Secondary School Workshop Nancy Rutland Glaub EDUC 550/Ash

Cultural beliefs and values affect how we think and behave.

Start with yourself. Describe yourself using this list: Race Ethnicity Gender Sexual orientation Socioeconomic status Academic ability Language Family educational background

Do you ever feel:

Pigeon-holed based on any of your characteristics?
Misunderstood? Underestimated? Held back?

Overestimated? Unsupported facing new challenges

because your proficiency assumed? That characteristics outside your control affect others perceptions of you? Conflicted loyalties to the various groups to which you belong?

Do you wish people took the time to know you and see beyond the surface?

Think about your students now

They each have such characteristics
What expectations and assumptions do you and other

teachers make about them based on these characteristics? Does the curriculum in your school reflect any of your students realities? Or does it reflect a world very different from theirs? What teaching methods and environments do your students need in order to feel recognized and to succeed? Are you offering these?

Be More Culturally Responsive

Learn about the history and experiences of diverse groups.

By doing so, teachers begin to see differences between their own values and those of other groups Read literature written by those particular groups as well as personally interact with members of those groups Visit students families and communities Visit or read about successful teachers in diverse settings Develop an appreciation of diversity. View difference as the norm in society. Reject notions that any one group is more competent than another.

Teachers Make the Difference

Where the curriculum falls short in addressing the needs of all students, teachers must provide a bridge; where the system reflects cultural and linguistic insensitivity, teachers must demonstrate understanding and support. In short, teachers must be culturally responsive, utilizing materials and examples, engaging in practices, and demonstrating values that include rather than exclude students from different backgrounds. By so doing, teachers fulfill their responsibility to all their students.
From Addressing Diversity in Schools: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy by Richards, Brown, and Forde. NCCREST 2006.

Key issue: Impact of native language on language acquisition

Several factors related to students' first and second languages shape their second language learning: linguistic distance, students' level of proficiency in the native language, exposure to/knowledge of the second language, the dialect of the native language spoken by the students (i.e., whether it is standard or nonstandard), and the relative status of the students' language in the community, and societal attitudes toward the students' native language

Guard against perception of loss

Students whose first If their ways of talking

language has a low status vis a vis the second may lose their first language, perhaps feeling they have to give up their own linguistic and cultural background to join the more prestigious society associated with the target language.

outside of school are valued when used in appropriate contexts, students are more likely to be open to learning a new language or dialect, knowing that the new discourses will expand their communicative repertoires rather than displace their familiar ways of communicating.

Remember: Characteristics of ones own culture and use of language differ from that of other cultures
Classroom Culture: Learners may need to learn a

dialect and a formal register in school that are different from those they encounter in their daily lives. School communication is different from communication at home and involves special vocabulary and behaviors that are unfamiliar. As a teacher, you cannot take familiarity with these for granted.

Do you have examples to share?

Turn to your nearest neighbor and discuss times when the cultural dialect and register were unfamiliar to you or when you observed someone else struggling .

Additional Tips
As always, new learning should be based on prior

experiences and existing skills. Differentiation and individualization are necessary to meet students where they are What are the students goals? Motivations? Learning styles? Honor these. Consider if the communities where students live, work, and study accept them, support their efforts, and offer them genuine English-learning opportunities. Consider peers, family, and the presence of good role models. Adjust and compensate where/when possible.

For more
National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems Arizona State University P.O. BOX 872011 Tempe, Arizona 85287-2011 Phone: 480.965.0391 Fax: 480.727.7012 Web: www.nccrest.org