In class, we discussed the use of English in the classroom. I found it interesting that if you push for only English to be spoken in the classroom some students may feel like their home language isn’t welcome. I remember a time in high school when I heard a classmate speaking Turkish on the phone to her parents. She might have felt that she was not welcome to share that part of herself. I never knew that she spoke a different language at home. It must be hard to be one person at school and a different person at home. As teachers, it is important for us to be willing to understand these students. We need to recognize that they have different lives at home, and they should feel welcome to share those lives at school.

Something I found interesting in the Coelho (2017) reading was about the Fourth Grade Slump. I was looking at the curriculum to see what the reading level had to be for a student in third grade compared to a student in fourth grade. After seeing the indicators for grades 2,3, and 4 I can see why the fourth-grade slump is something students struggle with. According to the Ministry of Education (2011) the grade 2 curriculum students should read 70-100 words per minute, in third grade 80-110 words per minute, and in fourth grade 135-185 words per minute. It is clear to see that the word count for grade two students overlaps with grade three. But in grade 4 there is a big jump with no overlap. I can see that students may have trouble with the jump, especially because the rest of the grades have an overlap as well. It kind of makes you take a double look at the curriculum in case you read something wrong.

Also, in the Coelho (2017) reading the different perceptions of bilingual are shared. When I hear that someone is bilingual, I would think that they are fluent in 2 languages. But another way of looking at it is someone who’s “able to function like a native speaker of the same age of both languages” (Coelho, p. xv). I wonder if this is representing adults as well. I work with people who would rather have me talk on the intercom or call for supplies because their perception is that their spoken English isn’t as good as mine. So, are they bilingual? They can speak 2 languages, but they are not as confident in their English.

In my breakout group, we talked about the struggle children must feel if their families don’t understand very much English. If a student wants to come home and tell their family what they learned at school, they will have to do an extra step of translating what they learned in English into the language they speak at home. This may cause more of a disconnect between home and school. Another problem that may arise is communication with the parents. If there is a student who is having trouble in class, the teacher would have to discuss the problem with the child’s parents. This means the teacher must try their best to communicate the problems the child is having. I don’t know the best tool to use at this point but at the least, we could find someone who can translate between English and their native language. Some school divisions subscribe to a translation service to help with this, but that requires a lot more scheduling to get everyone available at the same time. Another thing we could do is use a tool like google translate to type what the teacher needs the parents to understand and vice versa what the parents may be concerned about.

Finally, I smiled when we learned that language is a socially created power. English must be one of the hardest languages to learn because of all the slang that is constantly being created. It is interesting to know how old someone is based on the words they use. Even I (as a 20-year-old) am already feeling old because I don’t understand this new wave of slang. The video linked here explains new slang words in 2021. I think this can create a power dynamic between the students and teachers because the students may all know words that the teacher doesn’t understand. In the video, Rachel shows how words can change over the years. This can cause miscommunication between the teacher and students.

Link to the video- www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzjRsCTDn30