Student Work

Student Work 

Education

Process to a better

Future

Determination

Love

Found in many

Places

Mostly in

The place

Of education

It’s not a game

If treated as

You’ll be put through

An unpleasant

Shame

Choosing

Not an easy

Thing not knowing

Which is right

And which is wrong

Leap of faith

Sometimes the

Only way to find

Direction in

The brain

America

Fair game they say

Doesn't seem that way

Where did it go?

Trying to keep us away

Will still find a way

To invade

That gate

Aliens

We are named

Just the newest wave

So why do we get

Blamed

Originally was

Our terrain

That was wrongfully

Taken away

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CS2__vhXb-03ZNdSdCy2CiYholcuZE-M74A164BSltw/edit#slide=id.gc41d9fcc_025



Essay for book of Goosebumps why I Quit Zombie School by: RL STINE

  Saul Martinez

I’m going to talk about the book I read. This book was pretty good I like reading scary books I read since I was in 6 grades. Well this book was very interesting because this kid goes into a zombie school. He first notices that outside of school he finds three kids eating a dead squirrel. He tries to tell his parents what he saw but they said he was seeing things. When he enters the school he notices that all the kids are walking slowly. Then when he goes to lunch he sees kids eating raw meat and worms. I think this is crazy if I would have been there I would have gone crazy. Then after a while this girl tells him when did he die and he says he’s alive. The girl says if anyone finds out that he’s alive they will kill him. Some people at that school start noticing that he’s different. After two weeks there’s a party at the school and they invite him to go.

So he goes to this party and people think he’s weird. They offer him raw meat but he says no and other people are starting to think that he’s alive. So when he goes to were the food is at and a girl offers him some raw meat and everybody stares while he eats it. He eats it. Then the girl offers him more but he offers the girl to dance with him. Then she lets go of his hand and she screams out that he is still warm. Everybody says to test him. He passes the test and they think he’s UN dead. At the end he convinces his parents to take him to a different school.

~I remember elementary

~I remember middle school

~I remember my old house in chicago 26th street

~I remember my mom was a happy single mother

~I remember me and my brothers use to argue alot

~I remember I never failed in school

~I remember my dad before he was arrested 
VA

THE BOAST

I’M SMARTER THAN HARVARD’S CLASS OF ‘13

COMBINED, MORE CREATIVE THAN ALEX GREY ON DMT, AND RICHER THAN WHAT THE NATIONAL DEBT WILL BE 10 YEARS FROM NOW. IN FACT IF I WANTED TO, I COULD FIX THE GLOBAL ECONOMY WITH A SNAP OF MY FINGERS AND TURN AFRICA INTO AN INDUSTRIALIZED CONTINENT OVERNIGHT. I CAN MAKE MEXICAN DRUG LORDS SURRENDER THEIR TERRITORY AND CHANGE THEIR WAYS WITH A STARE-DOWN AND MAKE ISSEI SAGAWA THE CATHOLIC POLE BY PLACING MY HOLY HAND A MILE AWAY FROM HIM. I’M THE RULER OF ALL RULERS AND ORIGIN OF ALL MATTER. I CAN SPLIT QUARKS AND TIME TRAVEL THROUGH BLACK HOLES.

BY D.H. 

forgiving is not for the weak

but for the strongest

that are willing to forget all the suffering they endured

moving on and staring again

this time not letting no one hurt you

forgiving is the key to forgetting and

starting again with a smile on your face




-Love
Feel tender or affection
Such as a close relative or friend
it could be many things
But yet whom brought you to the world

-Fear
Unpleasant fieeling of anxiety
Anticipation of danger
Whelming to overcome
Least but not last to dominate the enemy

Essay for my experience here at Indianhead Ombudsman

Saul Martinez 

My experience here at Ombudsman has been great I’m barely a sophomore I think. But it’s been great. I think three teachers are great, but Ms Williams is one of my favorites. I thank Ms Williams the most because she helped a lot with math, almost everyday we did like like a lesson or two. I remember the first time I got here was in the spring of 2012 and I came here for two weeks only to do math. I came from West Aurora High School because I moved here with my dad because my mom was giving a lot of problems. I was in juvy for a month because of her. I think I’ll be here till I graduate. I even think this school is better than the other school because all you do is computer work. It’s good that I’ll be off probation June 5. I think everybody here thinks I’m a shy kid, but I’m not I just like coming here and doing my work. I tell everybody about this school and they think its freaking awesome I think so too. And some of the girls here are pretty hot. I’m not going to say names, but there are a few. When I first came here my dad thought I couldn’t do a whole year. He didn’t believe when I told him that. Until someone at Lyons Township told him I could. The thing I don’t like about Ombudsman are the enrichments they drive me nuts because if I don’t do what the enrichments ask me Ms Williams tells me to do them again. I get very upset when I do them again. But everything else is great even though is a school for bad kids. The end

