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Acknowledgements
Thank you to Karen Guerrero, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Dawn Lambson, Barbara Jean Montgomery, Gail Ekiss, and Heather Moll for being supportive during the course of the STEMSS EL Cruise.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Please note that a review of the characteristics of living things may be necessary to assess a student’s prior knowledge.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Claudia Marisa Bouchard
As a secondary science teacher, teaching students who are new arrivals is a very unique experience. For these students, language learning, science content, and learning skills are taught in tandem.
Diverse classrooms provide learning experiences of acceptance, kindness, and community; however, there are different challenges that arise with diversity. Many multilingual classes include students who speak different languages, are from around the world, and are at varying learning levels. It is imperative to build a community that is caring, accepting, and willing to make mistakes; the best learning environment for language development is one that feels safe to take chances and make mistakes. In these classes, students need to learn that even though they are very different and speak a different language, they have many things in common, including the desire to learn and be part of the community.
Teaching geography embedded in the science curriculum is essential, for many students have distinct prior knowledge and experiences. Students typically lack awareness of where they are and the relationship with their environment. The use of different geography maps of the world, USA, and Connecticut contributes to building a classroom community as students need to know where other students are from, the uniqueness and biodiversity of their home country, and the similarities and discrepancies between here (Connecticut) and their home country.