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Preparing for culturally responsive teaching essay
Preparing for culturally responsive teaching essay
Preparing for culturally responsive teaching essay
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There are many challenges that teachers encounter when teaching children with learning disabilities, learners that are English language learners, or learners who are culturally and linguistically diverse. As a nation we are faced with the challenged that our schools are becoming more diverse. The majority of our schoolteachers are still predominately white females, but our student population is slowly changing. We are seeing more minority groups in our schools that are facing different challenges. The scary part of it all is that our teachers do not have the skills to accommodate those differences. “The nation’s changing school demographics are creating a demand for new teaching skills” (Utley, Obiakor, & Bakken 2011, pg. 5). Our student population …show more content…
7). In order to obtain academic achievement learning needs to be challenging, yet exciting. The teacher needs to be able to facilitate the learning process for different cultural and linguistic groups. Teachers also need to understand and teach students that learning does not occur in a box and that there is a world outside of the classroom. In order for a teacher to be effective they need to have knowledge of the three dimensions and teach in a culturally sensitive matter. They need to create structured learning environments, implement a supportive classroom environment, and provide access to resources for CLD students who have learning …show more content…
Currently I am co teaching a fifth grade class of eleven students. The class is a general education class with four students who have disabilities. My main focus for the class is teaching the human body system and implementing writing into the class. Differentiation of instruction is something we need to show that we are implanting in our classroom. There are four levels of differentiation of instruction; content, process, product, and affect. What we teach, how we teach it; how students demonstrate what they have learned, and how students feel about what they are learning is what DI is about. Educators need to start by choosing the best content that will help all of their students. The content not only has to relate to the subject matter, but need to connect to their culture. The process is also a crucial component of DI and Santamaria feels that the best thing to do for the students is having them work in groups, but Utley took an individual approach to DI. Santamaria feels that cooperative learning stimulates learning. The last component to DI is the product. This could be as simple as allowing the students to present their final product
Years after most school districts in the United Stated have initiated some type of “strategy” for educating America’s, increasing ELL population,; questions about how well teachers of English Language Learners (ELL) are being trained and the effectiveness of ELL programs have arisen . For many, such topic may not be as important to some as it is to others. In retrospect, the number of ELL students grows every school year as schools districts absorb the increased enrollment. Based on state-reported data, it is estimated that 4,999,481 ELL students were enrolled in public school (pre-K through grade 12) during the 2003-2004 school year (Mckeon, 1). With this in mind, school districts are still witnessing a tremendous growth of their ELL population as educators prepare for the tidal wave of non-English speakers. Unfortunately, in lieu of the data, school districts are still not ready for the influx of students who are arriving every day, and teachers are not fully prepared. Additionally, many school districts are failing to support their teachers and to evaluate their ELL programs effectiveness. In fact, the lack of success in many ELL programs is due to the insight that many states are implementing programs with no proof that such programs are effective or working. Simply put, many school districts are not evaluating the efficacy of their program, providing support to teachers, and initiating diversity training and skill buildings.
While differentiating instruction and being able to design lessons geared towards the needs of diverse learners are currently highly prized skills for teachers, this has not always been the case. The history of education in the United States is a history of segregation. Even today, schools and curriculum are designed to meet the needs of a core group of students, which does not include students with disabilities (Hitchcock, Meyer, Rose, & Jackson, 2002). In the past, learners who were different, out of the mainstream, or did not fit into the mold to which teachers taught (were not part of the core) learned how or lost out on learning. This is not to say that teachers of the past did not care about their students, about being effective teachers, or about student learning. However, as schools are mirrors reflecting mainstream societal norms (Chartock, 2010; Delpit, 2006)—and, given that our society has not always valued diversity in people, be it due to disability, class, culture, or race—teachers in the past have largely focused their efforts where they could earn the largest return on their investment: the average student .
The purpose of this study is to figure out which ways experienced teachers work best with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study illustrates which strategies experienced teachers have found to work best. The diversity in school in the United States has increased each year. This means that there are an increasing amount of students who are learning English, English language learners (ELLs). This article comes from the perspective that each child should be taught to their specific needs. All students deserve a fair chance to learn. Fair means that every student is treated differently, not equally. Every student learns differently. In order to give every student a fair chance at learning, you must teach them according to their needs. An experienced teacher, Tiffany, describes her experiences working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study watches her methods and discusses what works based on data analysis of the success of her students.
