The Good Immigrant Student And The Joy Of Reading And Writing `` By Sherman Alexie

I would like to withdraw my student visa application. As I submitted my application via Immiaccount but by mistake I answered the question : Is this person included in this application? therefore, the child ALENAZI, DALA (09/10/2003,F) was not accompanying the family on this application.

Occasion: Indian misconceptions, mistreatments, stereotypes, and discriminations all affected Alexie on his educational highway and served as a basis for the writing of “Indian Education”.

What this novel does not touch on is the harsh levels of discrimination that some Asian-American families faced during the 20th centuries, some people telling at them to go back to Vietnam, Korea, or wherever they came from, some refusing service, perhaps throwing them out for being different, similarly to how African-Americans were treated during that time, and similar to how some Muslims are being treated today. However, more insidious than moments of outright hostility, and maybe more powerful, are the constant weak reminders that you’re different, that you’re not one of them. The “sign at the Peking Express” (Ng 193), the “little boys on the playground, stretching their eyes to slits with their fingers” (Ng 193), you even “saw it when waitresses and policemen and bus drivers spoke slowly to you, in simple words, as if you might not understand” (Ng 193). All these tiny things, these little reminders that you’re not the same as everyone else around you, may have more impact on the people being discriminated against than blatant in-your-face

In “The Good Immigrant student “, Bich Minh Nguyen talks about how her life was a child and how her life was like living in a white neighborhood in Michigan. At first when they had recently move to Michigan her Latina stepmother had a strong belief on bilingual education so Bich and her sister were sent to a school that had a bilingual educational program because her step mother feared that they would forget how to speak Vietnamese. There for the girls attended that school but there problem was not that they didn’t understand English but it was that they had trouble understanding Vietnamese they decided to not attend their bilingual classes anymore and the stepmother realized that the girls weren’t interested in learnig both languages.

In the Daily Gazette, Micaela Baranello states that Diane Anderson, a Swarthmore Education professor, emphasized, “The importance of realizing that just because students speak outside of the dominant discourse does not mean they are deficient, but rather that they are different” (Baranello). This demonstrates that if someone is different somehow, it should not degrade them, and that is what both Gloria Anzaldua in How to Tame a Wild Tongue and Frederick Douglass in Learning to Read explain in their texts. Even though Anzaldua promotes language identity while Douglass encourages an overall education, they both promote social justice and tolerance through the role of literacy.

People who are different are consequently viewed differently. It is human nature to judge others by the stereotypes that have been ingrained into our minds for however long. Stereotypes, however, may not encompass the whole story. Sometimes, you are only getting the discriminatory side of the story--a single story. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” focuses on the discrimination towards broken English compared to Standard English and the stereotypes that evolved from such discrimination. Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” presents the idea that the “single story” is the reason for biased stereotypes that, more often than not, are untrue. Tan’s life in America was seemingly difficult due to the fact that her life and education were dependent on the language barrier between English and her “mother tongue”--the latter being seen as inferior and embarrassing. She initially felt that her mother’s fragmented English was something to be ashamed of since that was the “single story” that her peers have been spoonfed their whole lives. Adichie, however, denies these views by explaining that such stereotypes are incomplete and do not relay the person at hand’s true identity. In both “Mother Tongue” and “The Danger of a Single Story,” the speakers express how a person’s native language influences their identity through rhetorical devices such as ethos, diction, and metaphors.

Tan’s attitude towards her mother’s English begins with embarrassment and humiliation. Growing up in an immigrant family which speaks imperfect English, Tan witnesses many discriminations that her mother has encountered in department stores or at banks, those experiences help to shape Tan’s opinion to her mother’s English. For example, Tan states that “[she] was ashamed of [her mother’s] English. [She] believed that [her mother’s] English reflected the quality of what [her] mother had to say” (508). In young Amy’s opinion, her mother’s expressions and thoughts are broken and imperfect like the way she speaks, and she believes that linguistic expression is linked to a person’s intelligence. As a result, she was ashamed of her mother in public because of her fractured English.

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie gives insight into his early life of being Spokane Indian living on a reservation who taught himself to read at a very young age. Despite his ability to read so early he was treated as an outside or “oddity” in his community and the world surrounding him because of cultural diversity and issues between his peers and those who weren't part of his culture. The author specifically states “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and Non-Indians alike”; which informs the reader that an educated Indian isn't accepted in really either cultures which sets him as an outcast in both societies. The author describes his younger self as smart, arrogant, Indian boy who without books wouldn't be educated and wouldn't be what he is today.

