MY FRAME OF REFERENCE

I arrived in the United States at the age of 11 in 1996.  The 31 day journey is a novel of its own that I will eventually have to write. It took me less than two years to become proficient in the English language to begin thriving in academics. Getting acquainted with the language was the smallest challenge of all that I would have to face.  However, there was one reality that often drained me and at one point, it almost killed me, the reality of growing up undocumented.

I can focus on the negative and tell you how the media and part of society has always labeled us as “unwanted,” “a burden to society,” “pickers,” “wetbacks,” “criminals, ” and the list goes on. Yes, ever since 1996 and even before. Nothing new. That is a tough message for a young teen to get over. I can talk about how dehumanizing that felt, but really,  those were the messages that helped me develop a thick skin. I also learned to ignore “Go back home,” “you are unwanted,” and my favorite “you should have gotten in line and done things the right way to come here,” as if I had any say at the age of 11 when my mother brought me to this country. The latter statement shows how little people know about the immigration process. Again, I can focus on how much that hurt and almost scarred me, but although it hurt for a very long time and set me on a state of depression during my college years, I came to the conclusion that I was more than a DREAMER, I grabbed on to my faith and became determined to create my own label, and decided to become a lifetime WARRIOR, a CONQUEROR. After all, it is in my blood.

I am thankful that I had God by my side all along and that  He favored me with his grace as He blessed my pathway with angels from 1996 to 2008, my middle school, high school, and college years. These angels were my teachers and community individuals who arduously worked to support me and to give me a voice in society. They showed me that I mattered and that I could make a difference among many other things.

Enough about me, now, let’s get on with exploring how this transfers into our world language classrooms today. 

MISCONCEPTIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS

Inside our classrooms, we might be teaching Hispanic native speakers, these are students who have learned the Spanish language since they were babies and perhaps even attended part of elementary, middle, or  high school in their home countries. We might also be teaching Hispanic heritage speaker students, these are students who were raised in a home where  Spanish is spoken, but they may not be as fully proficient as native speakers because they haven’t had the same amount of exposure to the language. Regardless of their immigration status, these students are in our classrooms, and just like every other student in the building where we teach, they deserve to be seen, heard, understood, and taught to the highest standards we are able to deliver. 

First, I think it is important to know that  just like all of our students are unique and face different life challenges, our Heritage speaker students  are not all alike and they cannot be clustered into just one group. Our Heritage speakers too have different backgrounds, different family scenarios, and different struggles, even among their own peers. We just cannot assume anything. This is why connecting and building a relationship with each one of them is key.

Now, we cannot assume that every Hispanic student in the classroom is an immigrant. They might be  second, or third generation. Also, we can’t assume that every Hispanic student in our classroom is undocumented. One thing is true, and it was beautifully stated by Anny Fritzen Case in her article Seeing and Supporting Immigrant Teens. Fritzen Case stated“ while quality instruction is essential, that alone may fail to meet t immigrant teens’ complex needs.” I agree with that statement 100%.  The teacher  and allies who shaped me and led me to success during my high school years did beyond their job delivering effective instruction, they took the time to get to know me and my struggles.

 I also want to point out that none of my teachers were Hispanic. Regardless of the color of our skin, we can be agents of great impact for both heritage speakers and undocumented students. 

When we acknowledge and open our eyes to really see our Heritage speaker students, we are ready to make a conscious effort to get to know them and serve them effectively as language educators. 

IDEAS FOR A PLAN OF ACTION

The following are some practices of how you can establish a strong support system for these students:

1) See them

I am talking about observing in order to make an  intentional connection.  I remember when I was in 8th grade, my ELA teacher, Mrs. Patton saw that I loved to read. She requested Spanish books to be purchased just for me, so suddenly I had access to authors such as Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary,  Ann M. Martin and I was able to read those books in Spanish as I was strengthening my English proficiency. She saw me devour all of those books within weeks, what did she do then? She ordered Great Expectations for me. I was thrilled.  She took the time to connect with me this way, she saw that I was an avid reader in my first language, and she respected my language, and helped me further develop it by providing more complex texts.

We can do the same for our heritage students inside our Spanish classrooms via our Free Voluntary Reading libraries. We do so by carefully including more authors and voices to our libraries through more authentic texts that will speak to the needs and interests of our heritage learners.  We can even add books that will nurture and seek to meet all of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs through self help books, autobiographies, and inspirational fictional titles. One of my favorite authors as a high school student was Carlos Cuauhtemoc Sanchez. He is a very well known Mexican author among the Hispanic community. But you don’t have to stop there, if you notice a student is into any topic, find a book in the target language so that they can further explore that topic. As a best practice, please review each book before adding to your library.

