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Teaching to meet the diverse needs of learners
Teaching to meet the diverse needs of learners
Teacher strategies to deliver instruction meeting the diverse needs of students
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The author, Gloria Ladson-Billings, discusses in her book, "The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children," how African American students perform at lower academic levels in part due to teacher approaches and attitudes. She performed a study on eight teachers of different races and backgrounds and their approaches to teaching African American students. The purpose of the study was to identify what approaches or techniques have been most successful in helping African American students to achieve academic success. She also focuses on the idea of "culturally relevant teaching" and how it can positively impact students when teachers are aware and incorporate a student's culture and backgrounds into the classroom. Throughout the book, the …show more content…
teachers are meant to be exemplars of culturally relevant teaching. Throughout the chapters, the basics of teaching is differentiated between assimilationist teaching and culturally relevant teaching.
To be brief, culturally relevant teaching "is a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp. 20)." The emphasis of culturally relevant teaching is to understand that children have different needs and in order to deal with them in the best way possible is equitably. The inability to recognize these differences causes teachers to limit their ability to meet the student's educational needs and prevents them from being culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp.37). Contrary to culturally relevant teaching, assimilationist teaching is a style that disregards a student's particular cultural characteristics. This teaching method follows a hierarchical model. According to the assimilationist perspective, the teacher's role is to ensure that students fit into society (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp. 24). The book is full of amazing teaching strategies, teaching styles, and methods that would help benefit educators working with children of any grade
level. The best thing about this book was that the author wonderfully portrayed each teacher with color and liveliness. There were a lot of interesting ideas hidden in the stories of the teachers, and their students displayed throughout the book. In chapter 4, there is a snippet about Mrs. Valentine and the curriculum innovation known as 'values clarification'. 'Values Clarification' was a premise that all students come to school with values and it was the teacher's job to get students to understand these values. Rather than use an assimilationist strategy to teach the importance of values to the students, Mrs. Valentine uses a story, with a moral dilemma, called Alligator River. After the story was read, students then debriefed and engaged in lively discussion about their own views. This was my favorite part of the book because the teacher encouraged her students to understand what values were and discover what their own values were. This is the power of decision making. Mrs. Valentine states that, "…decision making is one of the most important skills the kids can develop. They are often in critical situations without the skills to make decisions in their own best interests. The classroom has got to be the kind of place that helps them deal with their lives now, so they can have some options, some choices, later." (Ladson-Billings, 2009, pp. 81-82). Other narratives like this made the reading absolutely worthwhile. As a whole, I really liked this book and many of the classroom suggestions the author discussed. However, throughout the book, Ladson-Billings focuses on African American students and their teachers, but I found that there wasn't much information in the book that is actually specific to teaching African American students. Even if I went through the entire book and removed every reference to race, it would still be an excellent resource for successful pedagogy. (This was the only objection that I found after reading the book) All things considered, I admire the principles of this book's pedagogy and find it fits quite well with my own philosophical beliefs on pedagogy. This book is definitely worth reading up on what culturally relevant teaching is and understanding how it can be applied the classroom. I think any teacher can learn from this book and one of the great things is that there's absolutely no set of teaching techniques that are considered a "one-size" fits all. Experienced teachers can benefit from reading the book, but the most important audience of this book is the young teacher who will be teaching in diverse classrooms. In essence, a culturally relevant teacher must treat each student with respect, acknowledge that the students are unique and valuable, recognize that textbooks aren't always the best resource and that teaching is not the same as telling. When students feel cared about, listened to and are actively engaged in learning, they will succeed.
In the film, Dreamkeeper, I felt that I learned a lot of interesting stories that the Grandfather Pete Chasing Horse told his troubled young grandson, Shane. The movie started off with the grandfather talking with kids and telling them the story of Eagle boy until Shane was thrown out of a car from the people he owed money to. Shane got in trouble because he pawned a ring for his girlfriend rather than a boom box for the gangster he worked for. The Eagle Boy was alone on the hill with just the buffalo robe and sacred pipe as well as himself, he desired a vision. However, we later find out why he was being denied a vision over and over again. His path to redemption somehow coincides with the destiny of Shane. The Grandfather Pete Chasing Horse
Generations past guide our futures. The sacrifices and triumphs of our elders shape the environment in which we are born into, how we grow, and where we are today. My great-great-grandmother was able to leave Budapest, Hungary and come to America. My great-grandmother was able to obtain an education that would not have been readily available to her in her homeland. This has allowed me to be born into a free world, where education is the norm. Likewise, in the essay "The Dreamer", Junot Diaz describes the childhood dreams of his mother to obtain an education while living in the third world, rural area of the Dominican Republic. Diaz uses the struggles of his mother
Ladson-Billings overviews the concepts of cultural congruency, cultural appropriateness, cultural responsiveness, and cultural compatibility. These terms refer to the way teachers can adapt their language and teaching style to better reflect the culture and the language of their students. However, the problems students of color face, particularly African American students, goes beyond the school culture and climate not reflecting their community culture and climate. The primary issue is a lack of cultural synchronization among teachers and students and a need for culturally relevant practices.
The first step towards addressing the racial achievement gap begins with educators addressing his or her individual racial attitudes for, as the authors purport, “As we become personally aware of our own racialized existence, we can more deeply understand the racial experiences of others” (Singleton, Linton, 2006). In all honesty, I think Singleton and Linton hit the bull’s eye by suggesting that the first step towards initiating culturally relevant teaching is for the teacher to really examine his or her attitudes, values, and principles.
