For this assignment I will imagine that I am a teacher in a child care center in college town and it is the beginning of the year. I know that I am going to have a child in my classroom from Spain and he only speaks Spanish. The things that I will do in preparation for this new child include adding labels in the classroom in Spanish. This will help the child feel welcome, but will also provide an opportunity for all children to learn. I will work with the parents to find out some children's books that he enjoys from Spain and add those to my library center. This will help him to feel more welcome and something familiar in the classroom and it will expand the diversity in the library for all children. I will learn some key phrases in his home language so that I can provide comfortant and encouragement. Since this is a college town I will work the English as a Second Language institute to get our parent book translated so that they will have access to it in thier home language. This change for our center will help this family, but it increases our overall work with families. Making a change like this will show families that we are committed to meeting their needs. I will invite the family to join us for a storytime that they read the book in thier home language so that thier child will have a sense of pride that they are sharing a piece of thier life with the entire class. This experience will help the child with thier own self-esteem, but it will strenghen the relationship with teachers and the family as well educating all the children in the classroom.
Throughout the Blog I included the five statements of how I would prepare myself and my classroom to be culturally responsive towards this family as well as how I hope these preparations will benefit both myself and the child. Working to meet the needs of all children is critical work for teachers. Positive and accurate learning expereinces about human differences and similiarities help to give children a foundation for resisting incorrect and harmful messages about themselves and others (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).
Reference
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias
education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Hi Jill
ReplyDeleteGreat job! You were very thoughtful and detailed in preparing the Spanish student into your class. I liked your idea of putting some Spanish labels and storybooks in the classroom, so that the student would find some connection from the class to his home culture. Wong
I think that your idea of labeling the room would allow the student the opportunity to feel at home. I like that you would also use the opportunity as a teachable moment for the other students in your room. The fact that you would locate other resources to help make the child's transition as easily as possible is great!
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