6. Family Stories that Blind Us

Overall I found the study to be very interesting. I believe that the comfort that children or adults may feel from belonging to a "strong" family allows for he or she to take on larger obstacles with more confidence. I never considered the correlation between students dealing with hardships or something as simple as a scraped knee to their family's culture.

As a teacher it is difficult to talk to parents and discuss or suggest family members implement a specific strategy to build a stronger family. I would definitely be very hesitant to suggest that parents use a specific strategy at home in order to benefit their children, because I believe that some parents may feel some hostility with this approach.

One way I could incorporate this is to develop a family project where students have to investigate and learn more about their family. By using this strategy students can learn more about their families backgrounds, customs, and obstacles they had to overcome. By designating specific categories for students to cover in their projects, they will be able to learn about certain aspects that may benefit them in the future. By giving students the opportunity to share their findings, I believe that students would take great pride in their backgrounds and family history, and would thoroughly enjoy sharing with their classmates.

I also considered incorporating certain team-builing activities similar to the ones the members of the Naval Academy partake in to build a sense of community and family within the classroom. Students can build connections with students and their peers and use this confidence to overcome academic obstacles. The students building better relationships will allow for the students to build more connections with their peers. Hopefully this would lead to students discussing strategies to overcome difficulties at home and in the classroom.

5. Children's Visual Stories

Overall I found the two links of the children's stories very interesting. When watching the two I specifically considered relevant applications to teaching and how I could use these resources to aid in student's academic growth.

The short video story "The Four Friends: Learn Russian with Subtitles", would be extremely advantageous for a child that was learning to read, or a student learning a different language. For a child that is learning to read, by hearing the words and being able to read the corresponding subtitles, he or she can build language connections, and strengthen their phonics and phonemic awareness. For a student learning a new language he or she could watch a simple story like the one viewed since the language would be basic to develop their additional language skills.

In Shelly Duvall's bedtime story, she reads a story with accompanying pictures. This would be a good way for students that have english as a second language, and parents that do not speak english very well to "read" each night. This would allow for students to connect pictures with the way words sound and strengthen their vocabulary. This would also allow for their english instruction to continue at home, even if their parents do not speak english. I do think that it would be more helpful if the stories also contained english subtitles where the students read along with Shelly Duvall. As a teacher I could prepare a script and have the students read along as she is reading. This would also strengthen their fluency by keeping up with her.

These stories could also be a good way for students to continue reading at home regardless of it their parents are busy as well. By making multiple resources available, it will only enhance the students academics.

4. "Becoming American"

Several stories in the video “Becoming American”, were so uplifting, or upsetting, and provoked a lot of emotions. So many immigrants fought to create a life in America and had to persevere through several hardships. Despite obstacles these immigrants were able to achieve citizenship and contribute to the history and environment in America.

One quote that I believe really resonates the immigration to America was one from Meryl Streep when she stated, “I just thought those people were so brave, or what they were leaving was so tough”. There are so many questions as to how and why any Americans ancestors left their countries and began a life in America. I can relate to several of the celebrities in this video in the way that I am also curious as to why my ancestors decided to come to America.

It is very fascinating to hear the different viewpoints of famous Americans. Even people like Stephen Colbert who is the author of the book, “I Am America and So Can You”, can relate and discuss ancestry and where their family originated. Kristi Yamaguchi discusses the hardships her grandparents faced after coming from Japan. She even discussed how she had family members born in a “camp” which is so upsetting. Queen Noor’s ancestry was particularly interesting to hear about. Although she carried so many stories and impressions of her family and ancestry she was still surprised and enlightened by certain details that were discovered and brought to her attention.

It is so interesting to hear such different stories, originations and ancestry however; the stories all have so many factors in common. Although all of these ancestors were from different countries each family fought and struggled to “become American”, and create a new life in America while holding on to as many cultural aspects as they could. I cannot even begin to picture the amount of people and cultures that came over to America in search of a new life, and arrived in New York, the state I live in.