This chapter was really fun to read. I love to travel and want to get my ESL certification from USM once I finish school here in Farmington, so for me this chapter was very informative. I loved getting the perspectives from both students who are the English language learners, as well as the students who are in mainstream classes interacting with the learners.
I love the fact that the book encourages us as teachers to pull in different cultures to our teaching. One of the biggest problems I find with American education is how traditionally one-sided it is. The kids in this book make an excellent point when they say "I'm black-- I'm sick of reading EVERYTHING about white guys fighting." It's true, it's time for US education to become more worldly, and having students from different cultures among us now more than ever makes this task even more imperative.
Imagining being in a place where my primary language is not the language of the majority is a scary thought-- I took four years of Spanish in high school and I know for a fact that if someone flew me to Spain and expected me to survive, it would be a tough battle, and I don't just mean in school. As educators, we need to understand that these students are not just going to struggle academically. They are going to have social, emotional, and brand new cultural adjustments to make, and these won't often be easy. I think that this chapter has some really neat ways of engaging children whose primary language isn't English, and to prepare them for the future.
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