The Circuit & Breaking Through Understanding Issues of Immigrants

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The Circuit Breaking ThroughUnderstanding
Issues of Immigrants

• By
• Anthony Alderman

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Francisco Jiménez

•  
• Francisco Jiménez immigrated with his family to
  California from Tlaquepaque, Mexico. He worked
  in the fields of California as a child, and his
  autobiographical novel, The Circuit, tells the
  story of those younger yearshe received both his
  masters degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia
  University and is now the Fay Boyle Professor of
  modern Languages and Literatures and director of
  ethnic studies program at Santa Clara University.
  He lives in Santa Clara, California, with his
  wife and three children.
• -From Authors Bio in Breaking Through

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Young Adolescent Issues

• Learning/School
• Family
• Health (briefly)

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Family

• Strong Bond
• Major Role in Educational Achievement
• Needs of family supercede educational needs (work
  often comes first)
• Messages at home and at school differ (Breaking
  Through 78)

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Learning/School

• Chronicles his study of English
• Features fears, victories, techniques, and humor
  of learning English
• Faced some racism
• Clear anxiety about peers
• In school and in public spaces
• Show his work in different subjects
• English hard but Math easy
• Tells his work with teachers
• Some had a huge positive impact

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Bibliography
Breaking Through. New York Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2001.   The Circuit Stories from the
Life of Migrant Child. Albuquerque University
of New Mexico Press, 1997.