Ilana Blog Chapters 2 & 3

I thought this weeks chapters, “Chapter 2, The Impact of Social and Cultural Forces on the Academic Achievement of African American Males” and “Chapter 2, And What Will Become of Children Like Miguel Fernandez?/…Education, Immigration, and the Future of Latinos in the United States..”  were very interesting to read back to back. Noguera argues that both of these groups are in trouble, and explores challenges that they face. 

In chapter two, I was shocked to read the statistic that, “these is no greater evidence of long-term negative effects of living within an impoverished inner-city environment outweighed the damage inflicted by early exposure to drugs.”  Noguera explains that impoverished conditions greatly increase the multiplier effect on risk variables.  Variables that he listed are “single-parent household, low birth weight, low educational attainment of parents, and others.”  These are only some variables that are increased. 

This had me thinking about other variables that are affected by impoverished conditions.  I am an early childhood educator and a parent of a one and a half year-old girl, so conditions that affect early childhood development first came to mind.

For language development, talking to young children often is very much stressed in the world of Early Childhood Education.  Hearing and being exposed to language allows children to develop linguistically.  Early childhood teachers need to be aware of saying many words throughout the day.  When these teachers are assessed, there will often be a count of words that the teacher said throughout the say to ensure that they are exposing their students to enough language.  As a mother of a young child myself, I can attest that sometimes keeping a constant dialog with a little person at home who is not talking back can be hard.  My husband goes out of town during the week for work, so I am by myself all week.  Trying to balance my own work, taking care of our toddler, and keeping up the home can seem overwhelming!  I often have to remind myself to keep talking to my daughter.  There are times that I am tempted to plop her in front of the TV while I quickly get something done.  I will occasionally do this for a fifteen-minute interval even though I know it is not the best thing for her development.  When my husband is home, I find keeping dialog going easier to do because he will pitch in and play with our daughter or we have conversations together with our daughter. 

In my classroom and in my own home, I keep a very print rich environment, and suggest that my students’ parents do the same.  A print rich environment has many books and different print displayed prominently as well.  Families living in poverty do not have as much money for these books, magazines, alphabet charts and other resources that are available.  They also may not have the money for enrichment activities or have time to take their children to the library if they are working multiple jobs.

These are just some things that already make school more of a challenge for students living in impoverished homes right as they start school.  This makes it clear to me that as a teacher, it is so important to offer these developmental supports in the classroom.  Going above and beyond to use as much language as possible, providing high engagement books that represent all of the students, and keeping the environment as print rich as possible.  Do any of you have any other ideas that come to mind of challenges that these students face with early developmental support coming into school?

In chapter three, challenges of high school aged students working to get into college were what really stood out to me.  Working in the early childhood field, I am not aware of many the college acceptance requirements and challenges.  The example that really stood out to me was about Miguel, of whom the chapter is named after.  Miguel is an extremely hard worker and is spoke very highly of by all of his teachers.  Although he is an exemplary student, his hopes of getting into college are low he is an undocumented immigrant and he was not able to pass the English portion of the New York State Regents exam.  Although it seems that he would really strive in college and it would lead him to more opportunities, he plans to stay in the fast food industry.  These struggles are heartbreaking.  For those of you working with high school aged students, are there any struggles that you have personally seen any of your promising students face while trying to gain acceptance or enroll in college?  Do high schools offer extra support for English language learners in standardized testing?  Is there any help or support for these students to gain citizenship?

These chapters enlightened me on challenges students face from early childhood all the way through the end of high school and beyond.  As a teacher, it is so important to be aware of these challenges and things that we need to do to support all students.  I am interested in learning more ways to help.