TEACHER COMMENDATION

Teacher Commendation

Teacher Commendation

Research Question

How would a teacher's commendation influence the process of learning of new comers into the fourth grade bilingual classroom?

Literature Review

There are a variety of programs and services available for Newcomers in 4th grade bilingual classroom in different states and districts. In any given state or district, several factors such as student population to be served, individual student characteristics, and district resources influence the kinds of program that will be designed to operate (Gersten, 2007).

In terms of student population, district or school demographics (e.g., the total number of language minority students, the number of students from each language background, and their distribution across grades and schools) will influence the selection of the type of programs to be implemented. Student characteristics (e.g., whether students have prior schooling experience in their native language, age, cultural and socioeconomic status [SES] backgrounds) can also be a significant factor in shaping the types of programs needed (August, 2006).

Finally, district or school resources (e.g., infrastructure, personnel, and materials resources) also influence the ways in which services are allotted to newcomers in 4th Grade bilingual classroom.

Programs serving 4th grade student populations generally include English as a second language programs and bilingual programs. 4th grade bilingual classroom programs are likely to be used in districts or schools where the language minority students' home languages are diverse, while bilingual programs serve mostly districts or schools with a large number of students from the same home language background. Because in the United States the majority of language minority students are of Hispanic background, most bilingual programs are Spanish-English programs (Gersten, 2007). In recent years, with the large influx of Chinese immigrants in some big cities such as New York and San Francisco, some Chinese-English programs have been established. In recent years, however, the number of bilingual ...