Multi-Modal Literacy and Teaching Immigrant Students

Prior to the doing the readings for today I was a bit confused why we were reading them in the same week, but after doing them, it made complete sense to me.  I loved reading "The Silent Stage" because it was such a vivid description of hope.  I felt like I was able to really watch Dennis transform from a shy, ashamed, immigrant child to a confident, well-adjusted student.  It was amazing to me that the instructor was able to develop the idea of the film strip with him in order to engage him in his learning.  Not only did Dennis exceed expectations academically through the film strip, but the pride it gave him as a person was incredible.  I never would have guessed that the film strips would have benefitted Dennis so much!  I did have a question, though.  How could teachers go about helping immigrant students if they do not have as much one-on-one time with students as this instructor had with Dennis?  Dennis was able to be in a different classroom working on his own assignments for the majority of the day, but what if schools don't have these types of resources?  How can we tap into kids interests if our time with them is more limited?

Along the lines of resources, I felt the readings about Multi-Modal literacy and the importance of technology were critical to address in this class.  In today's world, technology is surrounding us and incorporated into most aspects of our lives.  It is important that children have access to this technology because not knowing how to use a computer, for example, could be detrimental in today's "real world."  However, what happens when schools don't have the resources to provide for their students? The classroom that I do my field experience in has four computers in it, and students have assigned days to go on the computer every week or two.  But this is a wealthy school where students who don't get a chance to get on the computer regularly at school have time to get on at home.  What about in schools where this isn't the case and then the teacher tries to take her students to the computer lab and few students are familiar with basic functions on the computer?  I think it is critical to teach students how to use technology, but I worry about schools with very few resources and how they can accomplish these goals as well.  I don't mean to be a downer, but I do think it's a very real problem!