When I read the first four chapters of this book I had to keep reminding myself that this teacher wasn’t in the benefit of the hindsight view that the reader has, nor the cultural background of the family life of each of these students’ Peley and Raji.
I found that I thought, wait, she is missing a teaching opportunity here! There are many times when I thought the teacher should have talked about these two classmates cultures, and have them shared and used as a chance to learn about a different place in the world and that the world is so much larger than the average kindergartner knows.
In particular I thought that when Raji would leave the class to be in India for a few months that the teacher should have told the class that he was leaving for his nature country and let them ask questions about that. Then Raji and the teacher could supply answers. It seemed to me that this would have helped Raji with being included, rather than further excluded, because the other children just made their own assumptions that Raji was missing school and just having fun while they all still had to attend, creating a dislike.
“It seems apparent that the classroom teacher who creates a literacy learning environment that promotes social connections and encourages the understanding of different social patterns contributes to children’s literacy learning.” (Schmidt pg3).Mooney’s text “Theories of Childhood” shows that Vygotsky found the “primary contribution to our understanding of young children’s development is his understanding of the importance of interaction with teachers and peers in advancing in children’s knowledge” (Mooney, pg 83). This is key in explaining why Peley and Raji are not advancing in their language development as well as they could be. They are experiencing isolation and peer rejection and it’s hindering them. The matter of fact is that the peers don’t understand Peley or Raji’s behaviors well, nor do the teachers. If there was more family cultural background conducted then some of the ‘odd behaviors’ could be explained as a breach in cultural experiences in their homes, their native countries and school environment. It’s being missed by the teacher because some improvements are seen but deeper understanding is not there. This book shows how important that element is.
If I were Peley or Raji I would really be discouraged and frustrated and as such young children they aren’t likely to know to speak out for themselves with their words. There is no praise for Raji’s talents and Peley is completely misunderstood. This would make a love of learning hard for anyone when there is so much conflict experienced over and over.
We are all becoming more of a 'global community' as technology and travel have made it easier to prevent cultural isolation or immigration. Understanding conflicts in culture become that more important of a topic for teachers to be aware of.
Elizabeth, Raji's travels to India was a good example of a teaching moment for cultural awareness. Another instance was at the library, with Raji only interested in selecting books after he saw the "Snowy Day" book with the character who looked like him). The library could have provided books to the whole class to share information about their respective heritages. During the “favorite foods lesson,” the teacher could have requested that people bring in food for a multicultural picnic (this reminds me of a book about Yoko by Rosemary Wells that I will bring to the next literature circle). The "object from home share time" could have been adapted to include Raji and Peley, who clearly were uncomfortable with the assignment. Finally, the music teacher could have used the children's joy and comfort in the class as a jumping off point to introduce songs from Cambodia and India.
ReplyDeleteI love that you mentioned Vygotsky here but, what about Erickson's stage of Initiative vs Guilt? These two children are really at a stage where, they can either thrive or start to give up. It's a tough postion these two are in. Trying to blend two cultures is something us as adults would struggle with. I cannot imagine how a child, at such an early stage in their development must be feeling.
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