Blog Post #5 - 10/19/2015

For this post I plan to address the following questions:
Do you see support for English learners?
What are you seeing in your service-learning experience that is a result of Brown v. Board, Sputnick, and other historical events?

First, I'd like to talk about English Language Learners. There are no apparent students that are majorly struggling with English in Miss Gledhill's class, but there are definitely students who speak more than one language. Although nobody is defined by their level of English, I think there are definitely different levels of English. Miss Gledhill accommodates for all of them with her reading groups. The children are taught according to their level of reading with other kids who are around the same level as them. This setting allows Miss Gledhill to interact more intimately and focus on the different needs if each of her students. 

I think that something that I've seen in Miss Gledhill's classroom has impacted me for the better. There is a little girl named Kim who rides a wheelchair all throughout the school due to a recent knee surgery. Although she is unable to keep up with the rest of her class, she is always appropriately accommodated for. An example of this was when she wanted a drink of water after recess, but couldn't reach the drinking fountain properly. So, Miss Gledhill just went and got a cup of water for her because it wasn't a big deal. I think that this illustrates, to some measure, the affects of Brown v. Board of Education. Although this situation doesn't include skin color, it does include a factor that makes one student different from the others. I appreciate that her differences were cared for quickly like it was no big deal because thats exactly it. It isn't a big deal!

Every visit I've had with Miss Gledhill's classroom has included time for both math and science. So I think that this apparent focus of time is a result of Sputnik. Math and science still may be treated as a priority today, even sixty years later.