However, this does not mean that there are not issues in my area or school district. Most students are first generation, most born here in Oregon, but their parents are not are not legal citizens. The majority of the community in Canby are supporters of our current president and his administration. During the election last year there were many pickets and people with signs supporting Trump ideas and his rhetoric toward immigrants. Since January many English learners have been scared to come to school and scared that when they go home their parents will not be there. Our school and district posted about safety and resources for families, but it was not a priority or something that they have continuously promoted.

Unfortunately, like most schools the staff have lower expectations for MLs and outside of the ELD program, dual language program, and a handful of teachers most do not want to adjust any of their classroom structure or lessons to provide the support that would help make students succeed academically. That support "should happen in their ELD class, isn't that why they are there?"

A majority of the staff don't follow the logic and fact that "every teacher is a teacher of language and content".

Like the examples in the textbook so much varies district to district and building to building when it comes to supporting EB students and families. In Canby we were working toward expanding our Dual language program, but now thanks to budget cuts this has halted.

1. Depending on socioeconomic conditions parents/guardians could be too busy working to attend school events or contact the school during open office hours. This might also hinder them from having time to go through their child's assignments with them at home.

2. Does the school question its own deficiency? How welcoming is it to its immigrant populations? How is communication sent out? If families are only receiving emails they rarely check in a language they are not proficient in how are they supposed to get more involved? Do schools always hold their meetings in their building or do they ever reach out to community centers where families might be more comfortable? When families arrive at the school for registration or office visits how are they treated?

3. If English is not the home language and parents and families only know the basic conversational English themselves how are they to help their child with assignments that are academically English language heavy? Especially at the secondary level- how many parents/guardians are chemists or US history buffs?

I found that comparing the California initiatives to my district there were some significant differences:  promoting equity, availability to resources, and fully implementing meaningful access to a full curriculum.  At the high school level, our EB students are struggling in math and we have a very low passing rate.  However, our model for math instruction, course offerings and how we provide support has remained the same for the last few years (leading many teachers frustrated which contributes poorly to the school climate).  Our math teachers and ELD teachers have been very open to co-teaching and finding other resources to support students.

Several of my ELs have parents who both work long hours (running a restaurant, for example) and are primarily cared for by grandparents. These grandparents often speak almost no English, and they are not familiar with school events common in our schools (Bingo night, Jog-a-thon, etc). Although supportive of education, they do not have the language skills to help with academic work (such as asking comprehension questions about a book).

• Balancing both content and language goals 

• Meeting the needs in both content areas and language to challenge and build confidence in all students.  With my newcomers (9th-12th), there is a wide range of school experiences, literacy in home language and attitudes towards learning.   Creating content rich curriculum and building language is a daily challenge.  

• There is little time for high school newcomers to develop academic content knowledge when they only have 1-4 years until they will graduate high school.  Sometimes they are forecasted into classes due to graduate requirements but not necessarily focusing on developing language proficiency and content knowledge. 

When talking with students I will utilize the same academic language that I use in content objectives and class activities for science.  I have different word walls posted in class that I will refer to that have words associated with a visual that I can reference as we are talking (academic language, content specific vocabulary).  I model academic language in discussions and speak at a moderate pace, enunciating, and giving students processing time.  I like to use nonverbal strategies to express meaning as discussed on p.65 and in science rely on cognates when working with biology and chemistry vocabulary.  I encourage students to speak first and prioritize building confidence in oral development before offering corrections.  

Idioms-I will sometimes have a meme, idiom or a funny picture or phrase that correlates to our lesson or activity on the first google slide of the day.  We will use this as a jump off point for the day (warm-up) to get students sharing and talking.  Students will have sentence starters (questions and statements) to assist in guiding conversation.  We will do partner and class shares.  We break down the idiom/meme and connect it to class. 

