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Why is it important to implement diversity into a classroom
Why is it important to implement diversity into a classroom
Why is it important to implement diversity into a classroom
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It is not enough for our students to be citizens of the United States of America; they are faced with the challenge that no other generation has: they are citizens of the world. Social studies, as a focus in classrooms today must be more than a history class. In fact, social studies should include all content areas and be included in all content areas. In math, it is not enough to learn isolated logarithms; students should explore economics and the interdependence of the world economies. A current events guiding question might include, Will the failure of Greece’s economy affect those of its neighbors and beyond? Science class should not be the teaching and learning of statics and dynamics and origin of life, but how bridges have influenced the world; and what regional, religious, and socio-economic factors have influenced the debate on the origin of life.
English should not be the only language studied in U.S. classrooms; in order to be competitive our students must learn and use other major languages of the world: Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, or Farsi. While a classical education is still competitive, incorporating modern functionalities is vital. In order to achieve a country of global citizens, our students must become well versed not only in reading, writing and arithmetic, but also in the study of societies and their impact on one another.
Enter the surprisingly overlooked curriculum of social studies. This untested, citizen- producing, rich curriculum, invites participants to explore the interactions of people, cultures, economies, religions, governments and more! As a throughline for all subject areas, social studies could very well be the unifying thread that pulls the world together.
An English teach...
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...tures and dynamics of human interactions should permeate all areas of our students’ lives. As it is outside of the classroom, so should it be within.
Works Cited
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http://www.escapefromcorporate.com/hypnotize-with-your-words/
Sleeter, Christine E. (2002). State Curriculum standards and the shaping of student consciousness (history-social science framework for California Public Schools). Social Justice, 29(i4), 18.
State of Connecticut. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/site/default.asp
Volger, Kenneth,. (2003). Where does Social studies fit in a high-stakes testing environment?. The Social Studies, 94(5), 207.
Writing workshop home. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Women
The most important social studies that permeate most aspects of life for every human being I think are the culture of people and the environment we live in.
America’s educational system is home to an increasing number of English language learners. Some research indicates that by the year 2030, over 40% of elementary and secondary students served by schools in the United States will come from homes where a language other than English is spoken (Thomas & Collier, 2001). In an effort to accommodate these students, the United States has adopted policies at both the federal and state levels. Generally, the direction taken to meet the needs of English language learners has depended on the climate of the nation. During times of peace and prosperity, policies reflect the nation’s tolerance of other languages and cultures. However, during times of war or conflict, policies have reflected intolerance or fear of anything deemed “un-American.”
The overall, topic for this week’s reading is Social Studies Textbooks and what is there point of view. In Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, the author makes the point that books show one-sided viewpoint of historical figures, fail to show conflict happening today, and fail to present multiple sides of an issue. The second article by David Tyack, Monuments Between Covers, talks about the idea to show that our past was full of right moments and if anything that was immoral was a small part and no big deal. Tyack points out the constant influence from political groups with different agendas fighting to influence and control what textbooks tell our countries’ children. In the last reading History Lesson by Dana Lindaman talks about the view point of American History throughout the world’s public schools’ textbooks. Overall, each of the countries diminished the role their nation played in terrible events and criticized other nations for their actions.
Americans have hidden behind the excuse that everybody important knows English for too long. The United States is the only country in the world where a student can graduate from college without ever having learned a foreign language. Most countries start foreign language instruction at ten years of age or younger. It is time we did something ourselves and stopped letting everyone else do the work. One credit of foreign language instruction should be required in order for graduation from high school in Laramie County School District Number One.
In the 20th century, the melting pot is not working, and the whole idea is under attack (Evans 76). The United States has changed from a melting pot to a vast culture with varying backgrounds. In years before, America was a collection of Chinese, Germans, Italians, Scots, Croats, etc., all craving freedom. Today, even the simple concept of an English-speaking nation is fading off the continent. In the old days, immigrants were taught in English in the public schools. (76). In America today, children are taught in German, Italian, Polish, and 108 other languages. Most of these schools are funded by 139 million federal dollars.
In the United States of America we have become a large melting pot of ethnic and cultural peoples. Along with these peoples have come many different languages and alphabets. However the US has been seen as a mostly English speaking country. Yet many of this country's newcomers do not speak English. Adults and children alike come into the US speaking and writing only their native tongue. This poses a huge gap in communication. If the adults are unable to teach their children English, then it becomes the school districts' responsibility. However to make learning easier on the child, many school districts choose to teach the child in their native language, while they receive English lessons on the side.
