Response #6

Please excuse my delay in answering this question--i've had technical difficulties. But since I mentioned excuse--this is a great example of how a phrase can not be translated. In English you can say "you are excused" but in Spanish the word saying "estas escusado" is not exactly what you want to hear. Although i've heard use the word "escusar" as excuse, it does not relay the same message. Escusado as many of you may know means toilet and is not something to say to be courteous. I hear many of these examples in my classroom on a regular basis.

In my classroom I try to look for literature that is culturaly diverse and that celebrates the heritage of my students throughout the year, not only on calendar holidays. Sometimes it is difficult because libraries don't have a wide variety of texts to choose from. I end up buying a lot of the texts myself. I also try looking for websites that will give me free stuff for culturally diverse lessons.