Laura Granger Blog # 4

An article written by Espinosa and Fournier called "6 Stepping Stones: Literature in the Classroom" talks about the challenges teachers face with bilingual students. Picking out literature for bilingual students can be especially hard on teachers who only speak one language. This article gives many pointers and answers many questions that teachers will be asking. First, the children need to have questions raised in their minds while reading books. How does a teacher do this? A teacher could start by reading books about famous people from history. The teacher could then go on to ask the students how they relate to them or if they even relate to the people they are reading about. The students will start thinking about the information they have received and how it applies to them in their own lives.

Another way would be that the teacher has careful preparation as to which books they are picking out for the students; teachers need to do some research before they read a book to the students. Teachers should talk to other teachers and get ideas as well as running it past the school board. The article states, " it takes a lot of thought and mental preparation to know exactly why you're reading this book or why this book is going to fit" (Espinosa and Fournier 85). The key point for teachers to remember is that we must be intentional with everything that we do. Every event in the classroom should be an opportunity to learn.

Making sure that the children get a chance to share their ideas is a key point when reading a text. Many times it is hard for teachers to get all 25-30 opinions from their students but there are techniques that can be used in order to conquer this. A child must first know that the teacher feels like their opinion is important and that can be done by the teacher saying to the class "everyone's ideas are important and we need to respect those ideas". The teacher can also form small groups and have the students share their ideas with their peers. Understanding where people and coming from and what their ideas are builds a stronger classroom foundation and gives students more confidence to share their answers.