Being A Teacher In A Diverse Classroom Essay

Pretend you are a teacher in a diverse classroom. Explain what you would do to encourage students to learn English but still not abandoned their own cultures.

Classrooms today are filling with more diverse children. English language learners and children from diverse backgrounds face struggles in trying to form to American culture and learn the way typical American cultured students learn. “Teacher of students from diverse cultures should plan a curriculum that supports the cultural diversity represented in their classrooms, use cooperative learning strategies that foster cross-cultural understanding, and establish collaborative relationships with the home” (Vacca et al., 2014, p.66).

If I were a teacher of a diverse classroom I would help encourage my students to learn English but not abandon their cultures first by learning and researching the various cultures that they come from. This would give me an understanding of their thinking, morals, and cultural expectations. Then I would create a curriculum that teaches all of the children about the different cultures in the classroom. This would include incorporating mlticultural literature about their cultures and with characters similar to them put in pertinent situations to validate

their experiences.
Next, I would foster ethnic, national, and global identification. “For students from diverse cultures, ethnic identification means providing them with opportunities to develop positive self-images of themselves and their rich cultural heritage” (Vacca et al., p. 69). To do this I would invite the families from our class to a culture nights where parents and children could share literature about their culture or in their language to read. During these culture nights we could invite the families to bring food, music, and present traditions to represent their cultures.
You were asked to address the Young Parents Club in your community. The club members would like you to present information about parents reading aloud to their children. As part of your presentation, you were also asked to share a list of do’s and don’ts for reading aloud. What information will you share with the parents? Discuss the do’s and don’ts list. Be sure to explain why you generated the list.
The presentation to the Young Parents Club in my community would include the topic of why it is so important to read aloud to their children. To start I would present to the parent the benefits it will have not only for their children but for their relationship with their children. Reading aloud to their own children creates a bond amongst parent and child, especially between a father and a son.
Then I would present a list of do’s and don’ts when reading aloud to their children. The list of do’s would include to start reading aloud to their children at a young age, read as often to their children as they possibly can, keep their children involved while they are reading by asking questions about the story and what they think will happen next, always be animated while reading, and to take their time. The list of don’t that I would include to not read books that as a parent themselves do not like, don’t overwhelm their child with literature that is way beyond their level, try not to read books that the children have already seen on TV or in movies because it may ruin interest in the plot, and don’t get upset when the child has questions while they are reading a story.
The list of do’s and don’ts are given to help parents encourage their children to read and learn to enjoy it. Reading to their children “goes further than conversation when it: conditions the child to associate reading with pleasure, creates background knowledge, builds “book” vocabulary, and provides a reading role model” (Trelease, 2009, para. 11). In the role of learning about literature and reading, reading aloud is one of the most beneficial things a parent can do to help their child expand their knowledge.
Compare and contrast the bottom-up curriculum and the top-down curriculum. Discuss instructional objectives, materials, learning environment, instructional strategies, and assessment.
Bottom up curriculum “refers to a reading model that assumes the process of translating print to meaning begins with children learning parts of language to understanding whole text” (Vacca et al., p.

40). The curriculum start by teaching students the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that are associated with them. This helps them work their way to pronouncing words and then pushes them to learn the meaning of words so that they can understand text. In comparison, top down curriculum starts at the opposite and begins teaching students to gain an understanding and meaning of words and what the text is trying to say and works its way to print. Once the students understand the meanings the phonetics and phonology will come to

them.
Bottom up curriculum uses materials that focuses on their learning environment which push phonetics and use things such as phonics programs, word lists to build vocabulary, basal readers, skills management programs, and flash cards. Top down curriculum uses materials that allow the students to associate reading and writing together such as basal reading programs, e-books, literature based programs, trade books, and the language-experience approach. This learning environment does not push or drill thing into their students but allows them to learn thing at their own pace.
The instructional strategies of the bottom up curriculum are based on memorization and automaticity. There is a need to focus on one thing at a time until there is complete memorization of a certain skill or principle. Top down curriculum strategies are based on the needs of the students. This curriculum want students to learn at their own pace. Assessments in these curriculums are based on what they want the students to learn. With bottom up, assessments are made on mastery of things like phonetic skills; whereas, top down assess students in less harsh manner by overseeing the children in classroom communities that include discussions of the text.
Name and explain 3 strategies you would use to help struggling readers develop vocabulary knowledge and concept development.
Of all of the strategies that teachers can use to help struggling reader in their classrooms, I would use of the concept of using context for vocabulary growth as one of my main strategies. “Helping students learn to use context to gain information about words new to them is particularly important for struggling readers of any age” (Vacca et al. p.261). To carry out this strategy in my classroom I would still give out weekly vocabulary lists but not immediately give them the definitions. I would then include classroom activities that pushes to search for the definition. An example would be reading a story that has the definitions that I have already handed out. Before we read I could have some of the students guess what they thought the words meant and I would write their answers on the board. As we read the story I could stop after reading the sentence in each word and have them point out clues and illustrations that help them figure out the actual meaning of the word.
The next strategy that I would use with struggling readers would be classifying and categorizing words. “Vocabulary strategies and activities should give students the experience of thinking about, thinking through, and thinking with vocabulary” and classifying and categorizing does just that (Vacca et al., p. 263). Within this strategy there are many activities a teacher can create for their students to participate in. Some of the activities and practices that I would use are categorization, concept circles, analogies, and paired-word sentences.
The last strategy that I would use to help my struggling readers would be developing word meanings through stories and writing. Much like using context to decode the meaning this strategy uses a similar concept. While reading students will come across words that they will not understand, but if they use the text around the words and overall grasp the content of the text they can piece together what that word may mean. Within this strategy I would use semantic analysis to writing by creating a think sheet so that “students can develop definitions based on personal schemata for the theme” (Vacca et al., p.270).
A student in your class hesitates between words while she reads. You notice that she looks around the page while she hesitates. Discuss your intervention plans in order to develop reading fluency.
Students will often get stuck on words that are new to them or they have not had much practice with while they are reading. If one of my students were to start to show hesitation between words as they read I would first begin with word identification strategies. Although this does not necessarily help with fluency too much it will give them somewhere to start. “To really improve fluency, students need explicit instruction focused on accuracy in word decoding, automatic reading, prosody, and how to self-monitor in order to improve their own fluency” (Vacca et al., p.225).
Then to help them develop reading fluency I would be to use the strategy of choral reading. This is usually done with a whole class but could be done with an individual and would give the student an opportunity to copy the style, tone, and fluency that I use to read to the class. Another oral reading strategy that I would use repeated readings. This involves having the student reading a short passage a few times with various extents of provision (Vacca et al., p.230).
The last strategy that I would use to intervene to help develop reading fluency would be to use the fluency development lesson. Designed specifically to help students build fluency, this activity may seem like a drawn out process but should only take fifteen minutes. The student would first listen to me a read a short passage with expression while they followed along inaudibly. Then, we would discuss together what the passage was about and reasons why I read the passage in a certain tone. Next, the student would partner read chorally a couple of times to practice fluency. Lastly, I would have a quick activity to practice some of the vocabulary words that they got stuck on while reading.