2) Strive to establish long lasting & strong relationships 

 As passionate world language and CI teachers,  we are already doing wonderful things in our classrooms when we host special person interviews and when we provide beginning of the year surveys to our classes in order to get to know them better.  Based on the information gathered through these activities,  strive to build a relationship from there.  The 2X10 strategy is a very simple way to do that. You can read more about it here.  

3) Make your classroom a safe space

The reality is that many of our Hispanic heritage and undocumented students may feel they have nothing in common with others but once they join our school clubs and organizations, they will start feeling so connected and they will start feeling like they belong and that they can do something to contribute to their schools and society.  This is key because some may also be experiencing a low self esteem, a sense of shame, or worthlessness, and they will have to battle through that, most of the time, alone. This is because it is not easy to disclose “I am undocumented” to teachers and friends. It is very private information, and as an undocumented student I often wondered if my teachers and friends would even look at me the same way after they found out about my immigration status. Yet, I can tell you that when I became active in extracurricular activities  while in high school, it certainly helped me shut down the “you don’t belong here” rhetoric and showed me that I had much to contribute to society, and more importantly, it showed me that I had a place in THIS society.

4) Give them a voice  

My ELA teachers in middle school and high school were simply the best! They gave me a voice through different means. Mrs. Patton, my 8th grade teacher I have already mentioned, one day included me in her ELA class when I was just barely learning English. She also allowed me to use my voice, literally, in the classroom when she asked me to read “A Smart Cookie” by Sandra Cisneros in Spanish for our entire eight grade class. She approached me before class to ask me if I could read it. This made me feel that I mattered to her. Additionally, my high school ELA teachers were equally caring. Through daily journals, Mrs. Dasher and Mrs. Anderson constantly communicated with me. They gave me feedback, but they also made me feel seen with their personalized responses to my writing. I knew that through my writing, they could “hear me.” On my twelfth grade year, I had Mrs. Fallin, and she was always willing to listen and encouraged me to explore difficult topics. At this time in my life, I was beginning to own my undocumented status, perhaps not in the most healthy way, but I started becoming more open about it. Mrs. Fallin never judged me and I always received support from our verbal exchanges. All of my teachers gave me an avenue to speak or to write and tell my story, and not only that, they made it evident to me that they were listening. 

The same can be done in our world language classroom through  free writes. When we guide students to write about things that matter to them, we can offer comments beyond feedback, and show more of our human side. We can also make the classroom our stage for heritage learners to present on topics of interest to them to our classes, they have so much to offer.  They also are on their quest to establish their bi cultural identities, and this can be a great opportunity for them to investigate aspects of their heritage that have yet to be explored by them.  Each one of  them has a variety of interests that we can encourage them to research, and we can invite our classes to listen. 

5) Create a network of allies

As students get comfortable with their unique voices inside your classroom, feel free to open it up as a special place for them to meet with their peers facing similar obstacles. I am not asking you to give your lunch every day, but maybe host a lunch and learn once a month. When they have developed a relationship with you, it will be evident to them that you are their ally. They will feel safe around you, and if you ask, they will begin to voice their needs.  Perhaps they will need to be guided with their ability to dream because their dreams have been shattered like mine were at that age and you can reach out to a community member who will be willing to speak to the group and meet those needs. While most seniors are dreaming of their college plans, many undocumented students are sadly found saying goodbye to their post secondary dreams and aspirations if they don’t have the right support. I want to encourage you to be the support they need. Maybe, they need help finding scholarships for undocumented youth or with writing their essays…and  what if you can’t help because writing scholarship essays isn’t your strength? Well, I am glad you are wondering about that. You can start by recruiting the English teachers, the counselors, and anyone else who is willing to support these students genuinely along with their unique needs. This is an excellent opportunity for you, as a teacher, to create the greatest network of allies for these students. 

These are a few of the strategies that have impacted me greatly as a young undocumented student, and today, they have transferred into my world language teaching practice. I know this was a long blog post, but I greatly appreciate you for reading it until the end. 

Also, I want to invite you to listen to my conversation with Kaitin Leppert on this topic at her Preaching to Acquire podcast.  

Finally, please don’t hesitate to ask any questions. I am very open about my story and want to share it because more students need to hear stories of success. As one student told me this year “I see myself in you and the fact that you did it then, lets me know that I can do it now.”