3) The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning. How might the teacher be responsive to the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics of the students in his or her assessment practices?
According to the Merrian-Webster Dictionary, the first definition of the word RESPOND is to say or write something in reply (to provide an answer). The second definition is to act or do something in reaction to something else (to react). It’s not that bizarre to see that a culturally competent teacher follows the second definition.
Culturally competent teachers embody just about everything we are trying to become. They understand that no two students are the same. Every single student that passes through the doors of a teacher’s classroom is a unique and special student that is completely different from the next. Just like we already stated in class multiple times, not all students learn the same way and not all students come from the same place. As teachers, we need to make adjustments to our ways of teaching to help our students grow as much as possible. We need to grasp the fact that we can’t teach the same way every year to different classes and different students. Of course we can teach the same material; just the way we present it and carry through the lesson will have to vary depending on our students.
Another concept that culturally competent teachers understand is that, yes, they are there to teach their students the material to move onto the next grade, but that they are also there to empower the students and make them question the way things are. Critical pedagogy is just that, opening up a student’s mind and allowing them to question everything that is being taught to them. Ira Shor spent a good 45 pages writing about the importance of an empowering education and how much good it can do for students and society. “The teacher brings lesson plans, learning methods, personal experience, and academic knowledge to class but negotiates the curriculum with the students and begins with their language, themes, and understandings.” This all creates “openness in a class where the student’s input jointly creates the learning process,” (Shor, 16). The end result is a democratic system that the students and the teacher are all satisfied with and leads to not only a successful year, but the knowledge that even students can make a difference and are allowed to question anything.
There isn’t much compromise going on in the classroom I tutor in. Granted, I don’t get to see much, if any, of the teacher’s actual teaching lessons on the count that the kids are only in the classroom for an hour in the morning before they get sent off to gym class. During that hour I am always working with two students as their reading buddy out in the hallway, away from all of the classroom action. I hear an occasional raised voice drifting around the classroom, but other than that, I can honestly say that I have no clue as to how the teacher runs her classroom and accommodates for each and every one of her students. I truly wish I did, but there’s not much I can do about it now but just imagine that the teacher DOES adjust her teaching methods for each and every one of her students [even though I know that she has mentally checked out already. I have heard her say on more than one occasion that she can’t wait to retire and that the paycheck isn’t even worth it anymore.] . I do know that she runs her classroom very strictly and very meticulously. Everything is planned out: when to sharpen your pencil, when to go to the bathroom, when it is okay to free read, etc. So, from that, I can guess that not much input is coming from the students’ side of the equation. Even as I said in the last post, the teacher doesn’t even truly know how many students have parents that speak Spanish and if they do or not. I have a feeling that she teaches her way and anything she feels that is not crucial, then she does not want to know.
Don’t get me wrong, she is a lovely woman who has been teaching for 28 years and her students come across as very bright kids, I just really wish I could spend more time in the classroom observing what is actually occurring. There are so many different possibilities as to how to involve all of the wonderful and diverse ethnic and sociocultural characteristics that these students offer, I just wish I had more time to spend with them, instead of knowing that I really only have 2 visits left.
Hope everyone else's volunteering is going great!! Until next time, ttfn =]
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you addressed the idea of teachers having to realize that every year a lesson has to be different. Just as you said, not one class is going to be identical to the one before it, or the one after it. Every student has different needs which need to be realized and understood by the teacher. The goal of the teacher should be more than to just drill the information and lessons into the student’s heads. The lesson plan should be made up in a way that is appealing and interesting to every child in the classroom. A teacher needs to understand that not every child learns the same way. Some children learn by seeing and others learn by actually doing. Interactive lesson plans are always great, because they appeal to both types of students.
The classroom that I teach in seems to be very much like the type of classroom that I hope to have. The teacher is very well organized and conducts the classroom so that everyone has equal opportunities to learn and be successful. Every single time that I have visited the class, the lesson form has been different. The children are always very involved and participate to the highest extent. Non participation is not allowed in this classroom and every child is well aware of this!
Hey Molly,
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a popular post!! I felt the need to respond to this one because of the fact that though we wish we had answers to every question this course offers, we simply don't. Though I stay in the classroom with the three students I tutor, I have had trouble responding to some of the prompts because of how in depth they are. For example, though I see different colored faces in the classroom, I truly feel there is not any difference between the way the students are treated or taught. I think the teachers respond to the children based on their behaviors or attitudes rather than their color or nationality. In a way I guess that’s how it should be. At the same time however, I wish I could see more bonding between teachers and students on a more personal level. I can say that I know the students adore their teacher and have learned to deal with the resource and student teachers. They all seem to prefer talking to actual teacher instead of assistants who no close to nothing about them.
I also agree that it is important to adapt the way a lesson is presented depending on the group of students each year. I can remember being younger and thinking that my teachers must have designed certain lesson plans right out of college without every altering it. I believe children can sense when something isn't working among their peers because I know I always could. Hopefully teachers such as us will use their schooling to shake things up in classrooms and promote exciting atmospheres for their students. I know I am personally looking forward to practicing the good things I have picked up and pledging to never use tactics that have been appalling to me.
Very nicely written,
Brianna