I V.A. too sing America

I am the lighter brother 

I eat at the table

When a guest comes I eat in the kitchen 

I go to school 

Tomorrow I will play soccer 

And the next day I will hangout with friends 

And nobody dare say to me I am the little brother 

I am a big brother of five little brothers 

My blood is Latino I am fifteen years 

They'll see how beautiful I am 

And be ashamed

I. too, am America  

Essay for Goosebumps “don’t go to sleep” by RL STINE

Saul Martinez 

I’m going to talk about the book I just read. This is one of the best books of Goosebumps I read so far. The main character in this story is matt. It all starts when matt asks his mom if he can trade rooms because He wanted to move to the guest room. When his mom said no he didn’t listen and that night he slept in the guest room. the next day he woke up older. Basically he kept changing as someone new everyday. he only knew one person that always knew him and it was lacie she was the reality police. One day she told him that he kept on changing everyday because he slept in the guest room. They had to kill him because they thought there was no other way to change him back. But matt thought if he slept in his old room everything went back to normal and it did. But at the end of the story his mom tells him that he could move to the guest room again he started to scream. If that would have happened to me I would have gone crazy and everyone would have thought I was crazy too. But it’s just a crazy story. I’ve been reading these books since I was in fifth grade. All the books have freaking raw endings. I think there’s over thousand of books and movies of this.

My experience here at ombudsman part 2

Saul Martinez

My experience here has been great so far. But I missed almost 30 days in a whole year here. The first time I came here was only for two weeks. The reason they sent me here because they looked at my last grades and there were all very bad and I told them I spent some time in juvy. The best part of this is the bus. my dad thought I was going to take the regular bus or a ride to get here because its pretty far from were I live. The other part is I don’t get to go to different periods like at west aurora a lot of people tell me this school sounds freaking awesome. They want to come to this school too, but there isn’t an ombudsman at aurora. If there was one I would have moved because it was hard for me to leave my friends my mom and my brothers over there. As soon as I graduate I’m moving back to aurora. Me  and my dad get along very well but I just don’t like the way he lives it’s just not me.  If I move over there now I will start the year all over again. It’s not easy moving back and forth school to school. Even my older brother couldn’t live were I live he was in jail because he almost beat my mom to death he got out in august. He’s got probation and parole until next year he turns 21. As I was saying he lived with me and my dad for a couple weeks then he moved. We live in a basement. But so far this school is great. Everybody is cool here. Ill be back here in august I hope I’m a junior in august. I’m not trying to repeat another year anywhere. When I was in west aurora I never did any work, I couldn’t focus in class, I  missed a lot of days, and  I never did my homework. My counselor told me “you got to stop hanging out with your homies” he was right but I didn’t listen. I failed but he still passed me doe. But in those days these cops came to my house and just took me to juvy I didn’t even do anything that day. I went to Juvy from March 15 to April 17. I know I didn’t talk much about ombudsman but I did talk about ombudsman. Nothing is the best word

Essay for Goosebumps calling all creeps by RL STINE

Saul Martinez

I’m going to talk about the book I just read. The main characters of the book are Ricky and Iris. This story is fricking creepy and I think it had a great ending. It all starts when Ricky tries to pull joke on Tasha for blaming him on everything. The creeps started calling him every night at midnight. His plan was for them to call Tasha but instead they called him and they thought he was there commander. He tried to tell his parents the principal about it but they just couldn’t believe him. His parents thought it was a joke his principal thought he was crazy. Then one day the creeps pulled him out of the play ground it was his 4 enemies from school that he had. They showed him the seeds that he had to plant on every kid so they could turn to creeps. If I was there and they thought I was there commander I would have to do it or else they will kill me. So he fails once then he tells them to plant the seeds and let them grow. Then they thought he wasn’t a creep so they tell him to prove it and then another girl comes and tells them that have no time that they have to make cookies and plant the seeds and give them out for free. So at the end everybody eats them.

