Lupita-Week 7

Week 7-Lupita

Lupita is the type of student I have encountered many times in my placements. Many teachers assume that a student does not understand or has some sort of mental disability when the student is quiet. I feel that cultural differences play a large part how a student behaves in the classroom. It is possible that Lupita has trouble with transitions and her reaction is to be quiet (the opposite from the Marcus Case). Mrs. Potter should definitely try to learn more about Lupita’s funds of knowledge, educational experiences, and cultural differences that can contribute to her learning in the classroom. The fact that Lupita has had little experience with educational tools that are very common in an American classroom can be very overwhelming for her. I have witnessed students being held back due to their lack of social skills. These students were assumed to have poor academic skills but at the end of the day it was just a simple misunderstanding. Lupita may have come from a school that did not have hand manipulative or didn’t require social interaction with other children. The fact that Mrs. Potter does not call on Lupita only increases the communication gap. I believe that if Mrs. Potter socially interacted with Lupita (formally and informally), she would discover a lot of her assumptions of Lupita to be false. Lupita and her family members should be interviewed in order to accommodate Lupita in transitioning into an American classroom. It is also possible that Lupita may have never been exposed to English prior to moving, which can also cause issues with communication. Mrs. Potter can try to incorporate more visual aides as well as teach in themes to make her curriculum more comprehensible for Lupita.