As I am entering my new role as the ELA and ELL teacher in a middle school, I finding that these laws and new legislations are shedding some light on questions that I have felt left unanswered by many that I have spoken to about my new position. I now understand my purpose and feeling as though I am now becoming the advocate for students entering my school. I am appreciative to find that I can now offer services to these students who before were left to "sink or swim." As stated in the Supreme Court decision for the case Lau v. Nichols, "There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful …show more content…
As an undergraduate, I had many course of how to teacher students with special needs, and it did not become a requirement to take the SEI endorsement class until the semester after I graduated. Why is this a new focus when the laws have been in effect since the 1960s? I questioned whether or not this new focus in Massachusetts was due to Question 2 and the new legislations that are discouraging bilingual classrooms. According to the Attorney General’s summary:
The proposed law would require public schools to educate English learners (children who cannot do ordinary classwork in English and who either do not speak English or whose native language is not English) through a sheltered English immersion program, normally not lasting more than one year. In the program, all books and nearly all teaching would be in English, with the curriculum designed for children learning English, although a teacher could use a minimal amount of a child’s native language when necessary. (Galvin, “The Official Massachusetts Information The 2002 Ballot Questions For