Part I

1. One of the dispositions that I feel I made the most personal growth for this semester
is responsibility and capacity to be culturally responsive. Towards the beginning of
the semester, I felt that a part of public educations duty was to help students from
foreign cultures assimilate to American culture. I have come to learn that public
education must embrace the differences that each unique culture brings, to enhance
the learning experience. When students are able to bring in prior knowledge through
cultural experiences to help understand the objectives being discussed in the class,
it can benefit the entire class. Another disposition that I feel I have improved on is
value and affirming student background knowledge. Before every lecture, I would
ask students what they already knew about the topic we were about to discuss. I
would make sure that students understood that they should not worry about being
wrong or right, but to share anything they thought they knew about the topics. Many
times students response were right on point, while at times students have been way
off in their understanding of historical topics and events. I also believe that students
become more interested in a topic after going through this process.
2. I will ensure that I am teaching my class in a culturally responsive way by bringing in
the cultural backgrounds of students from foreign cultures. In American, there is a
number of different cultural backgrounds and utilizing the array of different
backgrounds in the classroom will improve the experience for all students. A
program that is know for being culturally responsive is AVID. I was involved with the
AVID program from seventh grade until my junior year of high school. The program
utilizes collaborative strategies to get students to work together on improving their
educational needs. As one author states, AVID employs many principles of

Part I
cooperative learning in its writing, inquiry, and collaboration approach to curriculum
and instruction.1 A way that I will embody the cultural competence principle from
culturally responsive teaching is to learn about the specific cultural backgrounds of
my students who are foreign to the western education system and utilize that
information to enhance their experience and level of education.
3. I will use all the professional competencies discussed in class to drive the
relationship that I have with students, parents, and colleagues in a more positive
direction. When it comes to locus of control, I have to focus on the aspects of my
students educational experience that I can control and take responsibility for their
educational outcomes. For asset-based thinking, I cant let my emotions get in the
way of seeing student potential. One way to assure that you are using asset-based
thinking when dealing with parents and colleagues is to treat people kindly and with
respect at all times. Suspending judgment comes in to play for students because, as
a fair teacher, I cant make assumptions about students or judgments based upon
their behavior for an isolated incident. When it comes to interpersonal awareness,
recognizing my biases, and suppressing them, and understanding that I have limited
knowledge of my students activities outside of my classroom will improve my
relationship with my students.
4. One example within social studies where I can create learning opportunities
consistent with culturally responsive teaching is to allow students with foreign
cultural backgrounds to do a presentation on their original home. This activity would
be done at the beginning of the year, to introduce the student to the school

Part I
community. If the student is added to the class late, the activity can be done in the
first week, if the student is comfortable with making such a presentation. Another
example within social studies where I can create learning opportunities consistent
with culturally responsive teaching is to assess students in different ways, to ensure
that students who are not good test takers get a chance to have an alternative way
at showing mastery of the objectives. Different types of assessment that can be
used throughout the year are written, or essay, assessments, verbal assessments,
presenting through various forms of media, and the standard multiple choice test. I
plan on rotating between these throughout the year to allow students different forms
of assessment.

Work Cited:
Mehan, H. (1996). Constructing School Success: The Consequences of Un-Tracking
Low-Achieving Students. New York: Cambridge University Press.