This morning I watched a segment on C-Span with a gal from the Governing Board of the Nation's Report Card. She was discussing the results of the history segment of the testing. It was a reminder how important it is to teach history, but I was also reminded that expecting English Language Learners to do well on a test such as this after only being in the U.S. only one year is unreasonable. Not only will the majority of them not have the necessary academic vocabulary to do well but they won't have the advantage of all the years of U.S. background knowledge.
I finished reading a book--Mockingbird-- this morning by Kathryn Erskine that fits with this topic. Although the young girl in the book is a native English speaker she has Asperger's syndrome. Also, her mother died a couple of years ago from cancer and her older brother who she adored was recently shot and killed at a shooting at his middle school. In other words, she was dealing with a number of issues. I was enthralled with the message I was getting from the book.
Both of these experiences--the woman on C-Span and Caitlin in the book--are reminders that we can't just look at our Esperanza scholars as recipients of knowledge who are expected to regurgitate it. They are also young people coming to us with many issues that can have an impact on their learning.
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