The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.
Growing up with a very diverse group of friends, I have spent a significant amount of time around families from different cultures. Anywhere from African-American, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, Polish, Laotian, Italian, Albanian, you name it. We have been close since the elementary school days and have all become family in each other's homes. That being said, throughout my life I have learned about other cultures through friends. Foods, languages, religions, whats respectful/disrespectful, customs, values, and so on. The area that I live in has provided me with the opportunity to meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and I am very fortunate for that. I grew up thinking nothing of it (until I got older). Also, many of my friends lived in poverty with a single parent, but race, ethnicity, and social class never really meant anything. Once I got older, I started to understand the difficulties in some of their houses and with some of their families.
In the classroom, I try to stay open to all the students and I understand that nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes. Every student is different and comes from a different culture and background. It is impossible to fully understand how they feel or what goes on at home. What we can try to understand is that life isn't happy for everyone. Some kids go through more by the age of eight than most people go through in a lifetime. Its almost tough to believe but its true. The teacher in my classroom has filled me in on some of the issues that have faced the students I work with and it is very disheartening. To me it is obvious why a student is shy, or a student doesn't do well around others. When there are serious problems at home, its really hard for a student to do well in school.
What I have found is the best way to connect with any student, but especially a troubled student, is to make them feel comfortable around you. Most young boys are similar no matter what their background is, they like video games, sports, wrestling, cartoons, or monster trucks. Growing up my friends (regardless of social or cultural background) loved all of the above and I haven't met a little kid since who doesn't like at least one of them. Once you can find something that the student is interested in, you can connect by talking about it for a few minutes. At that point, the student is either excited about what he is talking about or excited that you know something about what he is into, or both. Either way, he will feel more comfortable around you which makes it easier for him to work with you.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Post #3 (Question #3)
The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning.
Although the students in my second grade class are assessed at different reading levels, I have been using the same criteria to assess the five or six students that I work with for almost the entire time that I have been there. This I don't agree with. Of the group that I work with, I have a student that is very shy, a student that doesn't respond to anyone, a student that has trouble focusing and will go off topic in the middle of a sentence, a student that is very animated and makes mistakes because he tries to work too fast, and a couple of students who do very well with the assignments that are presented to them. Every week I follow the same criteria when working with these kids and it gets aggrivating because some of them struggle with it almost every week. Some days they will do better than others, but that is beside the point. I know that it is difficult to give different assignments to every student, however, I am working with these individual students for a reason. Since they are already being worked with in isolation, the assessment techniques should be adjusted accordingly to accomodate their sociocultural differences. At such a young age, certain students might have trouble adjusting to specific learning techniques. It is important for teachers to find techniques that best fit the students that struggle and to help them improve so by the time the move up a grade they are a little more comfortable. It might be difficult, but it just requires a little extra effort.
Although the students in my second grade class are assessed at different reading levels, I have been using the same criteria to assess the five or six students that I work with for almost the entire time that I have been there. This I don't agree with. Of the group that I work with, I have a student that is very shy, a student that doesn't respond to anyone, a student that has trouble focusing and will go off topic in the middle of a sentence, a student that is very animated and makes mistakes because he tries to work too fast, and a couple of students who do very well with the assignments that are presented to them. Every week I follow the same criteria when working with these kids and it gets aggrivating because some of them struggle with it almost every week. Some days they will do better than others, but that is beside the point. I know that it is difficult to give different assignments to every student, however, I am working with these individual students for a reason. Since they are already being worked with in isolation, the assessment techniques should be adjusted accordingly to accomodate their sociocultural differences. At such a young age, certain students might have trouble adjusting to specific learning techniques. It is important for teachers to find techniques that best fit the students that struggle and to help them improve so by the time the move up a grade they are a little more comfortable. It might be difficult, but it just requires a little extra effort.
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