I observed at Lincoln Elementary School, in Madison. They have a Spanish English Dual Language Immersion (DLI) and an English Language Immersion (ELI) program in the same school. The classroom I observed was part of the DLI program and used a co-teaching model where both teachers are teaching at the same time. One teacher teaches in English and the other teaches in Spanish, and the students spend 50 percent of their time with each teacher. This method makes it very clear when the students are expected to change languages and allowed a larger class size to be involved in the DLI program with only one classroom. Personally, I found it a little distracting if they were both teaching in front of the class at the same time, but the students did
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38). It also looks at how power affects culture. In general, the school seemed to practice critical multiculturalism. I went right at the end of February, so there was a variety of African American History month projects on the walls. I feel like African American History month is a good time to talk about power and culture, and they did a good job of it from what I could see. In the DLI classroom, critical multiculturalism was very evident. The students start Friday mornings by singing in either Spanish or English and share miniature interviews from their parents in either language. There was no assimilationist agenda visible and both cultures were welcomed. There was nothing that seemed to be cultural tourism that I …show more content…
Everyone seemed important and no one seemed marginalized. Student work was displayed in both languages, as was appropriate for the side of the room it was on. In the mutual hallways it was mostly English work displayed, but near the DLI classroom there was more variety of languages. At the entrance of the school, the sign for the office and a couple of other things were in English, Spanish, and I think Hmong. The informational signs aimed at parents were in multiple languages. If my home language was Spanish, I feel as though the school would have been very warm. The school climate seemed very positive. I did not see a situation where students were thought of as the same and expected to assimilate past their supposed cultural deficits, which is what Gitlin and Buendia (2003) saw (p.
38). It also looks at how power affects culture. In general, the school seemed to practice critical multiculturalism. I went right at the end of February, so there was a variety of African American History month projects on the walls. I feel like African American History month is a good time to talk about power and culture, and they did a good job of it from what I could see. In the DLI classroom, critical multiculturalism was very evident. The students start Friday mornings by singing in either Spanish or English and share miniature interviews from their parents in either language. There was no assimilationist agenda visible and both cultures were welcomed. There was nothing that seemed to be cultural tourism that I …show more content…
Everyone seemed important and no one seemed marginalized. Student work was displayed in both languages, as was appropriate for the side of the room it was on. In the mutual hallways it was mostly English work displayed, but near the DLI classroom there was more variety of languages. At the entrance of the school, the sign for the office and a couple of other things were in English, Spanish, and I think Hmong. The informational signs aimed at parents were in multiple languages. If my home language was Spanish, I feel as though the school would have been very warm. The school climate seemed very positive. I did not see a situation where students were thought of as the same and expected to assimilate past their supposed cultural deficits, which is what Gitlin and Buendia (2003) saw (p.