Talking Points # 2 ...Hopefully it stays posted this time! :)

Terry Meier's "Why Can't She Remember That"  
   
1. "...the teacher asked, 'How many mitten's are there?' Gabriela (a pseudonym0, the bilingual Puerto Rican child sitting next to me, turned and asked me, in an exasperated tone, 'Why can't she remember that?'"

This amuses me because I never thought of what children are thinking when teachers repeat things multiple times as if they don't understand. I love the way this girl says that she cannot understand why her teacher keeps asking a question that she has already been told the answer to twice. It makes you think how many other kids are thinking the same thing. Maybe it's not that they don't understand the material, but that they don't raise their hands because if the teacher cannot remember why should they. I can see how a child might see it this way. It is a bit funny to think about.

2. "I turn the pages, book after book, and ask where are we?"

One Asian American educator wrote this when reflected on the books she read as a child. When teachers read books they always read safe books with white perfect characters. children of other races often feel as if they are excluded, or rejected from this "white world". It is important to read books that show all types of families of all types of races. If teachers continuously only read stories representing white people then children of other races tend to feel that they are different and not what they should be and this is not the message we want to be teaching children.

3. "If books are not compelling to children, then no amount of time spent on rhyming games, phonemic awareness exercises, or any other kind of literacy activity will result in them becoming proficient and empowered readers."
If you asked me a few years ago what books I read over the summer I was the one who never read them until the week before the summer reading tests. I hated to read. I don't anymore, but I will say that not reading for fun made it hard in other subjects. reading helps strengthen vocabulary, makes you more knowledgeable in other subjects, and helps with grammar in a way too. Once I began to read I found that I did better in these areas too. I always got good grades but I had to work even harder for them because not reading all those years held me back in the sense that I was not as familiar with vocabulary, and other things that reading helps with. I completely agree with this quote.

This article made me think of my boyfriend and the experiences that he has had to go through as a Hispanic coming to America not fully knowing how to speak English. I remember when he was learning how to speak English and people would talk very slow and loud to him saying, "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? HELLO MY NAME IS..." People would treat him like an idiot like somehow speaking louder and slower was going to get him to understand. It always amused me. He would respond "YES I DO." yelling back at them and making them realize how they were acting. What made me think of this is Gabriela and how she doesn't understand why her teacher keeps asking the same question again and again.