EDE 4943 Blog 3

Weekly Readings:

-Inviting All Students to Learn (Dack and Tomlinson, 2015)

As a teacher it important to be aware of and knowledgeable about the cultures within your classroom. Some cultures may deem being too quiet as a speech impediment while others may view students who only listen and do not say much as highly intelligent. This article states four suggestions for helping students succeed by being culturally aware and understanding. The first is recognizing and appreciating cultural variance. The second is learning about and looking for culturally-influenced learning patterns. The third is looking beyond cultural patterns to see individuals. Last but not least is to plan inviting curriculum and instruction.

-The Culturally Responsive Teacher (Villegas and Lucas, 2007)

In order to be able to engage students, some information about their lives is necessary. They all come from different background and home lives. What we may assume about them from what we see in school can be totally different from how they are outside of school. For example, in this article, the teachers did not know much about one of their students named Belki. From what they saw, she was disinterested in learning and lacked math and language skills. However, outside of school she helped her family run a business on the weekends and was the temporary caretaker of her siblings when her parents were working. Had her teachers known more about her, they could have used this information to engage her in their lessons. Also to be culturally responsive one must be socioculturally conscious and hold affirming views about diversity.

Artifact(s):

This is an image of the work done by one of my students for the seed activity called "Doodle Minute."

Reflection:

Reading these articles made me think more about why all students act differently. I think that sometimes people take the term culture for granted and do not really contemplate all that it encompasses. One of the children in my group at the Boys and Girls club is extremely quiet. Not only that, but she barely ever makes eye contact with me. Perhaps it is not a rule of her culture to barely speak or make eye contact. However, it is important to think of the possibility that it might be. By making inquiries and having wonderings, teacher will dive more into the lives of their students and this is what will help them engage them in lesson and help them succeed. To conclude, an crucial aspect of someone who desires to be a teacher is to be culturally responsive.