Chapter 2: Critical Roles for Teachers

As the title suggests, this chapter discusses the many roles that educators play in the lives of their students. A few of these roles include: language emissaries adn mediators, as agents of introduction to the target culture, and as sources of knowledge for their colleagues. The author discusses two main instructional techniques that are in great contrast. The first, critical pedagogy, begins with problem posing and draws on real life,ie...teh student's experiences, culture, adn personal stregnths to resolve problems in their everyday life.. The teacher converses with the students about difficulties in their lives and how their lives here differ from in their native country. The teacher presents pictures, photographs, drawings, collages, etc..to students that represent a personal or emotionally charged social conflict. The teacher then begins asking very simple concrete questions, like "What do you see?" and then follows up with inductive, open ended questions, like "How does this apply to you?" and "What are some solutions to this problem?"

The other main teaching strategy presented in this chapter is the "Banking Model of Instruction." This strategy falsely assumes that the students minds are empty accounts in which to deposit information. This strategy of instuction is based on two premises...1) that students/learners are empty, and 2) standard knowledge is useful for everyone. I believe that it is more motivating to learn language that relates to real life, what the student is experiencing and real challenges that the student faces. So, I agree more with the first "Critical Pedagogy" approach. This seems like it would be much more motivating to students to talk about "real life" as opposed to random knowledge that may or may not be useful.

In the text, "Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching English Language Learners With Diverse Abilities", the author explains the "Social Interactionist Learning Theory" by Les Vygotsky.In discussing this theory, the authot Echevarria and Graves state that "Through social interaction, student's confront other people's points of view and discover how other people respond in various situations." This quote reminded me of the the "Critical Pedagogy "theory where teacher pose real life problems and discuss with students how they might solve the problem. In this way, everyone hears the views and opinions of others.

In specialteach2's blog, she states, "teachers may not be able to control much about their students lives, but they can control the atmosphere in our own class." I agree with this statement. As teachers, we each have the opportunity to create a positive, safe and secure, and motivating learning environment for our students. Despite a students home environment, they can create a community within the classroom where students are accepting, encouraging, and motivated to learn.

In responding to Nicoel William's blog, Robinjcarver stated, "Think of the power that so many people have who have the privelege of knowing/learning multiple languages." This is so true, especially in California. A student who speaks Spanish, for example, and is fully bilingual, will have greater opportunities for e mployment than one who does not. Many employers pay a stipend to those who are bilingual also. Being bilingual and speaking 2 languages is a very important skill and will open doors and empower that person.