Essay for Goosebumps my best is invisible by RL STINE

Saul Martinez

I’m going to talk about the book I just read. The main characters of the book are Sammy and Brent is the invisible human. It all started when Sammy came home from school he saw his window open which he had closed and he told his parents but didn’t believe him. Then the next morning someone finished his cereal for him he thought it was weird too. The next day the invisible human told him his name was Brent and that he was invisible. Brent told his mom and dad but they started to think he really needed help but he just had to prove it to them. At the end Sammy used a special device that his parents had in the basement. they finally heard him speak and they found out he was a monster alive but invisible. Sammy’s dad said he should be put in a zoo. And so they did. I would enjoy this more if this book was a movie. I think I’ve seen this show on TV before. And there’s this place called family video where you could see any movie or game for 50 cents. And there’s a movie called miss Williams too. I haven’t seen it but it looks interesting. She young in there though I think that movie is rated too. I’ve been going to that place for the past 3 weeks. It is pretty sweet you could rent movies shows or games I recommend this place to you miss Williams. Some movies in there are old but there still raw to watch.

Language and Culture in a Diverse World and Cathy the Queen of Cats

Language and Culture in a Diverse World

Culture is expressed in different ways. One expression of culture is language. “Learning language goes hand in hand with learning culture,” (Hurtado de Vivas, 2011, pg. 220).

Besides being aware of and respectful of a student’s culture how can one’s culture effect how they have learned language? The example in the book gave an example of a potential affective association of having to choose between one’s culture and another’s culture. The example was one of an instructor not knowing that the child was being respectful and trying to fulfill their parents’ cultural expectations. I wonder how often this happens? “It is evident that language, literacy, and culture are linked in many ways; educators need to become knowledgeable concerning the impact that these factors affect students leaning and their lives” (Hurtado de Vivas, 2011, pg. 220).

I hope to find the factors that impact a student’s learning and their lives.   

http://coe.k-state.edu/about/download/profdev/Perez_Diversity2.pdf 

Language: A Historical Overview

Immigration in the early 1800s was diverse. Immigrants settled in isolated farming communities and were not viewed as threatening. With the influx of more immigrants in the latter 1800s to cities, the rise of nationalism, and the realities of two World Wars there was a need to Americanize the population. (This was true earlier with the American Indians.) By 1950s the realization of the economic gains, the need for positive international relationships, status, power, and national security federal resources were granted to teach foreign languages. By 1968 influenced by the civil rights movement bilingual education was found in 13 states. 1975 saw the establishment of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NA BE). Just as with the nation’s attitudes about immigration and immigrants change so have the attitudes concerning bilingual education. Where it is not a sink or swim program, bilingual education is no longer funded federally and under No Child Left Behind ELL or second language learners SLL are to be included in the need for yearly progress. NCLB give an English Language Learner 3 years to become proficient research shows 5 years is what is needed for an ELL to become academically proficient (cognitive academic language proficiency--CALP ).  Because students are now placed in main stream classrooms too soon teachers need to be aware of students who are linguistically diverse and those that are linguistically disabled. 

Second Language Acquisition

Research shows that the skills that a student has in their native language can be transferred to their second language, and that learning can take place in their native language and transferred to the dominant culture’s language 

Thomas and Collier (1997) developed the Prism Model. It has four fascist; linguistic, academic, cognitive, and sociocultural.       

 http://coe.k-state.edu/about/download/profdev/Perez_Diversity2.pdf

The Prism model has at its center the teachers sensitivity to the ELL's culture and needs so as to establish a relationship and teach within that culturally sensitive relationship. (It does not cause the student to associate the loss of their family's culture with learning. The learner can discover knowledge at school without compromising their relationship to their family or themselves.)

Basic communication skills (BICS) can be developed within as little as 2 years, but cognitive academic language proficiency  (CALP) can take as long as 5 to 7 years to develop. 

Krashen believes that a second language is learned the same way that a first language is through group activities, classroom discussions, and cultural activities to create and strengthen bonds between students ( Hurtado de Vivas,  pg. 223). Krashen believes that direct instruction is not how learners learn a new language, but they learn it when they understand it.

Krashen's filter is also affectively based  as it hypothesizes that learners aquire a new language better when there are low levels of anxiety compared to when there is high stress and acquisition is low. 

(Isn't that with most learning? Don't we learn better, create better when we don't feel too much judgement or pressure? Don't we learn better when it is the process that is emphasized and the right answer?)

Krashen thinks that it is the quality not the quantity of English that effects how much a learner will learn. It must be understandable for it to be learned. 

Short and Echevarria (2005) have a research based validated instruction model consisting of eight interrelated components to make content understandable to ELLs and to promote academic vocabulary. Teachers need to understand the needs of ELLS and provide sheltered instruction to help with language development. 