As stated in Between Worlds, “Teachers also adjust their teaching in response to the needs of their students.” (p.90)   Each year the lessons, activities and strategies applied in my classroom have evolved with my students.  To balance creating a curriculum that was more comprehensible I have incorporated student interest.  I try to seek out  classes and professional development opportunities to stay current and apply new strategies in the classroom.

This is most helpful with new words and reading, not as helpful with conversational practice.

Honestly, one of the hardest parts about teaching that I have faced is losing faith in my fellow teachers. When entering the profession I assumed that all other teachers were there because they wanted what was best for students and would be willing to adapt and adjust to fit students needs. That has been disillusioned. Not to say that I don't meet teachers who do this but from my experience it tends to be a 2:1 ratio.

For example this year we were adopting our new ELA curriculum. I used this as an opportunity to address issues the classes/pathways we offered our students at CHS. We had Strategic Language Arts classes that had basically become a dumping ground for students with IEPs, but even more 504s. Teachers make recommendations for placement and tracking in the courses for convenience not for student benefit: many teachers in the English department consistently say statements like “they will never get that” (meaning grade-level content). Or, after only three days into a school year, identify a student as a “Strat Kid” because they have blue hair, wear black torn-up clothing, and don’t like to make eye contact.

So after many meetings and support from administration the department agreed to remove the courses and filter students into regular English classes (especially after being notified that be using below level grade content violating IDEA and FAPE) . Once we set our new course pathways a teacher who has been at CHS for 19 years responded by saying: "Well, I hope that they are ready to deal with all those kids failing all their English classes next year." Going on to say that he wasn't planning on changing anything he was doing so students are doomed to credit recovery.

On the other hand, there are some new strategies I learned that I would like to start using in my classroom. My goal this school year is to enhance how I teach academic vocabulary to my students. I think adding a bilingual word wall with definitions and pictures would be a great way to increase student involvement and understanding of new words. Another strategy I would like to implement more is affirming students’ bilingual identity. At the beginning of the year, we do a lot of projects/activities sharing our cultures, identities, family etc. However, I have noticed that by the end of the year we are not as active in this conversation. I want to work on implementing more of these cultural activities/projects throughout the year.

“Effective practices include helping students make cross-language connections and drawing on all students’ language resources rather than keeping languages strictly separate.”   p. 158

“When the languages are not separated, students can carry out linguistic investigations and build metalinguistic awareness by comparing and contrasting languages.”  p. 127

I use a similar strategy similar to the preview, view, review and would like to explore ways to expand and enhance it for my biology class next year.  I would like to focus on the review piece and give students time to meet in groups who have the same home language and have a guided activity that incorporates their learning, builds on their knowledge in both languages.  I like how Lauren talked about using bilingual books for an animal research project.  This is an area that I could further develop in my biology class.  I have bilingual textbooks and articles but am lacking bilingual books for my high school students. 

This also ties into Culturally Responsive Teaching as it eases the Linguistic and Cultural Capital that is systematic in our education structure.

This is reflected in my school with our DLI program where students at the high school level are taught Language & Literature in Spanish, AP Spanish Language & Culture, and this year some math courses in Spanish. Students in this program are also working toward their Seal of Biliteracy. Although if I had not had so many of my AVID students in the program this year I would not know that it existed as the promotion for the program is lacking. I hope that with budget cuts this year the program stays intact and continues to grow as it is so beneficial for our students.

As a teacher, I agree with you that there is this intense pressure to push content curriculum. In addition, the curriculum that we are given does not contain bilingual resources that would be helpful for students. Therefore, it is up to me to find these resources, add in the scaffolds and create a Heteroglossic view of bilingualism in my classroom. So, I agree with you that it is situational based upon teacher philosophies. Also, I strive to incorporate more of a Heteroglossic approach to my teaching. 

Another way parents can support their student’s literacy is through listening. I noticed in my practice the more students hear adults reading they tend to mimic the pace and expression in their voice. By listening to an audiobook or a podcast in their home language or English, students  can hear expression, rate, and fluency. They can then take these skills into their own independent reading. If possible, I recommend having the book or script in hand to follow along while listening. 