"Equal educational opportunity to all students means that teachers and schools promote the full development of students as individuals, without regard for race, ethnicity, gender, abilities, and disabilities." (Parkay & Stanford, Chapter 2) According to the article Educating/Fostering Culturally Responsive Teachers, it addresses issues of concern in the preparation of teachers, who will be expected to teach students from diverse backgrounds in a culturally responsive and educationally healthy way. The use of Standards as a framework provided specific indicators for determining the enhanced knowledge and skills those culturally responsive teachers needs in order to go forward. For example, as teachers describe the philosophy of education, understand how students learn and develop and apply that knowledge in their practice, teach students with respect for their individual and cultural characteristics, know their content area and how to teach it. Teachers facilitate, monitor and assess student learning. Teachers create and maintain a learning environment in which all students are actively engaged and contributing members. Teachers work as partners with parents, families and with the community.
A longstanding national issue that continues to concern the public is the disproportionate representation of children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds in special education. The fact is that the proportion of minority students in the population of school-age children has risen dramatically to over 35%, which is increasing the diversity of students in many public schools throughout the nation. This makes the phenomenon of disproportionality especially troubling. With a growing population of minority children comprising a greater percentage of public school students, we must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society. The overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been posed as an issue for more than 3 decades, but it is worth asking whether the efforts of legislative actions, educational reforms and legal challenges have really made improvements to this issue. More importantly, disproportionality should be examined as a correlation to underlying conditions that can pose a great effect upon not only the quality of a child’s education, but also ______.
For teachers to be effective in providing equitable learning opportunities, they must be informed about the dynamics of diversity in the student population. This awareness should be aimed at providing meaningful and engaging learning activities that are sensitive to the linguistic, gender-based racial, ethnic, cultural, and exceptional needs of the students (Indiana University Teaching Handbook, 2012). However, before teachers can create meaningful opportunities for learning, they must be aware of their students’ strength and weaknesses. Diagnostic assessments provide detailed information that can help the teacher identify areas of weaknesses in order to help students evolve through the reading stages. After identifying students’ deficiencies
Echevarria, J. Teaching language minority students in elementary schools (Research Brief No. 1). Santa Cruz, CA, and Washington, DC: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. (2003)
The. Landsman, Julie G., and Chance W. Lewis. White Teachers / Diverse Classrooms: Creating Inclusive Schools, Building on Students' Diversity, and Providing True Educational Equity. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2011. Print. The.
What is more important to education? The content or the how the content is taught? Many policy makers today believe that the former is far more crucial to the development of our youth. With high-stakes testing and an entire industry of textbooks and test making, the current system places empirical results over all else. Unfortunately, this approach only helps with the lower levels on the depths of knowledge (DOK) and Bloom’s Taxonomy charts. It only helps with basic recall of facts and knowledge. A second area of concern with this type of teaching is that only instills one point of view in the pupils. This is also problematic for diverse classrooms with students from various backgrounds. Would an approach that reinforces critical thinking and higher levels of DOK be more appropriate? A technique that incorporates the diversity of the classroom and life experiences of those students can be explained by Christopher Emdin and Django Paris who are two advocates of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy or Reality Pedagogy.
As you can see through out this paper there are many challenges dealing with diversity that are facing the teachers of tomorrow. They must design their class room, lesson plans, and style to make sure every student is given the best opportunity to learn. These challenges maybe difficult and overwhelming at times but if one can tackle these challenges head on in a positive manner then they have taken the first step in not only becoming a multicultural instructor but a great teacher.
Rothstein-Fisch, C. & Trumbull, E. (2008). Managing Diverse Classrooms. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Culturally relevant pedagogy uses inclusive practices to meet the needs of all learners. These methods include teaching that integrates students’ backgrounds and experiences into the curriculum and learning experience. In doing so, teachers using culturally responsive pedagogy must: (1) hold high expectations and affirming views of all learners; (2) provide room for all students’ to make meaningful connection to learning content; and (3) create a safe and positive classroom climate fostering respect and care for students. As we review certain approaches of implementing best practices to meet the needs of RCELD students, we must also remember that it takes long-term commitment to inclusive practices in education in order to address the inequitable structures that contribute to issues such as the achievement gap.
Therefore, teachers teach the whole child since they maintain cultural identity of a student not only do they emphasize on the importance of academic achievement. Consequently, when promoting academic community for students, teachers play a role in responding effectively to the learners needs (Gay, 2000).
When teachers differentiate their lesson, the students are more engaged to learn. Students have some choice in their learning activities, which motivates students to want to learn and also puts more learning responsibility on the students. Some students may prefer to work alone or in groups and some students like to be hands-on. By differentiating the lesson, all students’ needs are being met. “Differentiated Instruction gives students a range of ways to access curriculum, instruction and assessment. DI engages students to interact and participate in the classroom in a richer way. It is based on the assumption that all students differ in their learning styles, strengths, needs and abilities and that classroom activities should be adapted to meet these differences
Shore, Marietta Saravia. (2011). “Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners” Chapter 2. Educating Everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners. http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx