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.