Using home language will support literacy in English because of translanguaging. Students can use their skills and knowledge in their home language and transfer it to English. For example, the more they build their vocabulary in their home language the more words they will be familiar with/have prior knowledge of when reading in English.

-Inviting families for fall conferences by calling each family in their home language and giving families different options of conferencing (phone and in-person).  Families were welcomed to school and could bring in younger siblings.  Conference times varied which enabled some parents to come in after work hours.  Conferences were approximately 30 minutes in length and families had time to share (with translation if needed).  Conference time was focused upon learning about students and their families, hopes/dreams for students and ways to work together to support their student. Next year, we would love to provide snacks/food for families, and have other resources available for families.  I also discussed conferences in Ch.2 Padlet.  

-Communication (email, parentvue, studentvue, paper copies) from school to home is offered in some languages but not all languages.  

-As a staff, we have discussed and would like to implement multilingual signage around school. This has not come to fruition but is supported by many staff members and I am hopeful this goal is achieved this year. I also love the "multilingual information board" mentioned in the section on "Including Students' Languages and Cultures" (172)

-There is a fair amount of growth that our school can do to move towards demonstrating an intercultural orientation: integrating home language into curriculum, creating opportunities for family involvement, and working with families to support student literacy.  

In Chapter 7, I was introduced to the concept of “drawing on cultural funds of knowledge” (175) which is seen in schools that adopt an intercultural orientation.  I do not think home visits are feasible for all of my students but I would love to somehow emulate this idea with our families, maybe focusing on our Newcomer population to provide support and create intentional connections where more students and families' home language and cultures our seen in our classrooms.  I’m excited about the idea of organizing a family night to welcome families, provide a meal, build relationships, and support them with school resources.  Things that could be included at family nights:  activities for home-language literacy, learning about students’

funds of knowledge, workshops, childcare, meeting content teachers and school liaisons, bringing in community resources (Wichita Center-clothing and food pantry).

I did not expect to hear that Suburban schools had more diverse teachers, but I have little personal experience in suburban areas (I was always in large cities or rural towns).

My background in education in large cities made diversity the norm. My first year teaching in at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas the English department had 25 members and about 50% were white and 60% female. My team of 9th grade teachers consisted of 5 people- Two were Latinx and bilingual (1 m, 1 f) and three monolingual white people (2 f, 1m). The rest of my department was a mix asian (Korean and Filipino), black, latino, and white teachers. This is not including the diverse ethnicities, classes, sexual orientations, and religious backgrounds of the staff.

Teaching in Oregon has been a major adjustment as staff is much less diverse and so is the student populations in the areas that I been an educator. My first full time teaching position in Oregon was in the rural town of Boardman at a small 7-12th grade secondary school. 100% of the teachers were white and almost 90% of the students were hispanic. Our two office secretaries were bilingual Latinas who had graduated from Riverside and had their own children enrolled in the school. We also had two IAs that were bilingual hispanic women. The staff in the building were challenging for me as I had come from such a different background so I had different higher expectations for all of my students. The students were challenging because they had such little knowledge and exposure to other cultures and backgrounds. When I mentioned Winter Break I was corrected by both students and staff "You mean Christmas Break?". I ended up creating a whole research unit on the Holocaust to accompany "The Diary of Anne Frank" play in our 8th grade curriculum because my students made so many prejudice derogatory comments/slurs/jokes about Jewish people. Overall it was a learning experience.

Yes, in my experience the demographics of students and staff inform school policies and teacher attitudes. Also they impact student performance as teachers and staff are examples of what can be accomplished, especially in smaller communities with less hands on experiences in diverse communities.

I like your idea about implementing multilingual signage around your school. At my school we have about 36 languages spoken. In reflection, there is no acknowledgment or display of this around our building. I would also like to bring this up to fellow staff members and see if there is a way to add this to our building.