He explains that black people were civilized and influenced by American civilization due to which they could speak English and be civilized so why not the Indians. Indians were called the savage as they were uncivilized and uneducated. He has written that Indians can even be civilized and made industrious and self supporting by the help of Americans civilization." We make our greatest mistake in feeding our civilization to the Indians to our civilization( Reading American past)". This demonstrates the condition of pathetic Indians in the west. Indians are deprived of preliminary facilities and even many died because of starvation. This was not only the condition of Indians, other minor group also

The freedom to learned have been illustrated through great educators, writers, humanitarian and abolitionist such as Fredrick Douglass and Richard Rodriguez. It is inevitable how Fredrick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write” and Richard Rodriguez’s “The Lonely Company of Good Book” has provided great intrinsic measurement in the education system. The role these author played in society has great meaning on the freedom to learn. Each author contribution has been express and illustrate the fundamental value of how learning plays a greater achievement to society. Both authors broke down barriers and stereotypes that were implemented into society through their achievements. The freedom to learn is the foundation to the

His foolish acts get him into five hundred years of trouble at the hands of Tze-Yo-Tzuh, and the Monkey King must then rely on the trust of a stranger to lead him toward redemption. In another story, Danny is a popular athletic teenager whose life is amazing until his cousin Chin-Kee arrives from China. Chin-Kee is the epitome of Chinese stereotypes—eating cat gizzards, excelling in classes, speaking in broken English—and Danny wants to hide him away and pretend he does not exist. But Chin-Kee ends up going to school with Danny every day, ruining Danny’s reputation. American Born Chinese undergoes phases of identity crises that are coupled with some sort of mental or physical transformation. This is a great novel to explore the diversity of students and how different elements affect their culture. The big question of the unit also allows for students to recognize stereotypes in order to see the implications that can have on the people the labels are placed on and how some labels may be placed on them for having a particular quality, gender, race, etc. The ending and tone of the novel also will help students with recognizing the need for accepting others while seeing that every person should seek for his or her own

As someone who is planning on getting licensed to teach two different, yet often marginalized, groups in a school setting, it is very important to consider how to make a school welcoming to all of its students. There is a lot of information available on making a classroom inclusive for students with special needs, but this sort of information is harder to come by for immigrant students who speak a language other than English at home. For this paper, I am looking into the question of how can a school be fundamentally welcoming to students from an immigrant background. I will be doing this by analyzing the experiences of students at a school in Bayview, California, the topic of Made in America: Immigrant Students in our Public Schools, a famous book by Laurie Olsen (1997). Her purpose was to study, “Through their encounters[, …] an illuminated version of the American system of stratification and exclusion through language, cultural, and racial relations” (p. 36). However, by analyzing and describing the school, Olsen has made it possible to assess any number of concerns that immigrant and English Language Learners (ELLs) face. Using the legwork she has already done, I have identified three characteristics a welcoming school should strive towards in order to help immigrant students.

(Gee, pg. 18)” In other words, the identity kit of a Latino and Latina student is to allow their culture show in their role as a student, but it is in need of attention regarding the failure education has “provided.” Latinos have been failed by the school systems and their poor retention rates prove that their framework is a deficit model. Latinos need to have an education system that integrates an education that will not disregard their background, family, gender, age, language, and culture. If possible, this will allow them to have a positive impact in student’s grades and most importantly, in themselves. As well as when trying to find new ways that will influence the benefits of a Latino’s work in education, writing should be a great way to begin when it comes to Latino’s. Especially because this is a critical matter in where having the mindset of English being the academic discourse to read and write; it has become an obstacle for Latino’s, since they have to be asked to change

“What it takes for English Learners to Succeed?” is an article written by Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher that discusses four accessible teaching practices that will allow English Learners in U.S. classroom to become academically successful and attain fluency in English. To clarify, the authors use practices such as access, climate, expectations, and language instruction to eliminate educational inequality and enable students to be able to fully participate in rigorous course work without excluding English Learners. Ultimately, this provides an approachable school reform, creates additive and transformative approach, as well as integration of multicultural perspective and lastly brings a way for language diversity to be seen in the classroom.

“At the end of the 20th century, when identity formation is increasingly mediated by technological media, who learns what, and how is it learned?” (Ibrahim, pg. 349) “How do differently raced, gendered, sexualized, abled, and classed social identities enter the process of learning a second language?” (Ibrahim, pg. 349) “In a postcolonial era when postcolonial subjects are constituting part of the Metropolitan ‘centers’, what is the ‘critical pedagogy’ required in order not to repeat the colonial history embedded in the classroom relationship between white teachers and students of color?” (Ibrahim, pg. 349) “At a time when the North American blackness is governed by how it is negatively located in a race conscious society, what does it mean for a Black ESL learner to ‘take up’ and acquire Black English as a Second Language (BESL)?” (Ibrahim, pg. 349) “In other words, what symbolic, cultural, pedagogical, and identity investments would a learner have in locating oneself politically and racially at the ‘margin’ of representation?” (Ibrahim, pg. 349-350) “In the case of African youths, whose