- What do you Think?? REFLECT: Perhaps you have a name or you can recall a classmate with a difficult name to pronounce. Predictably, year after year, teachers butcher the same name. What was the outcome? Was it awkward, long-lasting, humiliating? What was the impact?? Every year I have students with "unique" names--that is just what comes with being an ENL teacher! Our students names are a part of who they are--their culture, their heritage, their identity. I've seen students become so embarrassed by teachers who continually mispronounce their names. They don't know how to advocate for themselves and correct the teachers.
- Now What?? How might you become a “calibrator?” What steps will you take this school year to learn student names properly in your class? (avoid a side-show!) Simply ask! Also, empower students to advocate for themselves and correct others when their name is mispronounced. This can be through teaching sentence frames, creating scenarios, and modeling.
