Chapter 3 Understanding Students Who Challenge Schools

The changes that continually shape our world can have a profound effect on the students we teach. Our job as educators needs to involve understanding our students prior and ongoing experiences so that we may create a learning environment for them that will be conducive to success. Economics, lifestyle choices, culture clashes, and mental and emotional health can all impact the way in which a child functions and succeeds within the school environment. Chapter 3 helps to define some of these differences that face our students and how we might be able to support them.
1. In reading about ELL students in your classroom, it is easy to become concerned about how you will effectively instruct these students so that they are learning English and the curriculum simultaneously. Many of our previous efforts have failed these students. The idea of two-way bilingual education mentioned in the book seems to me to be the ultimate answer. Use your English speaking students to help the ELL students succeed. In doing this, you can also help to create bilingual students from your English speakers.
The website below has a lot of good information on different strategies you can use to implement two way bilingual education in your classroom.

http://www.positivepractices.com/BilingualEducation/BenefitsofTwowayBilingual.html

2. GLBTQ students have been struggling to have a voice in the school system for years. However, they continuallty are bullied and often to the point of violence and suicide. Just yesterday a bullied thirteen year old took his own life in Texas. This often happens because these students do not have admin. and faculty support.
I did a research paper on these youth and loved the website listed below. It has all kinds of infor for these students and how they can overcome the treatment they receive at school. In addition, they celebrate a day of silence every year to bring this issue to light. "On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools."
http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm

3. Family changes can have a major impact on a students ability to achieve success in school, especially if they go from a stable environment to one that is not. Todays world has so many different types of families that teachers must learn to accept their students upbringing without judgement. This article helps to define these issues.
http://www.americanvalues.org/briefs/edoutcomes.htm
Family Structure and Children's Educational Outcomes
A comprehensive review of recent academic research shows that family structure — whether a child’s parents are married, divorced, single, remarried, or cohabiting — is a significant influence on children’s educational performance. Family structure affects preschool readiness. It affects educational achievement at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. Family structure influences these outcomes in part because family structure affects a range of child behaviors that can bear directly on educational success, such as school misbehavior, drug and alcohol consumption, sexual activity and teen pregnancy, and psychological distress. There is a solid research basis for the proposition that strengthening U.S. family structure — increasing the proportion of children growing up with their own, two married parents — would significantly improve the educational achievements of U.S. children.