Essay On Culturally Responsive Education

Teaching ELL's can be a very challenging aspect of a teaching job. Not only are teachers working with children who are scared, nervous and perhaps confused, but educators are working with students who may be encountering a great deal of culture shock. I believe that for me, this would be difficult. Honestly, I grew up a typical "white American girl" living the typical "white American life." I have not been exposed to many people who were not like me. Nevertheless, I am genuinely, looking forward to expanding my horizons and challenging myself to learn about other cultures and ways of life. Through the reading of chapter one, in Not for ESOL Teachers: What Every Classroom Teacher Needs to Know About the Linguistically, Culturally, and Ethnically

She did this based on a belief that it would help ELLs and non-ELLs alike. The students in the second class reported that classmates were “friendly and nice” and the teacher “likes other cultures.” The results of this study indicate the very important role that a teacher plays in creating and modeling an atmosphere where ELLs are accepted, encouraged and participatory in a learning community.

Culturally Responsive Teaching is an emerging field that focuses on student cultural backgrounds and experiences in the development of pedagogy. According to Kea (2013) cultural difference is the single largest difference in U.S. schools and also the most neglected. The goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn in school, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics (Banks 2005). Ladson-Billings (1994) suggest that the historic failings of educators in educating non-white students is that educators attempt to insert culture into education rather than insert education into the culture. In other words, educators are not providing an equal multi-culturally relevant education by bringing tokens of culture such as food, national flags, or maps from around the world into the classroom alone. Although these actions promote a sense of multiculturalism, an education that is relative to a diversity of cultures is not necessarily being provided. Culturally Responsive Teaching attempts to bring the various experiences of the student’s cultural home life into the classroom. Schmidt (2005) identifies seven characteristics that must be incorporated into curriculum in order to provide culturally responsive instruction. These characteristics are high expectations,

America now is a very culturally diverse nation; most of the minority and immigrant population lives in cities, which indicates that the public school classrooms in urban areas are full of versatile cultural identities. According to the 2000 Census record, minority and immigrant populations has grown in increasing numbers, and most of those people live in urban areas and attend public high schools; also, the level of residential segregation still remains as high as in 1990, which proposes new problems for immigrants and minorities. Monocultural schools are very rare and the global society is very multicultural; it is very logical to prepare students in schools to enter this diverse society (Le Roux 48). Teachers are largely responsible

Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1994). This approach to teaching encompasses how knowledge is both communicated and perceived by the students. The teacher must have a good relationship with the parents, have high expectations, learn about their students culture, have culturally mediated student-centered instruction, willing to reshape the curriculum, and be a facilitator in order to accomplish this method of teaching. These are key points a teacher must be willing to do if they intend to be an effective teacher especially in a highly culturally diverse area like central

After reading Geneva Gay’s article Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching I realized my pedagogy is culturally responsive in many ways. For one, I always

Gaining learning and experience about other cultures background will enrich my multicultural knowledge. Therefore, as an educator I must learn about others culture. As I begin to learn about others cultures I will understand how values influence the ways families interpret the instruction that feels right to them. A close study on Figure 3.1 implies that a teacher’s point view or the way the students are treaty can affect their learning. It keeps narrating the story of a teacher that had to learn her students’ roots, their culture values, to get to know them in order to reach them in an academically level. The cultural values are very important and cannot be overlooked, they shape our intrinsic motivation. Many families try to keep their values and belief intact at home, so their children when they step in a classroom. Monica Brown, is the Department editor of Diversity Dispatch, argues in her article, Educating All Students: Creating Culturally Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools, that nowadays it is noticeable the diversity growths in schools, however, this is not the problem. The problem is the way teachers have responded to the diversity growth. (Brown, M. 2007). Therefore, this will affect the students learning. Brown cross with a strong point in regarding the lack of sensitivity some educators show towards their students’ culture. As educator I don’t want to be one of many teachers Monica Brown speaks on her article. I will understand that I must respect my

My strengths as a teacher are utilizing culturally responsive pedagogy, using data to inform decisions, and building community in my classroom. Culturally responsive pedagogy is evident by my desire to educate the whole child. I make an intentional effort to get to know my students and their families so that I can incorporate each culture in my classroom. I use this as method to support and nurture my students socially and academically. This practice is also used to adapt and meet the needs of the students in my classroom.

I’ve always I thought I was a pretty good teacher. I’ve been selected as a STAR teacher and Teacher of the Year. But after reading Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, I had to seriously self-reflect, and I came to the realization that if I had read and implemented the suggestions in the book perhaps I would have touched student’s lives on a deeper level, a long-term neurological life-changing level. My heart and intent were pure, but did I reach as many students as I could have? I have always been focused on getting my students to be interested in their studies and to give it their all. I’ve been told many times by them, “You do too much.” I took that as a compliment because I have always tried to motivate them to want to excel, not just in school, but in life. After reading Hammond’s book, I see that I must overhaul my thinking and my methods. By following the techniques suggested in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain I can grow in my individual approach to each student and grow more confident that they can each reach and achieve their best.

Standard A: Culturally-responsive educators incorporate local ways of knowing and teaching in their work. (ACEI 3.2) (ABTS 3)

As America’s racial and ethnic diversity grows and evolves, so also classroom instruction must evolve such that it meets the array of needs of students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. For example, the U. S. Department of Education predicted that minority student enrollment will grow in K-12 schools in America and become the majority in public schools. However, many students from culturally diverse backgrounds in urban high schools are failing high-stakes assessment tests (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012; Bonner & Adams, 2012). Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies (CRTS) are instructional strategies that address ways to teach students from culturally diverse backgrounds with the goal of improving their educational results. The National

This article discusses the difficulties of students who are not native or classified as ELLs and the challenges they face in new American curriculum. It is important to be aware of possible challenges and struggles students may face within the classroom. This article opens with educators help students with certain lessons, while ensuring they understand the information. All too often teachers are unsure of their ability to teach ELL students or have classes that contain many students that they are unable to communicate with. Providing students and teachers with mentors is the only way to bridge the gap.

A culturally competent educator must understand and ingrained themselves in the cultures of their school’s community. Furthermore, this competence has the potential to become developed inside and outside the classroom. As a future educator, my plan is to grasp the personal knowledge of the cultures in my school’s community through participating in volunteer work in the designated area. Additionally, I can expand the understanding of the proper approach for teaching students in communities with diverse cultures though reading books with similar experiences. Finally, my plan should consists of observing children’s behavior and interests throughout the school day to develop a curriculum which correlates to student’s personal

training, an additional assumption is that many in-service teachers lack practicum experience with culturally and linguistically diverse students during the preparatory course to work directly with culturally diverse students (Atwater et al., 2010; Castro, 2012; Jackson, 2013). Therefore, each of the participants will have different behaviors in regards to the phenomenon, based on their individual experiences.

Still, while it is important to understand how cultural patterns can affect one’s learning, it is also crucial to realize that no pattern applies to all individuals within a culture. In order to be culturally sensitive, one must also be sensitive to individual students as well. Seeing each student as their own person requires an avoidance of expectations and stereotyping of a student based solely off of their cultural background. After all, a student’s learning is shaped not only by their culture, but also by his or her home life, personal talents, developments, and a variety of other factors as well. Tamara Lucas, author of the article “Preparing teachers for linguistically diverse classrooms: a resource for teacher educators” uses the example