Rodriguez "Aria" and Collier "Teaching Miltilingual Children"

"Aria" is a story about Richard Rodriguez's childhood experience growing up in an assimilated classroom where he was forced to soley speak english. Rodriguez felt that this process stripped him of his family culture and tradition and ultimately caused his family to lose the closeness they had once shared due to the family converting to speaking english most of the time. At one point, Rodriguez describes the event of the teachers from his school going to his house and asking his parents if "it is possible for you and youre husband to encourage your children to practice their Engish when they are home?". This was the beginning of a process that was described as a game within the family when speaking English with eachother. They would sit at the dinner table and speak English, lauging when they couldn't say a word or understand what it means. Over time, however, Rodriguez seems to become bitter about not being able to speak his native language and begins to see that it is slowly tearing the family apart. He also states how awkward he sometimes felt speaking English because it didnt 'belong' to him. He had trouble determining what to call his parents. "mama and papa i couldnt use anymore . . . all those terms i felt were unsuitable, not really terms of address for my parents." He also describes an incident when he walks into the house and overhears his parents speaking to eachother in spanish and when they notice he is there they switch to English. Rodriguez got upset by this and was forced to leave the room.
Overall I thought this piece was interesting and easy to read. I understood that Rodriguez felt that he lost a part of himself when he was forced to speak English instead of Spanish and that this greatly affected his home life as well.

Collier's "Teaching Multilingual Children" is about the responsibility put upon teachers to both teach multilingual children correctly, but also to be aware of their culuture. Collier states that it is important to teach kids what they need to learn, but also respect their background. " The key is the true appreciation of the different linguistic and cultural values that students bring into the classroom." Collier also states that "1. be aware that children use first language aquisition strategies for learning or acquiring a second language." This statement is very true because when a child learns one thing it opens pathways to learning more, the same is true with languages. She also states that "3. dont teach a second language in any way that challanges of seeks to eliminate the first language." when reading this I thought that maybe if the teachers Rodriguez had had been told this, he would not have felt so out of place in his youth.
This piece was really hard for me to read. I found it boring and half the time after finishing a paragraph I'd have to go back and read it again. I agree with many of the topics Collier presented, however perhaps it could have been told in a more personable way in order to keep the readers attention.