Transcript Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Meaningful Integration

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
The Body Ritual of the Nacerima
• What are the significant aspects of the
culture of the Nacerima?
• How might we consider the culture of our
students in the classroom?
• What sorts of considerations might we have
to make if we gained a child from Naceriman
culture?
• REALLY???
• How do we shape our instruction based
on misconceptions or stereotypes? How
can we overcome this?
Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Respond to this quote in your K-W-L
• “Most white children have spent their academic
lives looking into distorted mirrors of their
history and culture which only reflected people
like themselves: while most children of color
have pointed toward a narrow window, which
offered an obstructed view of the world and
their place in it.”
• -Mizell, Bennett, Bisse-Bowman, & Morin
Your Classroom of 30 Students
•19 white
•17 from two parent
home
•15 will live in singleparent family at some
point
•12 never complete
college
•10 born to unmarried
parents
•10 poor at some point
•10 a year or behind in
school
•8 live with only one
parent
•6 born poor
•6 born to mother
without hs diploma
•6 Hispanic
•6 receive food stamps
Your Classroom, continued
•6 with foreign born mother
•5 are poor today
•5 African American
•4 no health insurance
•4 from working poor
•4 born to teenage mother
•4 will never graduate from
hs
•1 might be Native
American
•3 might be gay or bisexual
•3 disabled
•2 at less than half poverty
level
•2 struggle speaking
English
•1 Asian-American
•Several biracial or
bicultural
•Every 35 classrooms: 1
student killed by gunfire
before 20
Key Terms
• Culture
• Way of life common to group of people;
includes knowledge deemed important,
shared meanings, norms, values, attitudes,
ideals, and view of the world
• Ethnic Group
• Inviduals within larger culture who share a
racial or cultural identity and a set of beliefs,
values, and attitudes and who consider
themselves members of a distinct group or
subculture
Key Terms
• Race
• Used to distinguish people on the basis
of biological traits and characteristics
• Minorities
• Groups of people who share certain
characteristics and are smaller in
number than the majority of the
population
Stereotypes
• Positive and Negative Stereotypes
• Lead to false assumptions about the ability
levels of certain students
• Positive stereotypes
• ‘Billy, you’re Korean. There’s no reason that
you can’t do the work!’
• Negative stereotypes
• ‘Hannah, you need to act less hysterical when
you get an answer wrong. Act like a man, not
a girl!’
Why don’t kids learn?
• 3 theories explain why students fail to
learn
• Deficit theory
• Expectation theory
• Cultural difference theory
Deficit Theory
• Some students lag because:
• Values, language patterns, behaviors
learned at home don’t mesh with
culture of U.S. schools
• Not familiar with ‘language of power’
• Affects student ability to process
information and maintain pace with
peers
Expectation Theory
• Students of certain ethnic or racial
groups fail to learn because teachers
EXPECT them to fail to learn!!!
• Self-fulfilling cycle
Cultural Difference Theory
• Academic Problems can be overcome
if teachers bridge the gap separating
schools and home
• Recognize, use cultural traditions
and practices to reach students
Who cares?
• Why is it important for students to see their
reflection in the curriculum: to see themselves and
their ancestors and their cultures represented in
pages of the curriculum?
• Not just to feel good but because their ancestors really
did play integral roles in the history of this country
• Promotes meaningful learning
• Familiarity to students
Realistic?
• Can we really
• Represent all persons equally?
• Represent all points of view?
• Build a curriculum that is honest and based on current
scholarship yet promotes good citizenship and
attitudes of civic participation?
• Have a curriculum that raises controversial issues yet
enables students to become analytical and thoughtful?
Maybe not, but we can try to constantly address
these issues through asking…
What materials, instructional
examples and content will I use to
achieve learning goals?
• Resource: Culturally Responsive Teaching: Lesson
Planning for Elementary and Middle Grades by J.
Irvine & B. Armento
Four Constant Curricular Principles
• Inclusiveness
• Alternative Perspectives
• Commonalities as well as diversity
• Student-constructed examples
Inclusiveness
•Child’s voice and heritage
should be heard
•Authentic cultural data,
literature, music, art,
artifacts, primary source
materials and cultural
history used in curriculum
to represent range of
relevant persons and groups
that should be included in
the study
•Inclusive, rich and varied
array
Question is NOT: Who is my class this
year and how can I represent them in
the curriculum? (limited view of
inclusion)
Question IS: During the time
period/issue/event/genre/scientific
theme we are studying, who is relevant
and should be included in the study
Teachers will need to do research
to answer this question and
students should be a part of this
process. By including students,
you are keeping true to the idea
that students are inquirers with
the teacher, and any one source
will not usually provide all
necessary information.
Alternative Perspectives
• Why?
•
•
•
•
•
To see issues from a range of perspectives
Reach a consensus
Have more tolerance for those with differing views
New facts/issues arise
Topic takes on new complexity
• (example, “westward expansion”, “slavery”, “unions” from
view of N. Americans, Af. Americans, working class)
• Gives a more complete view of the whole
• Challenged to address conflicting interpretations
Commonalties as Well as Diversity!
• Stress both
• Recognize bonds that unite all humans
• Common values of society
• Principles of justice, equity, value of the individual, importance
of democratic ideals
• Full range of human diversity should be recognized
• The factor that makes each person unique and interesting
• Identifying with groups
• Provides pride, self-esteem, self-knowledge and identity
• Doesn’t have to conflict with respect for others’ groups
• Do not over generalize about members of any group
• Ethnic, gender, cultural, religious-may not all hold similar
beliefs, values, or patterns of behavior as others in the group.
Student Constructed Examples
• Concrete representations, images,
metaphors, examples and graphic
organizers
• Generated by students and teachers to
give meaning and depth to task
Classroom Strategies
• Avoid segregated classrooms
• ‘boys vs. girls’
• Prevent ‘self-segregation’
• Mobility
• Move around the room to stay ‘in touch’ with
all students
• Cooperative Education
• Collaborative groups can helps some students
• ALWAYS MONITOR!
Classroom Strategies
• Displays
• Avoid over- or under-representation of
specific groups or gender
• Eye contact
• Not all students are comfortable with it!
• Be aware of personal space and student
cultural perspectives about being touched
• Build a relationship with family
Classroom Strategies
• Avoid calling on the first student with a
response!
• Be aware of wait time!
• Assign tasks randomly rather than relying
on specific students
• Avoid unequal punishment
• Boys tend to be punished more than girls
Culture and You
•For 10 minutes, think
of at least 10 different
things that might be
considered as part of
YOUR culture. This
might include
•Foods
•Sports
•Ethnicity
•Religion
•Heroes
•Family relationships
•Race
•Nationality
•Regional ties
•Dialect
•Class/wealth
•Local ties
•Family education level
• How might your own cultural background
impact your teaching?
• Strengths?
• Weaknesses?
• How can teachers work to move beyond
their own cultural background?
• HOW CAN WE KNOW OUR STUDENTS?
• How do we shape lessons to incorporate
cultural differences?
Critical Autobiography
• Who you are and what you know influence what
you teach
• If we have different experiences, cultural
backgrounds, or races from our students – we
have difficulty meeting their needs – a cultural
mismatch. We may misinterpret their behavior as
misbehavior or leave their experiences out of the
curriculum. When planning lessons-especially in
social studies-we must reflect on how we can take
student experiences and cultures into account.
• Due on October 24th
For Next Time…
• Read Lies My Teacher Told Me Chapters 1-4
• Cultural Autobiography Due
• Be prepared to participate in a Literature Circle.