Voices from the Middle - Volume 6, Issue 1, 1998

Discusses a quilt project in which ninth-grade English-as-a-Second-Language students wrote, drew, and talked about what they knew, remembered, and felt on the topic "Where I Came From," creating an anthology and a quilt. Describes how students’ speaking practice, iwritten language abilities, and self-confidence improved.

Describes a month-long project in an eighth-grade English classroom in which students (from many countries, many of them immigrants) read an array of bicultural literature, and each researched, wrote, and compiled a many-faceted Family Tree notebook. Shows how students can achieve both their own cultural authenticity and English language competence without loss of personal voice.

Describes an eighth-grade science class in a school primarily of Chinese immigrant students of many languages and levels of education, where what matters most are learning English; developing community; and starting from the students’ experiences, questions, and troubles. Argues that real learning happens as students feel accountable for asking good questions and for helping others to answer questions.

Discusses how a teacher of sixth- and seventh-grade primarily Mexican immigrants: (1) models being a second-language learner by working at Spanish; (2) provides an enjoyable school experience; (3) learns about students’ culture and gives it respect; (4) seeks a detailed picture of where each English learner is academically; and (5) cultivates a corps of language brokers.

Describes the author’s experiences straddling a Chinese home culture and an American school culture throughout most of her life. Ponders how to, as a future teacher, support the experiences of individual students, be aware of cultural assumptions, and reward students for what they already know.

Describes how the author used writers’ notebooks with her students (grades 6-8), all Chinese immigrants, to find and express their memories and dreams, to find meaning in their experiences of change and loss; develop voice and a sense of audience; develop fluency in English; and find a growing sense of control over their new language and their new lives.

This themed issue, "Second Language Learners," addresses the challenge of teaching a growing number students from multiple cultures who share only one thing: the fact that English is not their first language.