Case Study

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Student’s Name

Florida International University

School of Education

TSL3080

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Video 1: Getting Acquainted

The language practice I experienced when I was in a Florida school was Spanish and

French. This was an incredible experience because I was exposed to different cultures. I learned

Spanish from my students! It was a pleasure to go to class daily and learn new words/phrases/

terms in a different language. The practices that I saw in my field were teachers teaching other

culture and languages to all students and being incredibly open with it through learning.

This was done by classroom decoration, parties, showing video clips, or even music to

dance too. Civil rights groups advocated for English language learners in Florida in the 80’s. The

Consent Decree earned the right to educate students within their community bilingually.

Translanguaging is a flexible, and critical use of language. It is the core of teaching and emerging

bilingual students. My opinion of this practice is that its great! it is a wonderful way to get teachers

and students to feel comfortable speaking in different languages and being themselves.

Everyone is learning and that is what it is all about. Translanguaging practices create

scaffold structures for the language development of multilingual students by being able to use all

their languages efficiently and creatively with core practices used in the classroom.

Video 2: Being an Advocate for Bilingual Students

Ms. Conte uses students’ backgrounds by understanding that its only going to help them

by encourage and embracing the students. An idea to implement that is viewing student’s language

backgrounds as resources in their learning. A second idea is reading books that feature

multicultural and multilingual characters. By reading books that feature multicultural/multilingual

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characters it creates a culture of inclusion for the student to be exposed to other languages and

cultures. As a teacher, I have participated in this kind of practice in the classroom before.

My experience was reading a book to students in Spanish about colors and it had English

words so that all the students could understand colors in both languages. It was also helpful for me

as the teacher to learn the language. English speakers can profit exposure to bilingual books by

learning with the students as they read to them. Conte felt like because she was an educator, she

needed be responsible of her important role. She learned that she should become a co learner

alongside her students. She also learned to have patience which later gave her empathy. My

thoughts about not controlling everything that goes on in the classroom are being able to

acknowledge the student’s language identities and their strengths.

Video 3: Bilingual Superpowers

Some benefits of graphic novels are culturally relevant mentor texts, students use English

for structures that have been taught, students us their home language to express complex ideas and

bilingualism leveraged as a resource Ms. Ballantyne uses notebook writing with her graphic novel

assignments. She created a checklist for her students, and they copied them into their notebooks.

The checklist had all the different things that they needed to write about. Some parts are in English

and some parts are in Chinese. Ms. Ballantyne-Berry uses students’ language repertoire as a

resource by getting the students ideas across. She uses that by focusing on where they need to build

their English skills. She drew on culturally relevant mentor texts, encouraged her students and

opened space for students to process ideas out loud to themselves in whatever language they speak

naturally.

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Video 4: Knowing Your Students

Chapman-Santiago believes as a middle school teacher, its all about empathy. The quote

that she read applies to a teacher work by really loving what you do. You must know students well

in order to teach them. As a teacher we gain connections with our students and each of them are

unique. We want to know about our students, help them achieve their goals, and be apart of their

journey. So, learning their home language is very essential as a teacher. If I were to carefully watch

the cues students send through body language and facial expressions, I would learn their feelings,

and their wants and needs. When I observed a class once, I learned how the teacher communicated

to her students just off their personal reactions/expressions.

Understanding who the student is and build a relationship with them. It is important to b a

keen observer of student’s expressions and behaviors. Provide opportunities so that students can

show what they know using their home language practices. (You can see their strengths and

challenges.) use observations to help create scaffolds. An exit slip is a way to incorporate home

language as a scaffold. With this assignment the student can talk to a partner in whatever language

they prefer. That way they are understanding of what is being asked of them. They must submit

the answers in English. This way the teacher can see how they progress on various language

objectives. Using cues beyond language to learn about students is the role of an L1 in second

language acquisition. Second language acquisition theory is tied to techniques used in second

language development by translated copies of texts and prompts.

Video 5: The Benefits of Bilingual Ed

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Sara Vogel states “push for more” meaning Teachers can still go a long way towards supporting

their students learning. Aponte reads the story “My name is Jorge on Both Sides of the River” and

the impact of this inspirational story could change her students’ lives because it touches topics that

they can relate too. The goal of a bilingual program is to be bilingual and biliterate. A bilingual

program impacts English speakers by empowering them to be fluent and help guide them through

their learning.