Schooling Migrant Children
Migrant student contact with new schools and teachers can be both rewarding or conflictual. Caring and competent teachers can make a world of difference to a migrant child by providing a personal interest in both their academic and social growth. Unfortunately, cultural and socioeconomic clashes and language obstacles reflect some of the conflicts these students face. Migrant student access to schools may be limited by structural factors such as school calendars, attendance rules, and discouragement from school staff and other students. After school, youth may return home to additional pressures to provide child care, supplement the family income, and serve as liaisons with the outside world.
Other pertinent social issues affecting migrant students and their families include available housing and health care, including lack of health insurance, exposure to pesticides, and adequate health care information and preventive measures.
What can you do?
When they first arrive, migrant youth and their
families need friendships in the community to reduce the isolation
that often inhibits successful integration into our system. Teachers
and school staff can make a difference by providing activities that
appeal to all modes of learning (art, music, verbal, mathematical,
logic, inter/intrapersonal skills, kinesthetic, etc). Students who
work in cooperative learning groups have more opportunities to
interact successfully with their peers. Drawing upon students'
previous learning and life experiences provides a starting point for
further academic learning while validating their sociocultural and
linguistic backgrounds.
INTERACTIVE COMPONENT (choose two)
1.Link to... Project Fresa. Write to one of the teachers and their students telling them how their website informed your knowledge of locally produced strawberries and their impact on the economy. Tell them which activities you would like to try with your students in the near future. Print out their reply to you.
2. TAKE ACTION www.ufw.org: Choose one of the action alerts and act on them. Print out your response and add to journal.
3. See a Quicktime movie on Cesar Chavez. http://people.ucsc.edu/ Write a review. Or how would you use the film with middle school or high school students?
4. Read two articles under current news. How do they inform your perspective on issues affecting farmworkers?
5. Read one of the article under UFW RESOURCES: WHITE PAPERS. How does it inform your view of farmworkers and their working conditions?
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS (choose two)
1. chavez.scientech.com/Teachers Model Curriculum And Resources for Teachers. Read and review one grade level lesson from either K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. Write a one page review of the lesson. What works? Why is it effective? What will students learn from the lesson? What did you learn from the lesson or lesson design?
2. chavez.scientech.com/Public/ Read the introductory text on right of screen. Then choose two sections, i.e. The man, the vision, the work, the time, etc. Review two links from these sections and read/review. Write a one-page reflection for the two links.
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community...Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own." You are never strong enough that you don't need help." --Cesar Chavez
LAS CELEBRACIONES Y CEREMONIAS