Our Immigration Narratives

The middle school students who wrote these have been in the United States between one month and one year.  Some studied English in their countries. Most are refugees, and most have lived in more than one country before arriving in Texas.  One speaks four languages. One has never seen his "native" country and never lived outside a refugee camp until June. The amount of editing that has been done is minimal, but all did have both a peer editor and some editing and revising with me or one of the volunteers.  In some cases the name of a city has changed, and no student names appear.

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In Sudan when i 11 all old i go to school every day and when i school in the morning i took my brother every day with me when i come back to home i eat and i sleep and then i go to play with friend  we play every day after school we like to play challenge after we finish the home works and then i check out home i go to play with my brothers we play games the name of the games is jamb and jamb.

I played here every day but people were fighting with guns.

ethiopia

i go ethiopia bucase my dad he don,t had good work in sudan in sudan is so hot this way he live to ethiopia there is not hot you play every time in ethiopia i don,t had friend i can,t go out said my home to play  but i like it.  i didn’t go to school because we were there 3 months.

austin. welcome to america

when i come  america i don't know where i am when i come to school .i don had freind  and they lafin to me. i don no why because i didn’t spike english .  this yer is beder is not like sudan because in sudan i don,t spike English .  8 in eight grate i can spike english little big but in now i had a meny freind. 


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I was Born in iraq. I lived in iraq for 11 years before I moved. Because of  the war in Baghdad  my family and I moved to Turkey.  Turkey is a good country, but some of my peer in school said to me: ”why you come to turkey, go to another country?“ and theirs no jobs for my parents.in turkey. we lived in turkey 2 yares.

I was 13 wahen imove to U.S.A my mome got  a job and I come to a   new school i have a good friends and i live my school and U.S.A is good..

I like U.S Because good for my parents now have jobs.and It's good life.

Reflecting on my writing class

On the first day back in school after the break, I asked my ESL middle school students to reflect on the writing class, what they learned, what they wanted to learn, which assignments they enjoyed the most, what they'd suggest to improve the class next year, and what kinds of books they have been reading.  Here are a few of their replies:

I improved utilizing advanced vocabulary, the only complication is that I can't use them accurately.I relish that we get to enhance our terminology skills exceptionally. The laborious assignments are having to write a story with a genre, for example fiction, science fiction, and etc. . I don't think any of the assignments should be alternated because it's just hard for me. I have read 21 books so far. I need to read science fiction, but I just can't acquisition any books. I've learned some new words, check Murchison's website, and more to be more gumption. I don't have any propositions. I like engaging in groups of pairs because you can focus on one peer.

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I enjoyed typing the stories, it gives my inspirations for my new story, ( it's out of school story) Mermaid's cove. The stories was creative and I typed so much I wrote over 10 pages, a new record!!!!!!! Back to the idea, I really enjoy writing it you might never know where it can take you, maybe one day I might be an author!

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I improved my writing because i always wrote short stories and i love to write because you can type my stories on the computer and i write more long stories in this year. im very fast typing on the computer an its much more esiere typing in the computer

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This semester I wrote my first story, and in the same time I learned how to use the past tense in a story. Of course, I think I need work again a lot on writing for learn different things, and for extend my vocabulary.I enjoy write stories because I like write in different genres and write in English is great for me !This semester, I enjoy write the two stories, but the first one was more difficult. It was a historical fiction so I wrote in past tense and I did search a lot of informations, also, It was more long.But I think it's a good exercise for my English !I would like read non-fiction the next semester, I read between ten and fifteen books this semester.

For things to do differently, I would like do more quick write like on Thanksgiving, also, I prefer working as a whole class or in center. 

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i learn to improve my vocabarly and my grammer. i loved my story beyond, and all the story we did this semester help me. i still need to work on my writing snd my plannning and summarys. the mose hardest was my vocabulary, i think we should change some things like poem or reading infront of people. I read 10 books or more. what i didnt know was vocaburlary!  What i want to change is reading your story infront of people or poems.

A Teachable Moment - The assumptions we make about each other

via http://bestclipartblog.com/

I answered my cell phone in the middle of class this afternoon and triggered an amazing discussion with the class about assumptions, language learning, accommodation, racism, and understanding.  My ESL writing class consists of fifteen students in 6^th-8^th grades, five of them immigrants themselves and ten who were born in the US but are still considered English Language Learners because they haven’t managed to pass the reading test, the writing test, and the listening & speaking test all in the same year.  Four Vietnamese speakers, two Korean speakers, one Hebrew speaker, and seven Spanish speakers from four countries.  (I know, you just added in your head and thought I left one out.  I didn’t.  He’s English-dominant and has been most of his life, but English was not his first language.)

Back to the phone call. I answered in English, then switched to Spanish for a very mundane discussion about why a certain boy (not in the room) wouldn’t be attending tutoring.  When I hung up, one of my more recent 6^th grade immigrants (not a Spanish-speaker) asked why I talked to the parent in Spanish, and before I could even answer, one of his classmates interjected, “Because they were Mexican!” while another said, “Because she speaks all the languages.”  Not quite.  I speak or understand 3½ languages and am often called on to interpret or translate for parents.  Someone called the new immigrant student racist, and there were instant demands for apologies from all parties.

I called time-out and said that I thought we'd better discuss the entire issue, see what each other might be thinking, and then give apologies if people still thought they were warranted.  Spoiler alert: the kids apologized, but not for what I was expecting.

First, I clarified that the question wasn't really about why I spoke in  Spanish, but rather why I didn't speak in English.  All agreed.

I asked who in the room had parents who were not born in the US.  All the kids raised their hands.  I asked who had parents who couldn't speak English well enough for a phone call when they arrived.  Most hands.  Whose parents studied English in school?  Five hands.  Whose parents spoke English as well as their kids? Only one hand -- that of the boy who asked the original question.   Whose parents didn't graduate HS?  Most hands.  Then one of the Mexican-American boys volunteered that his mom had never gone to school and a Vietnamese classmate said that his mom went for two years but none of his uncles went to school.   Then I asked them to consider again why it was that I conducted a parent phone call in Spanish.

"Because you can."  Yes.  What else?

"Because Spanish is cool."  Yes.  What else?

"Because maybe the mom on the phone doesn't speak English."  Good.  Why?

"Maybe she didn't learn English in school."  Possible.  What else?

"Maybe she never went to school."  Also possible.

"It's hard to talk on the phone in a different language."  Good.

"My mom hates calling the school. I think she is scared of teachers."  Quite possible.

"Well you like it when parents tell you stuff, so you won't make them talk in English if they hate it."  You mean I want them to be comfortable calling school?

Once I was sure we all understood a little more about the situation, I asked if anyone still felt like they wanted an apology.  No one did, but the new immigrant whose question started the discussion apologized for asking the wrong question, and the classmate who sneered his reply apologized for assuming that the first boy was racist.  I have no idea where race is supposed to fit in to a discussion of language learning and schooling, but the kids seemed satisfied and we'd used up enough time with our pens "off the paper".

I next see this group Thursday, and their writing prompt will have something to do with assumptions and understanding other people's perspectives.  As you can tell, mine was about teachable moments.

Fractions with M&Ms