Food for Thought Chapter 1 April 13, 2014

1. Culture is defined as a group of people who share commonalities like food, beliefs, way of life, and language. The differences that I have seen among a culture group are educational level. Some students have been educated before coming to the US and some have never been schooled at all. The country of birth of some can be different within a culture like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. I also have seen socioeconomic status varying as well. I have seen poor as well as middle class Latinos.

2. Varying educational experience I have seen students, who have been here in the US longer, helping those students who have been here for a short period of time. Helping with homework or translating words has been a great help to some. Socioeconomic status - Hispanic students come from many socioeconomic backgrounds in the classrooms I have observed. Some are thankful for many services like breakfast and lunch, especially those that struggle at home financially. Others who have families on welfare seem to take advantage of the system and it is evident through their children. I have also seen a Chinese ELL who comes from a wealthy family the parents are very involved in the students education. In contrast, I have seen Hispanic students whose parents are not involved due to fear of deportation or feel that it is not their job to get involved in their childs education. 3. Acculturation is when a student acquires the culture and adapts to the customs of a new culture. 4. The ESL teachers role is to help the ELL adapt to the new culture of the US as well as learning about the various cultures of all ELLs in the classroom. This knowledge will help the teacher know what certain behaviors mean when they occur in the classroom. 5. I was in a health class this week and one of the ELLs was having difficulty with the directions of the assignment. A student, who could speak both English and Spanish well, helped the ELL with instructions. I also had some ELL students who explained to me how to prepare plantains. I have always wondered how to eat them so I asked and they were thrilled to tell me!