National Hispanic Heritage Month and Your ESL Students

 

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time for recognizing and celebrating your Hispanic students. Honoring and allowing them to take pride in the histories, cultures, and language of those students whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America is a great way to build up these kids. 

Many of us have students that are or had been ESL students. Even if they never receive this label, many students have a different language in their home from the one at school. I will begin by sharing my own experience.

This is some history of how Hispanic Heritage Month came about. ‘The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.’ The United States Census Bureau

I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Through my grandmothers, I am a second-generation American. Through my grandfathers, I am a third-generation American.

While growing up and attending school, I was referred to as a Hispanic, which I resented because “Hispanic” implied that I was from a Spanish-speaking country. So, I called myself an American of Mexican descent or Mexican American.

Even though my parents and grandparents taught us to love and appreciate our bi-culturalism and our bi-linguicism. It was difficult to maintain that when at school we were expected to perform academically in English like the monolingual English speakers.

All of this swayed my siblings and me to relinquish our first language, Spanish. My parents didn’t fight it because they expected us to excel in school.

All our students learning English as a second language have all gone through some degree of this language loss. It is our job as their teacher to recognize this and help them appreciate who they are, encourage them to maintain their home language, and encourage their parents to speak to them in their first language. Parents speaking to their children in the first language will not hurt your students. Instead, it will make them stronger language learners because they will be getting the basic foundations in the language they already know. This will help them expand their first language and learn the second language.

Please just keep in mind that part of the value that our Latin students bring to our classrooms is who they are.

I will continue this subject that is near to my heart. Thank you for continuing to follow me on this journey.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching

Hispanic Heritage Month 3

 

I was really blessed to be able to spend meaningful time with grandma. My sister Mary and I would spend time in the summer at my grandparent's house. After lunch, Grandma Tomasa would make "cafe a la olla" and we would sit at her feet. This was a magical time when she told her childhood stories.

There are so many culturally significant storybooks that you can read to or provide as reading material for your students. I am going to share some with you and I'll provide the link to those books on Amazon.

Carlos and the Squash Plant - I love this book! I used it every year in the Fall with my students. This story takes place in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. It is written by Jan Romero Stevens and is written in English and Spanish. There is a recipe at the end of the story that my students and I would cook up and eat!

Too Many Tamales - This is another book we would study in my classroom as it got closer to Christmas, the traditional time for making tamales. It is also a delightful story written in English and Spanish by Gary Soto and Ed Martinez.

Tortillitas Para Mama - This is another one of my favorite books! It is full of culturally traditional nursery rhymes. It is also bilingual.

Turning Pages - a Bibliography written by Sonia Sotomayor. What a great role model to read about!

Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, a wonderful story about how the children in the village got their books delivered by a special creature. It is also bilingual.

We all have our own stories to share about our own culture. What a wonderful way to connect with your students.

Wishing you all good things!

Froggy About Teaching

Hispanic Heritage Month 2

When I was younger, I can recall my parents having great respect for President Johnson. In writing this blog post, I did some research and I believe I might have discovered why my parents like him so much. This blog post gives a little bit of the history of how Hispanic Heritage became a bill and then a law as a week-long celebration. Then 20 years later a Representative presented another bill and then it became a law for a month-long celebration. My friends read on ...

We influence one another in so many unknown ways. My hope is to give you some insight to our Hispanic students.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching

Hispanic Heritage Month

 Many of us have students that are or at some point were ESL students. Even if they never receive this label, many students have a different language in their home from the one at school. I will be sharing several phases on the subject of Hispanic Heritage Month. Here is the first one.

This is a tough subject for many of us and there is more than one side to this. Hopefully, what I share with you will give you more insights regarding our ELL students.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching