Who is in your class Who lives in your world

1
Who is in your class?Who lives in your world?

• Thoughts on how to teach and reach your students

2
If the World Were a Village of 100 PeopleIf we
could reduce the worlds population to a village
of precisely 100 people, with all existing human
ratios remaining the same, the demographics would
look something like this

• The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12
  Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and
  Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific51 would be
  male, 49 would be female82 would be non-white
  18 white67 would be non-Christian 33 would be
  Christian80 would live in substandard
  housing67 would be unable to read50 would be
  malnourished and 1 dying of starvation33 would
  be without access to a safe water supply 39
  would lack access to improved sanitation24
  would not have any electricity (And of the 76
  that do have electricity, most would only use it
  for light at night.)7 people would have access
  to the Internet1 would have a college
  education1 would have HIV2 would be near
  birth 1 near death5 would control 32 of the
  entire worlds wealth all 5 would be US
  citizens33 would be receiving --and attempting
  to live on-- only 3 of the income of the
  village
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v1v9xJPiIlQU

3
Stats on North Carolina
By 2020, estimates show that half of the U.S.
population will be from groups traditionally
referred to as minority. In other word, the
majority culture will become the minority
culture.
4
Typical Class

• We sort students using many different categories
  
• socio-economic level academic ability learning
  differences religious/cultural heritage family
  structure English speaker differently-abled
  race local vs. foreign suburban/urban/rural ado
  pted vegetarian vs. vegan vs. omnivore Gifted
  vs. Resource
• Shy vs. Outgoing Trouble maker vs. never a
  problem

5
Teacher choices and practices

• As the teacher, you can create a classroom
  community where these differences are accepted,
  celebrated, and/or regarded as facts, not as
  value-laden details.
• Example BlueJah, Daniel, Quamaine, Zenevia
  (Shay-Shay), Aaron (Smitty)
• Strategies shoe circle, skin tones rainbow,
  fair vs. equal, travel across the room,

6
How to help prepare your students

• Learn how to infuse classroom with Multicultural
  Education
• Be careful to not teach the history and stories
  of people of color and women only during February
  and March
• Avoid Stomp and Chomp or Tourist approach (A
  lesson on Mexico does not equal chips and
  piñatas.)

7
Multicultural Education

• Multicultural education is a philosophical
  concept built on the ideals of freedom, justice,
  equality, equity, and human dignity as
  acknowledged in various documents, such as the
  U.S. Declaration of Independence, constitutions
  of South Africa and the United States, and the
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by
  the United Nations. 
• It affirms our need to prepare student for their
  responsibilities in an interdependent world. 
• It recognizes the role schools can play in
  developing the attitudes and values necessary for
  a democratic society.   It values cultural
  differences and affirms the pluralism that
  students, their communities, and teachers
  reflect.  It challenges all forms of
  discrimination in schools and society through the
  promotion of democratic principles of social
  justice. 
• Source The National Association for
  Multicultural Education is the leading
  international and national organization in the
  area of multicultural education. For additional
  information, contact NAME at name_at_nameorg.org or
  visit the website at www.nameorg.org.

8
Tell the whole story

• Lewis Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts
  in 1848. He was the son of George and Rebecca
  Latimer, escaped slaves from Virginia. When Lewis
  Latimer was a boy his father George was arrested
  and tried as a slave fugitive. The judge ordered
  his return to Virginia and slavery, but money was
  raised by the local community to pay for George
  Latimer's freedom. George Latimer later went
  underground fearing his re-enslavement, a great
  hardship for Lewis' family.
• Lewis Latimer enlisted in the Union Navy at the
  age of 15 by forging the age on his birth
  certificate. Upon the completion of his military
  service, Lewis Latimer returned to Boston,
  Massachusetts where he was employed by the patent
  solicitors Crosby Gould. While working in the
  office Lewis began the study of drafting and
  eventually became their head draftsmen. During
  his employment with Crosby Gould, Latimer
  drafted the patent drawings for Alexander Graham
  Bell's patent application for the telephone,
  spending long nights with the inventor.

9
Why consider Cultural Responsiveness?

• Passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
  (NCLB) and the resulting requirement that schools
  report disaggregated data have focused a
  spotlight on the achievement gaps that have
  persisted for years between children of color,
  children in poverty, and English language
  learning (ELL) students and their mainstream
  peers.
• Achievement gaps and significant inequities
  continue to exist for a wide range of educational
  indicators including grades, scores on
  standardized tests, dropout rates, and
  participation in higher education (Education
  Trust, 2004 NCES, 2001 Viadero Johnston,
  2000).
• Disparities in achievement stem in part from a
  lack of fit between traditional school
  practiceswhich are derived almost exclusively
  from European American cultureand the home
  cultures of diverse students and their families
  (Cummins, 1986 Delpit, 1995 Ladson-Billings,
  1995).
• According to this theory, children whose cultural
  background is European American have an innate
  educational advantage, while children from other
  backgrounds are required "to learn through
  cultural practices and perceptions other than
  their own" (Hollins, 1996). This "cultural
  mismatch" is often a result of widely divergent
  worldviews about such fundamental concepts as
  human nature, time, the natural environment, and
  social relationships (Sowers, 2004).

10
More thoughts on why being a culturally
responsive teacher might help students to close
the achievement gap?

• Education system rooted in the dominant culture
  is inherently biased. When one set of beliefs is
  held up as "right" or "normal," the values of
  other cultural groups are treated as less valid,
  and children from those groups can be perceived
  as culturally deficient. Evidence of this
  attitude can be found in statistics reflecting
  higher rates of discipline and suspension among
  children of color, particularly African American
  boys, and disproportionate numbers of minority
  and ELL students in special education. At the
  same time, these students are sharply
  underrepresented in gifted and advanced placement
  classes.
• By adopting culturally responsive school
  practices, educators seek to address issues of
  educational inequity and confront institutional
  bias and discrimination.
• Source Northwest Regional Education Laboratory
  http//www.nwrel.org/request/2005june/incontext.ht
  ml

11
Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that
recognizes the importance of including students'
cultural references in all aspects of learning
(Ladson-Billings,1994).

• Some of the characteristics of culturally
  responsive teaching are
• Positive perspectives on parents and families
• Communication of high expectations
• Learning within the context of culture
• Student-centered instruction
• Culturally mediated instruction
• Reshaping the curriculum
• Teacher as facilitator

12
Positive Perspectives on Parents and Families

• "Whether its an informal chat as the parent
  brings the child to school, or in phone
  conversation or home visits, or through
  newsletters sent home, teachers can begin a
  dialogue with family members that can result in
  learning about each of the families through
  genuine communication."
• -- Sonia Nieto
• Seek to understand parents' hopes, concerns and
  suggestions
• Conduct needs assessments and surveys (in the
  parents' first language) of what parents expect
  of the school community
• Establish parent-teacher organizations or
  committees to work collaboratively for the
  benefit of the students
• Conduct home visits in which parents are able to
  speak freely about their expectations and
  concerns for their children
• Keep parents apprised of services offered by the
  school
• Send weekly/monthly newsletters (in the home
  language) informing parents of school activities
• Conduct monthly meeting at parents' homes or
  community centers to inform parents of school
  activities
• Host family nights at school to introduce parents
  to concepts and ideas children are learning in
  their classes and to share interactive journals
• Gain cross-cultural skills necessary for
  successful exchange and collaboration
• Research the cultural background of students'
  families
• Visit local community centers to find out about
  the cultural activities and beliefs of the
  students
• Tour students' neighborhoods to identify local
  resources and "funds of knowledge" (Moll et al.,
  1992)
• Source Teaching Diverse Learnershttp//www.allia
  nce.brown.edu/tdl/

13
Student-Centered Instruction

• "In our multicultural society, culturally
  responsive teaching reflects democracy at its
  highest level. It means doing whatever it takes
  to ensure that every child is achieving and ever
  moving toward realizing her or his potential."
• --Joyce Taylor-Gibson ()
• Promote student engagement
• Have students generate lists of topics they wish
  to study and/or research
• Allow students to select their own reading
  material
• Share responsibility of instruction
• Initiate cooperative learning groups (Padron,
  Waxman, Rivera, 2002)
• Have students lead discussion groups or reteach
  concepts
• Create inquiry based/discovery oriented
  curriculum
• Create classroom projects that involve the
  community
• Encourage a community of learners
• Form book clubs or literature circles (Daniels,
  2002) for reading discussions
• Conduct Student-Directed Sharing Time (Brisk
  Harrington, 2000)
• Use cooperative learning strategies such as
  Jigsaw (Brisk Harrington, 2000)

14
Communication of High Expectations

• When a teacher expresses sympathy over failure,
  lavishes praise for completing a simple task, or
  offers unsolicited help, the teacher may send
  unintended messages of low expectations. --
  Kathleen Serverian-Wilmeth
• Communicate clear expectations
• Be specific in what you expect students to know
  and be able to do
• Create an environment in which there is genuine
  respect for students and a belief in their
  capability
• Encourage students to meet expectations for a
  particular task
• Offer praise when standards are met

15
Language Diversity

• English as a Second Language (ESL)
• Sheltered Instruction (SIOP)
• Preparation
• Building Background
• Comprehensible Input
• Strategies
• Interaction
• Practice/Application
• Lesson Delivery
• Review and Assessment
• Bilingual instruction

16
How to welcome and teach all students

• Remember Vygotsky and language acquisition and
  benefits of social interactions
• Best Practices
• Environmental print
• Culturally conscious literature
• Language buddies
• Invite parent/family involvement
• Find ways to integrate facts about native country
• Connect families to local resources, educate
  yourself

17
Educating Exceptional Children

• Greet the child, un-open the gift.
• Prepare for a year of huge professional growth.
• Remember all children can learn.
• Remember basics of child development and learning
  stages and milestones.
• Best practices tend to overlap for children with
  exceptional needs and students in regular
  education.
• All children benefit from cooperation and
  collaboration among home, school and community.

