The Inner World of the Immigrant Child

I got this for a class I was taking and it arrived on time and was good

Cristina Igoa truly defines what an “inner world” is as an ELL student in the school system. Igoa beings the book by explaining her own personal history of moving through war and multiple countries several times, all while having fragmented schooling before the age of 13; her own history makes this book much more credible because she truly relates to the students she is working with throughout the book. Igoa thoroughly explains the phases that an ELL student will go through during their time in the American school system and suggests best practices that she has shown to be effective. She uses an effective technique of allowing students to create and use these filmstrips that portray their inner world and feelings without even saying a word. Igoa stresses throughout the book how important it is for ELLs to reach acculturation, or in other words to reach a balance and acceptance of their native culture and the new American culture.I highly recommend this book to anyone who works in the realm of education or any child related field. This book will give you a whole new perspective on these students. Just because these children are silent for a period of time, it does not mean they should be ignored because they are constantly absorbing new knowledge the entire time. With the high influx of immigrants and refugees to America, people need to be aware of this “inner world” the children create in their head when they first arrive. It is our responsibility as teachers, coaches, mentors, etc. to not give up on them when they do not respond the way you would imagine; they wish to communicate but they do not know how. This book goes in-depth explaining how to welcome and integrate ELL children into a new culture. Never giving up on a child is rewarding and the moment a child breaks through their shell is a moment you will never forget.

The Inner World of the Immigrant Child is a beautifully written book that captures the delicacy of the experiences that immigrant children face upon entering a new country through dialogic interviews with real children. Cristina Igoa manages to capture the raw, and sometimes heartbreaking, stories of her past students as well as their struggles and revelations of adapting to their new lives in America. Igoa’s focus of this book is to empower and evoke empathy in teachers, and to give them the tools that will better equip them to teach English learners and immigrant children in their classrooms. Igoa’s educational background allows her to be highly equipped in providing accurate and helpful information on this topic. Igoa’s suggestions are all based off of extensive research and her own experiences, which allow her to suggest highly effective best-practices for teachers in their classrooms. We would highly recommend this book to any future or current educator because it taught us to value the diversity of cultures that we will encounter or have encountered already in our own classrooms, and provided us with creative and meaningful activities that we can use in our classrooms to help immigrant students feel safe and welcomed in a new environment.

The Inner World of the Immigrant Child is a great book for teachers and for children from other countries and cultures to see how their lives can be impacted positively. After reading this book for my Teaching English Language Learners class, I have learned a lot of information and gain knowledge about how to make your classroom appropriate for these immigrant children. This book is very insightful to learn about how these children come over to the United States scared and culture shocked and finding ways to help them overcome this period is provided in this book. The information in this book is provided in a way that is understandable for all readers who are interested in learning more about the inner world of immigrant children. The book has many suggestions from author that teachers can use in the classroom and how to interact with these children. I feel that this author has a unique philosophy and way of teaching ELL/ESL students that assures that they have a chance here in the United States. She is very student-centered and respectful of their home cultures. As a reader, you are able to feel the positive atmosphere and feeling that are associated with the topic of immigrant children.

The Inner World of the immigrant child by Cristina Igoa creates an insightful image of what an English Language Learner (ELL) has to face when entering an English classroom. Cristina is an ELL teacher who has many different and unique children in her classroom that come very varying backgrounds with different past histories and are at different stages of their academic and English education. She faces challenges such as students facing culture shock, isolation, depression and silent periods. Cristina shows many different techniques and accommodations that she had to make for her students.This book is a fantastic read for whoever is looking to familiarize themselves with what ELL students go through when they enter a classroom. The author and teacher Cristina Igoa allows the reader to experience what a teacher must go through in these situations. I would recommend this book to all educators because often these students go overlooked and educators are unaware of how to successfully integrate these students into their mainstream classrooms. It is very informative and very beneficial for these educators to become familiar with this information. I give this book an A+.