Richards, H., V., Brown, A., F., Forde, T., B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: culturally responsive pedagogy. Retreived March 30th 2014from http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf
“If you can dream it, you can do it,” is a quote that Walt Disney was known for saying. I simple means you can accomplish and reach every one of our dreams if you have the determination to pursue them. This is the main concept behind the essay of “The Dreamer.” By Junot Diaz. The essay/article. Was first written and appeared in More Magazine for women in 2011 (Diaz 128). It is the short story of Junot Diaz’s mother was determination to go to school and get an education despite the punishment she endured and the sacrifice required.
Data proves that America does not have enough African American males teaching in today’s schools. As a matter of fact, only 2% of America’s nearly five million teachers are black men (Bryan 1). In our American society, more and more African American females are fiercely taking over both public and private classrooms. Although this might be a great accomplishment, school officials believes that if more black males teach, it would reduce the numbers of minority achievement gaps and dropout rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 44% of students nationwide are minorities, but nearly 90% of teachers are white. Polls and surveys further read that if there were more African American male teachers, the dropout rate would decrease while the graduation rate increases. In urban societies most African American teens would be more likely to succeed if there were more black males instructing secondary classrooms.
Howard T.C. (2010). Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in
The author asked preservice teachers to choose one child from their field experiences that are hard to handle while one was choosing an African American. The author criticized preservice teachers for choosing based on their race, gender and ethnicity that was different from theirs. Those teachers tend to blame students’ misbehavior instead of understanding their socioeconomic problems. Nieto (2008) Chapter 9: Culture and Education.
To start with, culturally responsive teaching practices recognize the validity of the cultural custom contained by several ethnic groups. In other words, it considers whether different approaches of learning are necessary and worthy in the formal learning. Furthermore, culturally responsive teaching practices are fundamental because they create links between school experience and home and between lived social cultural realities and academic abstraction (Gay, 2000).
Solutions to these disparities are improving minority student readiness and providing support for families in areas related to academics. Improving the opportunity to succeed in education for poor minority students will likely enhance the future options and support future social mobility (McKinney, 2014). In keeping with this logic education policies such as No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) have been introduced. The focus of NCLB is to close the achievement gaps among students in the US. The framework of NCLB includes benchmark accounting for schools to be proficient in teaching. NCLB also intends to ensure that any teacher providing instruction at the core levels be suitably qualified. This initiative offers many opportunities for success but also create its own set of challenges. Challenges based on student role performance, environment, teacher roles, family, and peers. Student role performance is how well a student meets expectations and obligations based on their achieved roles. Environmental factors that affect NCLB are teacher selection, class size and school rules and regulations that must be enforced. Teacher roles are characterized by if a teacher is fair, caring and provides quality instruction. The family demands of NCLB
Author Junot Diaz in the writing of “The Dreamer” describes his mother as a seven year old girl in a repressed third world country, the Dominican Republic. She was forced by her very stern mother (Diaz’s grandmother) to work the farm and pick coffee beans. His mother had a thirst for knowledge, longed for education, and took drastic measures to ensure she achieved it.
William G. Demmert Jr. wrote (2011), “Culture shapes mind…it provides us with the tool kit by which we construct not only our worlds but our very conceptions of ourselves and our powers” (p. 1). William Demmert a Native American, been in the teaching field since 1992. He worked as the Commissioner of Education for Alaska and Director of Indian Education Programs for the U.S. He focuses on finding successful ways to educate American Indians, Native Alaskans, and Hawaiians. Culture-based Education starts off in schools where language and cognition develop. In those schools there are three different types of schools. When implementing a Culture-based education you need a rubric to know what to aim for in that type of program. Explaining what culture-based education specially deals with and what are some strengths and weaknesses of that education.
There are many factors that play a role in the learning process for every human being. Race, religion, language, socioeconomics, gender, family structure, and disabilities can all affect the ways in which we learn. Educators must take special measures in the delivery of classroom instruction to celebrate the learning and cultural differences of each of their students. As communities and schools continue to grow in diversity, teachers are searching for effective educational programs to accommodate the various learning styles of each student while promoting acceptance of cultural differences throughout the classroom. It no longer suffices to plan educational experiences only for middle-or upper class white learners and then expect students of other social classes and cultures to change perspectives on motivation and competition, learning styles, and attitudes and values that their homes and families have instilled in them (Manning & Baruth, 2009).
Culture is a powerful influence plays a big role in our interactions. Culture may also impact parenting style and a developing child. Having a strong sense of their own cultural history and the traditions associated with it helps children build a positive cultural identity for themselves. This also supports children’s sense of belonging and, by extension, their mental health and wellbeing. This class is crucial in understanding and working well parents, staff, and children. An effective educator understands how students’ cultures affect their perceptions, self-esteem, values, classroom behavior, and learning. As director, I need to use that understanding to help my students and staff feel welcomed, affirmed, respected, and valued. One way that I can do this is by using multicultural literature, especially children’s literature, to honor students’ culture and foster cross-cultural understanding. If cultural differences are not understood by teachers and management, it can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings on both sides. It will be my job to do all I can to overcome both language and cultural differences to ensure a positive learning environment for