Journal Table #1

Column 1: Clinical Site Background Column 2: EDFD 461/401 Content

Out of A and B, I am choosing A based

I am placed in an English Language on the students I am working with.
Learner (ELL) classroom at Winona A) What kinds of Personal/Cultural
Senior High School. The teacher I am Knowledge or Popular Knowledge
working with is Caucasian and has been influence your thinking about the
teaching English for about 20 years. ethnically and racially diverse
student(s) you will be working with in
The average student to teacher ratio at your clinical setting?
WSHS is 15:1, but the class I am in has In the Social Construct Lecture,
only four students. The four students in racialization is defined as “expectations,
my class are all female and Hispanic. assumptions, perceptions, stereotypes,
and fears we have of “racial” groups as
Of the 999 students at Winona Senior shaped by social interactions, media
High School, only 3.0% are Hispanic. A images, political rhetoric, and economic
typical school in Winona has 6.2% forces.” The students I am working with
Hispanic, and a typical school in are all very different from me racially and
Minnesota has 8.5% Hispanic students. ethnically, as they are all Hispanic, from
At WSHS, there are 53% male to 47% Puerto Rico and Mexico. Our country
female students. right now has strong perceptions of
Hispanic people, especially those from
The demographics of the entire school Mexico. I am definitely affected by the
are very different than those in my media’s view and racialization of this
particular classroom. This is to be group of people, but I try not to let it affect
expected since it is an ELL classroom. the way I see people before I know them.
The class I am focusing on is 100% The horizontal axis of the Knowledge
Hispanic. The other class that I observe Construction Table states the dimensions
part of is 50% Hispanic and 50% Hmong. of knowledge construction: personal and
cultural, popular, academic, and
The students I am going to focus my transformative. My parents have had a
digital ethnography project on are four large role in forming how I view others
girls in the beginner ELL class at Winona and racialize other groups. They have
Senior High School. I will call them Isabel, always made sure I don’t jump to
Alejandra, Claudia, and Maria. They are conclusions and make assumptions about
all Hispanic. Isabel is from Puerto Rico certain people. The popular media tries to
and has moved back and forth a few challenge my way of thinking sometimes,
times in the past few years. The others but I have such respect for people who
are all from Mexico and have been here have to go through discrimination every
for about 2 years. Alejandra and Claudia day and keep going on.
are sisters.
As far as I can tell, the students I am C) How can the racialization of the
working with are different from me student(s) you will be working with
demographically in 3 ways. They are be reinforced or challenged by any of
different from me racially and ethnically, his/her/their other demographic
and they are different in their language characteristics?
learning status. From the Intersectionality graphic, these
particular students’ different demographic
characteristics are “race”, ethnicity, and
language learning. I don’t know what their
socioeconomic status, faith or sexual
identity are. Hispanic people are
racialized as not being as smart, not
being able to graduate, and having less
opportunities. The girls in my class
challenge these perceptions in that they
are so smart. They are all going to attend
a conference at WSU next week. They
still need a Spanish interpreter in some
classes, but they are able to help each
other and get over obstacles together.
They are achieving academically even
though they have low English proficiency.

D) How can the Funds of Knowledge

approach help you see a student’s
cultural background as an asset to his
or her learning?
Since the students are all from a Hispanic
background, they all have Spanish as
their first language. This can be a huge
asset for them in school. They are able to
help each with things they don’t
understand, and they are able to use
Spanish as a bridge to English. In the
article Connecting with Latino Learners,
the author points out that we need to
recognize these students’ strengths and
their bilingual identity. The students will
gain better problem solving skills through
using their first-language to find context
clues and understanding the English.
Students who are fluent readers in
Spanish can tap into their first-language
skills when reading texts in English
(Rubinstein-Avila 38).
E) Discuss the possible Activities to
Investigate Funds of Knowledge that
you will possibly use to identify the
Funds of Knowledge (assets,
strengths, resources) possessed by
your students you choose to study
and F) DISCUSS the EDFD 400/401
Developmental and/or Learning
theorists who you can use to give a
rationale for your choice of said
activities.
I think that activities 1 and 8 would be the
most beneficial to me working with these
students. Activity 1 is a good way to find
out what all of the students’ family
members do for a living. This is a way to
gauge the socioeconomic status of the
students as well. This will give me a good
idea as to how their home life is affecting
their academics. You can tell a lot from
family occupations. Within moral
development, culture and culturally
developed skills and knowledge are
important funds of knowledge. Kohlberg
states that moral issues have different
perspectives and values, this is especially
true of people of different cultural
backgrounds, like my students. Marcia
also states that one’s occupation is their
“role” in society. Activity 8 is a good way
to find out what the students and their
families do for fun. This is important to
know because it can tell a lot about how a
family views education and leisure.
Marcia is a social development theorist.
He has a theory about identity. This
connects with leisure time because the
development of beliefs, behaviors, and
thoughts are not static and they are
always changing. The time spent outside
of school is when most of these are going
to be formed.