Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our Public Schools by Dr. Laurie Olsen (1997) is an excellent book for all educators of multicultural students. The book focuses on immigrant students, who sometimes take a back-burner to other multicultural students in the education system, and discusses the unique challenges these students face in American public schools. Made in America is a collection of interviews and observations that Olsen conducted for her doctoral dissertation. Dr. Laurie Olsen is an independent consultant, the Director of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL), and previously served as director of California Tomorrow. Dr. Olsen has dedicated 50 years researching, writing, and advocating for immigrant and ELLs students in America.
The first two chapters of this book deal with the mindset that we as teachers must have in incorporating the framework and pedagogy into our classrooms. In becoming a culturally responsive teacher you must look at validation, affirmation, building, and bridging. In validation, we have a responsibility to our students to legitimize their culture and language. In being a teacher, rapport I with your students is critical in your success for reaching your students.
The majority of our student base are from the same social class, culture, ethnicity, and family structures. There are only a handful of students who have come from different backgrounds who may speak a different language or come from a different culture. In order for our students to become “engaged members of both a local and global community”, they should be exposed to more people from these varying cultures rather than just reading about them in books and seeing them in the media.
In order to address ongoing disproportionate outcomes amidst an increasingly diverse student population, DMPS is engaged in a district wide effort to speak with a common language and understanding around Cultural Proficiency. Cultural Proficiency is an inside-out approach to examining the practices and policies that affect the varying cultures in our system. This handbook is designed to support you and your colleagues in better understanding and effectively applying the framework of cultural proficiency. It is a tool for creating a plan along with action steps for intervention and maintenance of a more accepting culture. This handbook is meant to provide guidance and resources to support working through the impacts of a crisis within the
These benefits include increased student engagement, motivation, and academic achievement. The review also identified several strategies that educators can employ to create culturally responsive learning environments, such as incorporating students' cultural backgrounds and experiences into the curriculum, using culturally relevant instructional materials, and fostering positive relationships between students and teachers. One of the key arguments presented in this review is that culturally relevant education has the potential to bridge the achievement gap for students who have historically been marginalized in the education system. By tailoring instruction to meet students' unique needs and cultural backgrounds, educators can create an inclusive and equitable learning environment. This approach not only enhances students' academic outcomes, but also promotes their overall well-being and self-esteem.
In this paper I will discuss the culture of Hispanic Americans, whom are sometimes called Latinos. Five demographic characteristics will be identified, which will follow their beliefs on family, education, and society. Although this culture has seen many challenges in today’s society there are many opportunities for advantages, and new traditions. Culture awareness is an excellent way to engage in our students and families lives. As teachers, we will see a diverse group of races and ethics, while in the classroom.
Schools all over America, consist of many different cultures and race. It will benefit a teacher tremendously, when he/she takes the time to find out information about his/her students’ cultures. To add to it, it will be easier for a teacher to understand why some students talk or behave a certain way. However, when educators are teaching students, it is highly important for teachers to focus on, the different cultures in their class.
“It is possible that interracial friendships are characterized by more conflict, especially for Black and Latino youth, because of different cultural attitudes about conflict within social relationships,” (McGill R, Way N, Hughes D, 2012, p. 732). Cultures are all different and each student does not know what each culture believes and practices. As a future teacher I plan on making my students more aware of the other cultures in the state and even in the local community. When I started my education courses I was asked to guess how many different languages are spoken in public school in Texas and the amount was huge. I
Many countries were involved in World War one, it is questionable as to if Germany was solely responsible for the outbreak of the war- there are some points arguing that Germany was to blame for the First World War, but only to a certain extent. I believe that through these points, it shows that Germany was not solely to blame, but it did contribute greatly to the sequence of events that led to the war. The 3 main reasons as to why World War 1 began were through the formation of alliances, nationalism, and militarism. Germany was a major contributor to the Arms Race, which caused harsh tensions between many European countries. The Arms race was a naval rivalry between the British and German navies.
Issues of cultural diversity are more focused, especially in the class room setting. There are several techniques that may be applied to teaching to accommodate students of diverse backgrounds. Teachers must first be aware of stereotypes, ethnocentrism, and biasness. They should apply management techniques to the physical space as well as students’ behavior. Multiple intelligence theory active learning, technology and multi cultural education are among some of the techniques that may be applied to teaching in the class room.
A classroom should be filled with a wide variety of languages, experiences, and cultural diversity. An effective teacher understands the importance of culturally responsive teaching, and recognizes the significance of including students ' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Having an enriching classroom that engages all students does not mean making judgments about a student’s culture based on their skin color, gender, or socioeconomic status, rather it means knowing each student in a way that is individualized. According to the authors of The First Day of School: How to be an Effective Teacher Harry Wong, race, gender, religion, financial statue, and skin color is the least important factor determining a student’s achievement. Moreover, demographics and culture are not an excuse for students’ lack of achievement.
IDEA lists three ways of being culturally skilled in the classroom. This includes the teacher being culturally alert in the class to connect the gap of learning about other ethnicities, learning to communicate to students in unwritten and non-vocal styles, and know the different views of the cultures, for example, skin-to skin contact, no communication, the clothing of the student, and simple gestures. This is important in my eyes because my school alone is very diverse, and I had my share of teachers that did not respect a certain students religion or culture. This upset me and made me want to learn more about different cultures and religions. It also leads me to want to work harder to become more culturally aware, and diverse for my future students and willing to do what I can to break down barriers that may be created by students of different cultures or religions.
Critical Reflection In this assignment, I am going to define cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, and will also discuss how they relate to each other. Cultural awareness is the foundation of communication; it involves the ability to standing back from over selves and becoming aware of cultural values, beliefs and perceptions (Brislin.2006). Being aware of own cultural includes the goals and boundaries of a cultural; it also includes religion, language and relationships. On the other hand cultural intelligence has various meanings (Brislin.2006).
Ameny-Dixon (2004) discussed the need for Multicultural Education in institutions of higher learning, from the perspective of the increasing interconnections among nations in the world. She derived her conceptual framework for multicultural education from four major interactive principles: multicultural competence, equity pedagogy, curriculum reform, and teaching for social justice. These principles coincided with and reflected the thinking in Banks’ theory, as well as Campinha-Bacote’s model. Advancing the principle of multicultural competence as a process for developing expertise in multiple ways of perceiving, evaluating, believing, and problem-solving Ameny Dixon described ME, as developing, understanding, and learning to negotiate cultural diversity among nations as well as within a single nation. Ameny-Dixon felt that higher education institutions, being models for the nations and communities in which they were located should serve as the place where global perspectives were embraced.
Critical Essay 2 Norma Liendo Teaching English as a Second Language Teaching today has become a very interesting job for soon-to-be or current teachers due to the high culture diversity in their classrooms. Teacher not only have to be well prepared to present quality education but also to be able to accommodate for all the students needs regardless of origin, color or race. The important point is not teaching different children but due to their different backgrounds they learn differently; thus, the teachers now need to become aware of the students’ cultures in their classroom as soon as possible. These different learning styles should make the teacher knowledgeable that he/she might have to embark on a journey to explore the students’ cultures and embrace them because at the end of the day
