Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Culturally Responsive Teaching
This is a subject that is extremely important to me because it affects my students - English language learners. It has been my experience that a fair number of mainstream teachers are un- or under-prepared to teach immigrant students. As Villegas (who is one of the best professors I have ever had!!!!!!! She's here at MSU!!!!!!!) and Lucas point out in their article, immigrant and minority students are in our classrooms and their numbers are continuing to grow. Because of the dramatic increase in the numbers of these students, teachers need to be better prepared for how to meet their academic needs. It isn't only the ESL teacher who is responsible for educating them. We all need to seek to understand the backgrounds of these students and not think of them from a deficit perspective. Teachers need to model acceptance of different cultures and diversity within the school and they need to acquire some knowledge about second language acquisition so that they can appropriately adapt or modify their instruction.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I have co-workers who have had a student who does not speak English, shoved into the class. I use the verb "shoved" because it seems like although the student does not really belong in that environment, he or she is dumped into that particular classroom. This is difficult for all parties involved. That student deserves some tools to make it possible to succeed. That teacher needs some support, and my district does not have an ESL position. I am well aware that hiring someone as an ESL teacher requires additional funds, and money is always tight, but it seems negligent to just shove a human being into a classroom without any support for that student or teacher.
I totally agree with your points in your blog about culturally responsive teaching. I do have ESL classes and teachers, but I find as a mainstream teacher, that I am under prepared for when some of the bilingual students exit the bilingual program and are a part of the mainstream classes. I never had any training and any thing I have learned to help my exited bilingual students has come from my collegues. Again, as fullan states, we need to have more collaboration with each other. I would love to learn more about how the program works and how ESL students are taught. Thanks for a good blog. AnneMarie
Hi, I also agree with the issues you raise about teachers and students in the classroom who are culturally diverse. Training for classroom teacher needs to start at the university level. As Villegas points out in her article, there needs to be more sensitivity training. More hands on instruction and practice with issues that would come up in the culturally diverse classroom and strategies. As a language teacher I deal with cultural diversity all the time. I could use more strategies as to how to deal with culturally diverse special education students in the language classroom. I am always looking for opportunities for professional development. It is a challenge.
Hey how did you CAP conference go??? I am interested in hearing the feedback you got. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
Glynnis
Hey Laura, I've missed you. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. How is your CAP? 100 pages or pure brilliance, I would guess. It doesn't look like anyone has been blogging, and I'm stuck for a topic, so I thought I would check out everybody's blogs. Are we supposed to be blogging and commenting still or are we focused on the final project? See you tomorrow.
Mike
Hi Laura,
I have seen many ESL students be neglected by their classroom teachers because they are too busy to acknowledge and get to know them and they feel the ESL teacher will take care of everything. Many teachers are not prepared to work with these students and it saddens me that they sit clueless and many times scared for an uncertain amount of time. What can be done?
I dont want to comment personally because I do work in a somewhat middle class community where we might have under 5 students in ESL....that being said, I feel we are under-staffed in some ways when a new student just appears in your class and no one has taken the time to tell you they are coming or take the time to bring them down and introduce them. Once a little Asian boy just looked lost and he was supposed to be with me. I tried to imagine myself even in my mid 20's just thrown into a school in China and expected to substitute all day w/o any guidance...HELLO!?
Post a Comment