Demographics
Teaching urban students how to read and write comes with a unique set of challenges as well as rare opportunities for personal and professional growth. The demographics of my school, Francis Scott Key School in Philadelphia, are highly diverse in their ethnic, cultural and language backgrounds. The languages spoken by this diverse group of multi-lingual students, teachers, administrators, parents and other community members had included: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French, Hindi, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Laos, Nepali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. About 54.7% of students are currently classified as English Language Learners (ELL), about 10% had been exited out of ELL service, and another 10% are children of immigrants who were born in the United States (never received ELL service, even though a language other than English is primarily spoken at home). That’s an estimated total of 75% of students who are recent immigrants or children of immigrants.
I feel that I have a huge responsibility to teach my students in a culturally responsive way that is compatible with – as well challenging to – how their brains function in a language other than English. I believe it is important to teach struggling readers and writers how to use complex text as writing models. Reading “good writing” is the first step in becoming better readers and writers. As teachers, we often underestimate our students, especially ELL and Special Education students, by giving them below grade level work. When a struggling reader is able to read text two or three years below his or her grade level, it is not time to “just” cheer and celebrate, but it’s also time to set higher goals and challenges. As teachers, we don’t want to promote a false sense of accomplishment and complacency that may cripple the growth of all learners. I believe it is equally important to make students feel comfortable as well as uncomfortable at different stages of learning. Easy goals will not force students to work hard, try new ideas and grow.
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