Mexican-American students tend to be united by customs, language, religion and values. They tend to have a strong commitment to family. Studies show that Hispanic-American students have environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological and psychological learning styles.
Mexican-American students prefer a cooler temperature while learning, tended to be more conforming to the structure of learning and like the structure in schools although they prefer variety over routines. They require more social engagement in schools and do not need food or drink while learning.
I tend to be very structured and have routines set up in my classroom. My lessons tend to follow the same format of beginning class with a warm-up, going over homework, teaching a lesson, modeling problems in the lesson, checking for understanding and then ending the period with a summarizing activity to make sure students understood the lesson. While typing this I realize that I have a nice structure for my class but need to look at how I can mix things up a bit. Of course I use graphic organizers, different activities using the different learning syles to teach the lesson and check for understanding but I wonder how does this look to my students from Mexico? I do try for variety and I wonder if it is enough to keep them interested? I know they like to be social but why are they so quiet in class? How can I engage them more in the lesson?
I will make some adjustments in my teaching. I will allow my students more time to discuss the mathematics we are learning.
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