18
Definitions

• Visually impaired (VI)- A vision loss, which,
  even with correction, adversely affects
  educational performance to the extent specially
  designed instruction is required. The loss is as
  follows visual acuity even with prescribed
  lenses that is 20/70 or worse in the better eye
  or visual acuity that is better than 20/70 and
  the child has one of these conditions- a
  medically diagnosed progressive loss of vision, a
  visual field of 20 degrees or worse, a medically
  diagnosed condition of cortical blindness, or a
  functional vision loss.
• Hearing impaired (HI)- A hearing loss that has an
  adverse affect on educational performance to the
  extent specially designed instruction is
  required- whether permanent or fluctuating,
  ranging from mild to profound (a loss of 25
  decibels or greater exists through speech
  frequencies of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hertz in the
  better ear), and of a degree that the child is
  impaired in the processing of linguistic
  information through hearing, with or without
  amplification.
• Mild mental disability (MMD)- A deficit or delay
  in intellectual functioning (at least two but no
  more than three standard deviations below the
  mean) and adaptive behavior (at least two
  standard deviations below the mean), which
  adversely affects overall academic performance to
  the extent that specially designed instruction is
  required, and which typically manifests during
  the developmental period.
• Functional mental disability (FMD)- A deficit or
  delay in intellectual functioning (at least three
  or more standard deviations below the mean) and
  adaptive behavior (at least three or more
  standard deviations below the mean), which is
  typically manifested during the developmental
  period. A severe deficit exists in overall
  academic performance and specially designed
  instruction is required for the child to benefit
  from education.

19
More definitions

• Multiple disabilities- A combination of two or
  more disabilities (e.g., mental
  disability-blindness, mental disability-orthopedic
  impairment, etc.) resulting in significant
  learning, developmental, or behavioral and
  emotional problems, which adversely affect
  educational performance and cause severe
  educational needs that cannot be accommodated in
  special education programs solely for one of the
  impairments. A child is not considered to have a
  multiple disability if the adverse effect on
  performance is solely the result of
  deaf-blindness or the result of a speech language
  disability and one other disability.
• Autism- A developmental disability significantly
  affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and
  social interaction, generally evident before age
  three that adversely affects a childs
  educational performance. Other characteristics
  often associated with autism are engagement in
  repetitive activities and stereotyped movements,
  resistance to environmental change or change in
  daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory
  experiences. The term does not apply if a childs
  educational performance is adversely affected
  because the child has an emotional behavioral
  disability.
• Deaf-blind- Combined hearing and visual
  impairments that have an adverse affect on the
  childs education performance, the combination of
  which causes severe communication and other
  developmental and educational needs that cannot
  be accommodated in special education programs
  solely for children with hearing or visual
  impairments, unless supplementary assistance is
  provided to address educational needs resulting
  from the two disabilities. Specially designed
  instruction is required to address needs of both
  disabilities.
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)- An acquired injury
  to the brain caused by an external physical
  force, which adversely affects educational
  performance and causes temporary or permanent and
  partial or complete loss of cognitive
  functioning, physical ability or communication or
  social-behavioral interaction (e.g., memory,
  reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment,
  psychosocial behavior, speech, problem-solving,
  etc.). The term does not mean a brain injury that
  is congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries
  induced by birth trauma.

20
Multiple Intelligences

• The theory of multiple intelligences was
  developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner,
  professor of education at Harvard University. It
  suggests that the traditional notion of
  intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too
  limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight
  different intelligences to account for a broader
  range of human potential in children and adults.
• These intelligences are
• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
  ("number/reasoning smart") Spatial intelligence
  ("picture smart")
• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
• Musical intelligence ("music smart")
• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

21
Canary in coal mine

• Dr. Gardner says that our schools and culture
  focus most of their attention on linguistic and
  logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the
  highly articulate or logical people of our
  culture.
• However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also
  place equal attention on individuals who show
  gifts in the other intelligences the artists,
  architects, musicians, naturalists, designers,
  dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others
  who enrich the world in which we live.
• Unfortunately, many children who have these gifts
  dont receive much reinforcement for them in
  school. Many of these kids, in fact, end up being
  labeled "learning disabled," "ADD (attention
  deficit disorder," or simply underachievers, when
  their unique ways of thinking and learning arent
  addressed by a heavily linguistic or
  logical-mathematical classroom.
• The theory of multiple intelligences proposes a
  major transformation in the way our schools are
  run. It suggests that teachers be trained to
  present their lessons in a wide variety of ways
  using music, cooperative learning, art
  activities, role play, multimedia, field trips,
  inner reflection, and much more (see Multiple
  Intelligences in the Classroom).
• Source www.thomasarmstrong.com