Blog One: Thoughts on Diaz-Rico and Weed

I found Diaz-Rico and Weed's thoughts on the different cultures that have influence in the United States to be very interesting.  I always think it is important that as teachers we should be aware of cultural traditions that differ from our own so that we ourselves will be better able to understand our wide-range of students.  I also thought this article had some very enlightening information about the wide diversity of students and their living conditions in this country, as well as some views on how to help struggling students.
One of the key issues that the article addressed was the importance that immigration has played in the cultural growth of the United States, showing how traditions and culture expanded as more people from various cultures immigrated to the US. The article also addresses some of the major cultural influences that are evident in the US, which include Native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans.  The article also touched on how these minority groups are often in the most need of attention as they are a growing population facing poverty and language barriers (56% speak a language other than English) as the population in US begins to change to reflect the non-European immigrants that are growing in numbers in this country.  Finally, the article addressed some of the issues that lead people to immigrate to a country which include economic problems, political problems, religious problems, and family unification.
I had a couple of questions come to mind as I was reading the article.  What can we as future ESL teachers do to incorporate various cultures/traditions into our lessons? and How do we react and adapt to students coming from a poverty background?
I think this article provided useful information that could be applied to thinking about how poverty effects immigrant or minority students in their ability to learn in English which may or may not be their first language.  This may be something to think about exploring further as the semester goes on.