Learning Silence by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
The author of Learning Silence expresses fear as a young
student in Miss Burton’s class, mainly because she feel disgust emanating from
her teacher (“I hope Miss Barton will not curl her lip when she looks at me”).
She describes perfectly how it feels to be a helpless, innocent child who
experiences rejection from authority. This is a stark reminder for us as future
teachers to be inclusive to all students. I felt heartbroken as I read this piece since I could feel the hostility that this poor child must have felt from her teacher - no one should have to feel that way.
English con Salsa by Gina Valdés
This poem appears to poke fun at the English as a Second
Language (ESL) program at her school. She refers to the class ESL 100 which is
an introduction to ESL as ‘English Surely Latinized’ and which does not have
the intended effect of really teaching English since there is no real
communication or dialogue between people. “In four months you’ll be speaking
like George Washington,” but there is no recognition of who each person is,
what they know and where they came from.
The author states: ‘Welcome, amigos’, and ‘bring…your patience of
pyramids, your red suns and golden moons, your guardian angels’, but what is
missing is the English Language lesson acknowledging these traditions and
cultures. Instead, the lessons focus on pronouns, past participles, gerunds,
verbs, etc. without the proper context. They become words without meaning – and
how can anyone possibly learn language like that?
Source: Ana, O. S. (2004). Tongue-tied: The lives of
multilingual children in public education. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Hi Reena, I also chose Learning Silence--it's such a powerful poem and such an important lesson for us as teachers. I honestly enjoyed English Con Salsa, I personally found it quite funny and loved the imagery. But your interpretation of it is spot on!
ReplyDeleteReena, I enjoyed reading your reflection of English con Salsa. It was more upbeat and humorous that the other poems. However, it does point out the inconsistencies in the ESL program.
ReplyDeleteHi Reena,
ReplyDeleteyour reflection of Learning silence gave me a new way to look at the poem and does raise a great point of our selves as educators. And your reflection of English con Salsa was very accurate the way the seem to be learning to them seems pointless and of no real value.