef eating cowboy's" (p 5).

I couldn't believe Mrs. Beam and the way she corrected his way of doing math in front of the entire class. After all, he got the right answer (p 58).

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Questions

1. Do you think Joe has any other educational challenges besides APD (Auditory Processing Disorder)?

2. Why do you think Dillon is displaying bullying characteristics? He seems well-liked by the majority of his peers and seems to do well academically.

Interesting Passage

"Mrs. Beam has been calling him RAH-vee, but when he introduced himself earlier, I'm pretty sure he said his name was rah-VEE, with the accent on the second syllable (Weeks & Varadarajan, 2016). This passage was interesting to me because I found it pretty amazing that Joe would notice the accent on Ravi's name just from hearing him introduce himself.