In small cities where everybody knows everybody this is a very common occurrence, even though it is very wrong. A third and the most obvious way that educators characterize the needs and abilities of their students is with grades. Whether your in first grade and get U's or S's, or your in highschool and get A's, B's, C's, D's, or F's teachers are always judging students ability levels. Another tool used for this is standardized testing. The two are then combined to decide whether a student is smart, average, or in need of outside help. Grades though they were certainly harsh to Alejandro, are a necessity of teaching.2. Using deficit-model language, describe Alejandro's situation. What educational implications or actions does your description suggest? Alejandro had several strikes against him when it came to his education, first and foremost was cultural. Alejandro, though he went to kindergarten in Chicago had most of his early schooling in Mexico(1st-3rd grade), then came back to Chicago for fourth thru eighth. "The result of Alejandro's educational journey thus far was total confusion between the phonetic systems of English and Spanish, greatly affecting his ability to read and write"(8) Alejandro was stuck in between two languages, neither of which he knew very well. This put him way behind his fellow classmates, even in an almost all Latino school. Another deficit for him was education or the lack of, for both him and his parents. To me the best example of Alejandro's lack of education was on page 36 when Chris Carger reads The Ugly Duckling with Alejandro. Alejandro reads the book fine, but he doesn't understand it because he had never seen or heard of a swan. A very simple thing like knowing what a swan was diminished Alejandro's comprehension of the book. In first years of school parents are releyed upon very heavily to help their children learn the basics of reading and writing. My Brother Ryne ...
