Alideschenes's Blog

Week Reflection #4

This week I went into the English classroom to do some observations. They had a substitute teacher but the special education teacher was in the classroom doing to lesson also. Two students shared one book about famous minorities in America. They went around the room and each child had to read a paragraph aloud. The book contained people like Jennifer Lopez, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr. When the students finished reading the passages on Chavez and Dr. King the special education teacher did a lecture on how slavery is not dead in America. She did not sugar coat the lesson on African American slavery at all. She stated “African American were chained together, they had no bathrooms so they sat in their waste and other people’s waste and if they died they were thrown over.” This really got me thinking because this is a very diverse classroom; I really struggle with this in my mind about how I would teach this lesson. Do I teach it like the special education teacher or in a more sensitive way that might be making the situation look better? She also talked about how immigrant workers are slaves and we need to fight for their rights also.  I noticed that the English lessons are really integrated with social studies.

I also for the first time saw a Weekly Reader. This is a magazine that the children receive every week about current issues going on in America and around the world. At the end of the magazines it has comprehension questions about the articles.