The concept of best practices in teaching is not a new one, and the discussion of how to implement the most effective strategies in social studies education is ongoing. By definition, social studies is a curriculum design focused on the relationships among multiple disciplines such as history, geography, philosophy, and the humanities, and its purpose is to help students develop the ability to make informed decisions with a world perspective. However, due to the ever increasing pressure from high-stakes testing, teachers feel the need to focus instead on memorization of names, dates, and other facts as the primary method for teaching social studies concepts (Au, 2011). For social studies instruction to be powerful, it must be meaningful, integrative, challenging, and active (NCSS, 1993), and as teachers begin to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into their classroom instruction, they will need to weave in strategies that promote critical thinking, a skill that is inherently challenging for many adolescents.
While many Americans, and even more unfortunate is American teachers, claim that global education would harm American values and go against what America stands for (Webb), a global education presents the ability to either properly expand upon one’s knowledge of the world with accurate information about their true culture and their language, or a global education could either undeservingly demote or promote a country to a ranking it may or may not deserve. Without global education, our future generations will face unnecessary challenges and face the possibility of destroying everything that we, the world, built upon to maintain
There are many things wrong with the world right now and that does not exclude the US, while there are many issues with dealing with an increasingly global society but none of them are as easy to fix and as urgent reforming language education. Although it is important for language to be standardized so that we can all understand each other, the state of language education is holding back non-native and native speakers alike.
Attending public schools as a child, I remember learning the basic skills on how to add and subtract, read, and write. These basic skills are necessary in order to function in our society and work force in the United States. As we all know each child learns differently, some learn faster than others and some slower than others. Our public schools have become overcrowded and we do not have enough teachers to fit the needs of each student. Some students get left behind and are not learning the skills needed to move on to the next level. What these students are not learning they can learn in higher education such as a college or university. In this report, I would like to express the importance of a higher education. I will use the works of John Henry Newman, Jon Spayde and Mike Rose, all three writers believe in having an educated society. Our students’ needs are changing, there are a growing number of immigrants with children coming to the United States from all over the world. They bring with them the language and culture of their country. The age in which they arrive to the United States determines how well they learn English and what skills they will need to acquire to become productive in our society. The task of teaching our children the basic skills is becoming harder and harder each day, making it harder for our education system to achieve their goals. There are a high number of students graduating from high school who does not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the work force in our society. A higher level of learning is needed to make our society literate.
Oxford College and many other American institutions are culturally diverse. English is the formal language for American education system. At the same time, English is the lingua franca, hence widely spoken across the globe. Nevertheless, English has hundreds of dialects and thousands of accents which sometimes make communication between two English speakers ineffective. Non-native English-speaking students at Oxford College and many other American learning institutions have poor learning experience. This is due to the restrictive nature of English as the only language of instructions. However, as integral factors for provision of a better or a higher education, multilingual lessons, and a new pedagogy are required to fit the need for a continuously
The inability of Social Studies Instruction to make an impact in the society have been blamed on teaching methods that stress the Cognitive domain or recall of knowledge to the neglect of the affective objectives. This point has been buttressed by the Nigerian Institute of teachers as a reason for the failure of social studies to effect changes in the society. The NTI (2006), is of the opinion that, the youths are rich in knowledge of social studies and facts but deficient in expected social values, attitudes and behaviors that commensurate the subject taught and learnt in the classroom.
International students may be sent to America to study, speak, write and read in English but the chance of encountering difficulties and struggles is high. According to researchers, learning English in America especially for foreign students is a difficult decision because one may not be able to become accustomed to the environment, behavior of difference culture and the acts of other around. English learners will also encounter reading disability because one cannot read English in a short time; additionally, international students usually struggle with reading English even though one may have the knowledge of the English language. No matter how many disadvantage the English language has, the world most common language will not be extinct because jobs, education and many other parts of the world use English as a primary
When starting this course, I was introduced to the main questions surrounding the field of Social Studies Education: What is Social Studies? Why and How should we teach it? From this class I have been able to understand each of these questions and how they interplay with one another, in order formulate my own thoughts on each. This combination of these questions ultimately defines why I feel I would be a good candidate to teach Social Studies. When coming to a conclusion regarding what the topic of social studies is, I realized that ultimately, it’s about people. The way people interact, alter their landscape, build systems of government, and shape the current society from past events. Each of these different human actions, it defines a specific
When most people think of social studies, they think of history or government, including myself, until now. After my first semester of college studying social studies education I realize it is so much more than history and government; or even geography, economics, and sociology. Social studies is the study of us— humans that is— and social studies education is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, more so than most realize. As a future social studies teacher, I now realize that importance. Before understanding social studies education, it is important to discuss what social studies is, how and why we should teach it, and lastly why I make a good candidate to be a social studies teacher.