Kristi, This is a comment to your Case on Salim and Mrs. Jane. You and I observed the same characteristics of Salim. He is not sure of instruction, he may not understand English, and he may be frightened, coming from a foreign country. There are many issues at play in a situation such as this one. You are right; a lot is not known yet to measure his strengths. This is what we need to be doing now in our classrooms: finding the strengths of unengaged students and having them use these strengths in a proactive way to bring out the best in them, giving them confidence to succeed. Further more, by finding their strengths we can determine how they will learn best. In Salim's case, perhaps he has unknown talents or skills that have not been noticed with only a minimalist approach to introducing him in the classroom. A lot of vital information is still not known about Salim and what must be done to support his learning in his new environment. Nobody knows Salim's background and what he might have gone through. I think that we both agree on a lot of future paths that must be taken for this situation. I like how you take a simple approach to answer the question at hand here. Definitely there is a lot of room for understanding Salim in order for him to understand his future. Thank you! -Kristin Evans
What I enjoyed most about your response to Salim’s case was all of the contributing factors that you suggested. The first one that stuck out to me was that you suggested that his behavior may have been acceptable in his own country. I had to laugh to myself when I read this because it reminds me of the vast differences between what my Mexican students believe to be acceptable behavior and what is acceptable back in Canada. I am sure if half of what I saw in Mexico happened in Canada there would be serious consequences. This is a good lesson for us as teachers to remember when we have new students. We need to consider the student’s educational background and that not every school system is the same and that just because we teach a certain way, it isn’t necessary the only way or the right way. The other contributing factor that you mentioned that I found unique was that Salim could have ADHD. I had not considered this, but come to think of it, if Salim was not a new immigrant to Canada this would have been one of the possibilities I would have considered because of his behavior with the chair. Your response was very thorough and you considered many possibilities about Salim’s behavior. You came to the most likely solution, but not without considering all your options.
Kristi,
ReplyDeleteThis is a comment to your Case on Salim and Mrs. Jane. You and I observed the same characteristics of Salim. He is not sure of instruction, he may not understand English, and he may be frightened, coming from a foreign country.
There are many issues at play in a situation such as this one. You are right; a lot is not known yet to measure his strengths. This is what we need to be doing now in our classrooms: finding the strengths of unengaged students and having them use these strengths in a proactive way to bring out the best in them, giving them confidence to succeed. Further more, by finding their strengths we can determine how they will learn best. In Salim's case, perhaps he has unknown talents or skills that have not been noticed with only a minimalist approach to introducing him in the classroom.
A lot of vital information is still not known about Salim and what must be done to support his learning in his new environment. Nobody knows Salim's background and what he might have gone through. I think that we both agree on a lot of future paths that must be taken for this situation.
I like how you take a simple approach to answer the question at hand here. Definitely there is a lot of room for understanding Salim in order for him to understand his future.
Thank you!
-Kristin Evans
Response to Assignment #7
ReplyDeleteHi Kristi,
What I enjoyed most about your response to Salim’s case was all of the contributing factors that you suggested. The first one that stuck out to me was that you suggested that his behavior may have been acceptable in his own country. I had to laugh to myself when I read this because it reminds me of the vast differences between what my Mexican students believe to be acceptable behavior and what is acceptable back in Canada. I am sure if half of what I saw in Mexico happened in Canada there would be serious consequences. This is a good lesson for us as teachers to remember when we have new students. We need to consider the student’s educational background and that not every school system is the same and that just because we teach a certain way, it isn’t necessary the only way or the right way.
The other contributing factor that you mentioned that I found unique was that Salim could have ADHD. I had not considered this, but come to think of it, if Salim was not a new immigrant to Canada this would have been one of the possibilities I would have considered because of his behavior with the chair.
Your response was very thorough and you considered many possibilities about Salim’s behavior. You came to the most likely solution, but not without considering all your options.
Thank you for sharing!
Lacey