Reflective Questions

Clearly, establishing a learning-community classroom like Martina Chandler’s tenth grade English class is fraught with both difficulties and possibilities. Put yourself in Martina’s place at this early point in the school year, and answer the questions Martina is asked herself.

1		How am I going to create a democratic, interactive learning community when my students come from such different backgrounds?
2		How am I going to discourage standard English speakers from stigmatizing those students like Tran and Dontae whose language differences are often rejected in American schools?
3		How am I going to provide ways in which Anna, with Mrs. Thomas’s help, can participate fully in the life of the classroom?
4		How am I going to create a classroom environment in which students can teach each other effectively?
5		How am I going to organize instruction so that students with different learning styles can have equal access to the material at hand?
6		If the school wants to put Jacques and Tran in an immersion program, should I argue against it?
7		How many of my students’ parents are able and willing to come into the classroom to assist in teaching? How many other community members can I interest in these students?
8		Can my nonstandard-English-speaking students learn to write in standard English without also learning to speak standard English?