I find Mrs. Starr to be a very passionate person but at times very misguided. While ESL for students like Peley and Raji is critical, I think that the way she planned it out and communicated the students class schedule to the parents needed to be done in a better way. Mr. Jon may have been a little extreme when he was quoted as saying that "Raji would not be in summer school if he had not left reading class(p. 91)." But what he is saying can not be over looked. He did not know that in order to be in an ESL program a student would be missing valuable time in class. Information like that is critical for a parent to know.
When it comes to Peley, the communication (or lack there of) is even more upsetting. Mrs. Starr would constantly send notes home to Peley's family with the knowledge that her notes would often times be over looked or confused. The fact that Peley was the best at English in her family was something of a problem because Mr. Lom "had the major responsibility for home and school communication (p. 90)." I just get the feeling that Mrs. Starr would just try to treat Peley's family like every other family. She needed to make an extra effort in my eyes to help Mr. Lom better understand what was happening in the class. Try leaving an open afternoon or a few to let him the opportunity to come in. Another idea, and I know we floated this idea in our group meeting, was to maybe have an interpreter go with Mrs. Starr to visit the Lom house.
I think it's key that the teachers make more time and effort to understand their students as a whole person. They are making assumptions because there are many barriers for the teacher to understand these students. The teacher needs to knock down whatever walls may be there and get to know the culture and family lives in order to have sucessful teaching experience with these children!
ReplyDeleteI think it's opening ones mind to just different things as well. People are scared of change and different things. The family-professional partnership of Raji's family and Mrs. Starr is one that had potential to be great in my eyes but that potential was never fulfilled. Why couldn't Mrs. Starr have sat down, had something similar to an IEP, with Raji's family before the year started? It's just an idea.
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