Diversity In Bilingual Education

With great pleasure, I write this recommendation letter for Melissa Gonzalez, whom I met back in the fall of 2015, when she joined Miami Dade College - Kendall Campus as a Video Production Technician for the Media Services Department. During the time with Miami Dade College, among the qualities that Melissa demonstrated were a mature personality and emotional stability, which are attributes that make an individual valuable for any institution. Miami Dade College is a multiethnic educational institution that welcomes empathy, sensitivity and a cooperative spirit. Melissa has demonstrated all of those attributes while interacting with colleagues, clients, and students.

I picked this image because I like how it has a rustic look too it kind of reminds me of the western movies. For the title I used a slab-serif called Rosewood Std as the font because it has the western feel, which works with the feel of the image. For the informational part I used sans-serif called Helvetica. I tried doing what Saltz mentioned when it comes to a dark or light background to use dark or white for the font so it’s legible to read. I, also like what Adam mentioned as well about negative space, which is the image itself and I didn’t want to over power the scenery with too much font. I wanted that negative space to be the eye-catching star for this poster. I once again picked some colors from the image for the color of my font

People of all ages constantly learn how to speak multiple languages. Children are taught to become bilingual, which increases their knowledge. A young boy named Richard Rodriguez grew up in San Francisco, California with a household of Spanish speaking family members. Rodriguez barely knew English when he entered his early years of Elementary school. Through the course of his education Rodriguez took note of how different he was from his family, and slowly began to lose his heritage. Rodriguez’s family embarrassed him since he was categorized as a Scholarship boy, which means a good student yet also a troubled son whose moderately endowed (Rodriguez 19).

Bilingual Education where Supporters feel that students miss a great deal by not being taught in their family’s language. That children that retain their family’s language will retain a sense of individuality. Their ethnic heritage & cultural ties. Helping Students acquire the skills of a classroom crucial for public success. Rodriguez also discusses the use of teaching and using a single language.

There are different services I found at the National Association for Bilingual Education. There are different memberships costs, such as the Lifetime Package, for $445.00, Platinum Package, for $585.00, Premium Package, for $515.00, Choice Package for $445.00, Saturday-Only Package, for $285.00 and Parent/Student Package for $310.00. National Association for Bilingual Education is a non-profit membership organization that works to advocate for educational equality and excellence for the bilingual/multilingual student in global society.

Around 1959, bilingual education took flight in the United States. Starting in Miami and quickly making its way San Francisco, bilingual education soon led to the Bilingual Education Act, which promoted “No Child Left Behind”. Only twenty years later, the act acquired the attention of high schools around the country. Nonetheless, bilingual education is not always taken to be the cure-all for acclimating immigrants to the United States. In his article “Aria: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez argues that students should not take part in bilingual education by explaining how it takes away individuality and a sense of family through the use of ethos, diction, and imagery; Rodriguez also uses parallelism and ethos to point out how a bilingual childhood can help students feel connected to society.

As a current 5th grade teacher through Teach for America and Masters’ candidate at the Relay Graduate School of Education, I believe I would be an excellent fit for the English Teaching Assistantship in Brazil. Raised myself in a bilingual household, my experience teaching English as a Second Language students in Passaic, New Jersey has strengthened my language skills. Teaching in a bilingual classroom (English and Spanish), I teach a range of students: some only speak their native language while other students are quickly approaching proficiency in English. This has helped me switch between English and Spanish seamlessly—and guide others to do the same, a skill I would like to bring to learners in Brazil. Further, I am now capable of helping others think metacognitively about the process. In addition to being fluent in English and Spanish, I have taken on Portuguese to be my third language. Although I have conversational skills now, I am hoping to reach the intermediate level in the next year and greatly boost these skills through interactions in Brazil. As well as the language skills I’ve gained, I have learned to create engaging lessons and units that scaffold information to help increase understanding. I have also learned to create my own handouts, worksheets, and charts to assure student learning. As a teaching assistant, these fundamental skills will assure I can focus on teaching and learning from my students, instead of the basics of teaching. I am also excited to

Aside from Native Americans, there are no indigenous "Americans" to speak of in the United States. The U.S. is therefore a large immigrant nation whose history has grown out of its ability to bring together people of different cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds. This is why the United States is often considered to be the world's "melting pot." However, despite the fact that America is composed of a diverse immigrant population, English is recognized as the national language of the U.S., and it is through English that domestic affairs in the United States are conducted. Given the large influx of immigrants from Spanish-speaking nations in South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico

​The United States is a nation filled with a multitude of different cultures which come alongside with a variety of languages. These languages are what help society to communicate with one another and to expand their horizon of thinking. As the United States progresses so does the culture. The culture of the United States is no longer what it once was. A nation of a predominately Caucasian race, who only speaks one language, is now a thing of the past. The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (English Language Learners) states that from the 1997-1998 school year to the 2008-2009 school year, the number of English Language Learners in public schools increased from 3.5 million to 5.3 million which comes to be a 51 percent increase. They also reported that the overall student population grew to a 7.2 percent increase during this time. A huge generation of a multicultural society is rapidly growing and it is our responsibility as a nation to educate this new generation to its fullest potential. We as a nation can wither choose to ignore the reality of this new generation by forcing one language on students classified as English Language Learners, or we can choose to cultivate the knowledge of language so that this new generation may prosper in more ways than one. We do not want to become a society that promotes, as R.A. Berman summarizes in his statement from his article The Real

UT Dallas campus is ranked amongst the highest in ethnic diversity but there is still a significant gap in terms of African American representation (5%). As a African American women, I believe I can contribute to the school's diversity due to, not only my ethnicity but my unique perspective, education experience, and community involvement. I grew up in neighborhoods and attended public schools that were minority dominated up until high school, where I transitioned into a primarily White and Asian magnet program. The transition was arduous both academically and socially, trying to balance the large workload /AP courses while learning to adapt to the cultural differences. To better adapt, my peers and I formed the Supporting Minority Students

Asylees are foreigners that have been admitted to the United States and are unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution. They need protection from persecution based on their race, religion, membership in a social group, political opinion, or national origin. They are capable of applying when they are in the United States or at a point of entry.

Historically, the United States began as a nation that valued language diversity due to the fact that in the 1789 Constitution, no official language was designated. As the years progressed, English became the popular language and was a way to keep power in the dominant English speaking white population, while keeping power away from the non-English speaking minority groups. However, now that times are changing and the Spanish population is rising, Spanish and being bilingual are becoming more valued.

From this week’s readings and class lecture, I learned more about the way the system is set for Bilingual students. It’s sad to think that we live in a country where in 2018, we still face segregation in the school system, even at the University level. I learned a lot from Dolores Delgado n on her chapter titled “Chicana/o Education from The Civil Rights Era to The Present”, it’s incredible to know what past generations had to go through for us Latinx students who are in higher education to have the rights we have as we speak now. A lot has been done, but sadly we still face a lot of racism at an institutional level, for example a lot us get placed on lower level for English classes. A great example I can think of is here at Sonoma State, most

Working with many diverse individuals including but not limited to, elementary students, high school students, and college students has allowed me to socially engage with parents, administrators, teachers, and coworkers. I have found it easier to build relationships with those who come from a similar background and are bilingual in Spanish. On the other hand, it can be a challenge to build relationships with those who do not open up with me.

Katherine Beckett. 1997. Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics, Oxford University Press. Published in the Crime and Public Policy Series, edited by Norval Morris and Michael Tonry.