• slower speech
• clear enunciation 
• use visuals and demonstration
• targeted vocabulary development (which means what?) 
• connection to student experiences 
• use of supplementary materials 
• other strategies include cooperative learning, instructional conversations, multisensory instruction, and guided reading strategies because they provide opportunities for listening and discussing content
• print rich environment 
• multisensory input
• vocabualry
• role playing
• allowing time for reading and writing for curiosity and authentic purposes 
• coral reading
• books with tape s
• multicultural literature  
• language experience approach 
• total physical response 
• narrow reading 
• reading aloud 
• interactive writing with texts that support cultural awareness and instructional objectives

(Samina would like all of these. It is as if good practices for reading and learning are good practices for ELL. This Whole Chapter is almost a summary of English Language Learner Class ).  

DeCapua (2007) SIFE--Students with interrupted formal education need visuals, charts, graphs, time lines, and Venn diagrams, collaborative learning activities (task-oriented projects and small-group activities to replace traditional mote taking and worksheet assignments.  Good school / teacher family relationships are stressed

Culture

Culture is linked to food, holidays, folklore, sometimes to communication style, attitudes, values and family relationships . But Culture is also alive, a process, and is situated historically and socially contextualized. Culture is a system that has social stratification and tensions. (I once had a teacher that said people were like birds as they liked and collected shinny objects and were hierarchical).

    

Darder (1991) thinks that there are four main classifications of culture which overlap throughout the research (!!!)of the meaning of culture.(The definition of culture is researched--I never thought of it that way. I always thought of it  as what one absorbs when young and learns as one becomes older from one's social environment.)

Each culture bases its rules and traditions on the four classifications of

1. cultural values or value orientation 

2. heritage and cultural artifacts

3. language

4. cognitive styles 

Dominant culture versus subordinate culture

The dominate culture refers to ideologies, social practices, and structures that affirm the central values, interest, and concerns of those who are in control of material and symbolic wealth 

and 

The subordinate culture are groups who exist in social and material subordination to the dominant. 

 

In this section of the book it is so watered down that it is difficult to understand. What are the implicit rules of power that are sited? I think that she means by implicit rules is that minority students should be exposed to the curriculum in the same manner as the dominant culture, as not to do so is placing the minority learners at a disadvantage. Can this also be seen as the need for multicultural material to be built into the curriculum--I think so because as a minority in society one needs to define oneself in a positive manner and that maybe just as if not more important than being indoctrinated into the dominant culture.  

Whereas historically one was educated in school through ones culture and language it did not affect how successful they were because people were generally "successful" if we were born into the dominate culture (culture-protestant, white and Anglo-saxon or not and the successful if not born into the dominant culture ). Now while education wants to acknowledge the cultures of others so as to educate them it also wants to standardize what is learned to support the dominant culture. It's a tricky wire to walk. 

Culture is a powerful thing. When governments, communities, schools, and teachers do not acknowledge their power and their ignorance of their students' cultures they do more than a disservice to them; they can cause education to be associated with them being less than who and what they are.

Cathy 
Queen of Cats by Sandra Cisneros  
"You want to be my friend, she says. Okay, I'll be your friend. 
but only till next Tuesday. That's when we move away. Got to!
then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad." 

After thinking about this chapter for a week and discussing it in class I have come to the conclusion that academics writing is not considerate writing. Yes, we learn within the context of our culture, which includes our language. Yes, if we find ourselves in a classroom that does not value us as a person we will have negative associations with that class, subject, school, or  heaven forbid, learning in general. "Learning takes place within a relationship," is something I heard Scot Rose  say and it makes a lot of sense. Maybe it is generally clouded in the language of academia because it is not always the norm in our culture.  Americans say that they value individuality, but only in the context of success.  Americans value the ends not the means. We unintentionally impose our "views" on students all the time through the invisibility of cultural norms.  We are so focused on accountability and who to lay the blame on that we forget that it truly is in the nature of humans to learn and to teach. We need to take into account the whole person. Is it difficult to meet students' needs? Yes! but if we don't we can lose them. We can generally teach students to follow directions and do what they are told, but we want to teach students how to navigate the world and find their ways. To do this we need to do more than create obedient or disobedient children. Knowledge is only relevant to the individual if it awakens something in that  individual because then they see the value of the knowledge (it is more than just being smart or not or passing a test or not). Enough said. 

What maybe most helpful from this blog post is the link above because it applies a sociocultural model reminding us that we must first consider the  learner in their own context. Next we can look at their language development in reference to literacy domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. While looking at those domains consider graphophomic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic systems and their complexity. Then it is useful to take not of the differences between BICS  and CALP and not use social language as a determiner of academic language  and how to address those two needs. And to return to the original point of this chapter being an inconsiderate text--why can't its ideas, which are  important and raise many issues, be clearly stated? Are these ideas to be buried in vague text or in straight forward words?