7/12- End of Class Reflection on Mr. Larievy

Hello fellow Donovans,

I would just like to stress that I am impressed with the depth of knowledge and experience that Mr. Larievy has had with English Language learners. As you all may know, I was an English language learner when I immigrated to the United States. Thanks to Mr. Larievy, I found that something that I believed in strongly was actually erroneous. Like many other English language learners, I was placed in an immersion classroom. In other words, I was to speak English at all moments in school. No Spanish instruction whatsoever. My parents believed that this was the best choice for me, because the bilingual program that I was in at my other elementary school did not provide me with enough practice in English. Back then, I felt overwhelmed in the immersion program... I was one of those children who felt like they were "sinking." However, my parents and brother helped me with my homework assignments and spoke to me in English at home (sometimes). In addition, my parents also forced me to continue speaking in Spanish and watch telenovelas (which I actually enjoyed doing)... Even though my second grade teacher, Mrs. Banks engaged in explicit English instruction, she also allowed me to read books in Spanish and encouraged my parents to speak to me in Spanish at home. As a result of all this, I became a fluent speaker of English in a year, without an accent. Due to these results, I believed that the immersion model was the best... I also believed this because some of my Latino peers went through the same experience and achieved a college education.

HOWEVER, Mr. Larievy and the video he showed us indicated a disconcerting statistic... That the great majority of the English language learning children who are placed in immersion classrooms become high school dropouts or only achieve a high school education. Essentially, I am one of the few exceptions of this troubling statistic... As well as my brother and my other Latino peers. Now, I feel awful for having defended a pedagogical model which sets so many students up for failure and will become an advocate for bilingual education. Thank you for revealing this fact in such an eye opening moment.

Best,

Maria Valarezo