Module 2

This week in chapter 5, it's all about language. A lot of the material talked about in the chapter, I have personal experience with. Growing up in a 1st generation bilingual household was a bit difficult. When speaking to my parents and other adults it was just in Spanish and speaking to my sisters or cousins and friends, it was in English. 

I had experience a point of language loss (pg. 188). After a while I was more focused in English since it was all around me that the Spanish was pushed to the side. My mother would speak to me in Spanish and I would answer in English. This would be an example of subtractive Bilingualism (pg.188). Even though I occasionally spoke in broken Spanish, I was forgetting my native language. I was able to maintain both languages with time and practice as I got older.

As a teacher, I would love for my students to have balanced bilingualism (pg.188). This is very important to me because I don't want them to struggle with communication like I did. In my profession, I am glad I can help kids in more ways than just learning. By being in the Dual-Language program I am able to teach kids how to speak, read, and write in Spanish and English. By doing this I am helping students communicate in both languages and they are able to communicate with their parents. Many of the students knew English while their parents only knew Spanish. Parents have already expressed their gratitude for being able to communicate with their child, without using another child to translate. 

Working in a district that is making a lot of changes, has given the bilingual program a lot of opportunities to change and grow. One of the major changes was that we went from a Bilingual Transitional to a Dual-Language One Way. The School District is also creating a new Jr. High to be open next year. One of the suggestions for the Dual-language students was to have a Science class in Spanish to maintain their Academic Spanish (pg. 190). Some people did not see the means of having this especially since Spanish was already going to be offered. After doing research and conversations, they did see the difference and the importance for students to have academic Spanish. Academic language is important because it is very different from basic communication. In the textbook (pg.190) it states “Academic Language: The entire range of language used in elementary, secondary, and university level schools including words, concepts, strategies, and processes from academic subjects.”

With basic communications come a lot of differences. The books hits the points of dialects and pronunciation (pg. 193). I think when talking about about any language this is important to know. A lot of the vocabulary can change from area to area. The code switching is something we all do from day to day without even thinking about it. One area that I have never thought about was the “Genderlects” (pg.194). When it comes to my son and daughter, I can see a bit of the difference the way they talk, especially around friends. 

When reading chapter 8, the one thing that jumped out was the part on memory. This jumped out at me because I feel like I have a horrible memory. I tend to forget a lot, for example I forget where I leave my keys , but if I see a student from 7 years ago, I usually remember the child's full name, where they sat, who they talked to and a memory working with them. In this sense my long term memory is better then my short term memory. 

When I saw the video on Mnemonic competitions, I already knew that was not for me. I was really impressed though, It seemed that many of the players would remember stuff by relating it to something they know. This sounds more like Elaborative rehearsal (pg.312), were you make a connection with something in their long- term memory. This might be something I would have to try to hopefully help my memory on my keys.