The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom.
For my service learning project I was assigned to the reading buddies program. During my time there the students and I read many wonderful short stories and worked on many worksheets that helped them relate what they had read. Many of these students have problems reading due to the fact that many of them do not have books at home. These children also struggle with reading because unlike myself they were not read to as a child. Due to this fact many of the students have problems identifying words and have tremendous problems trying to sound out the words. These get extremely discouraged when they cannot figure out a word by sounding it out and therefore “shut down”. Mrs. F has recognized that many of these students have problems sounding out words and has found a way to teach the students so that they are having fun while learning. The students spread shaving cream over the top of the table and with their finger write the sounds they hear. The students have fun while learning and helping each other to learn as well.
Mrs. F was sensitive to the fact that students get discouraged and don’t want to learn but she was also aware of the different cultural ways her students learned. I was able to relate this experience to what we had learned from theorist Lisa Delpit and her communication across cultures idea. Although Mrs. F’s sociocultural and linguistic background was different from that of her students she was able to find a way for her to easily communicate with her students so that they could fully understand the concepts she was trying to teach and was able to help them with a skill they would need throughout life not just in school.
I really enjoyed my time at my serice learning school. I had a great time getting to know the students and my teacher on a personal level. After only being there for a couple of weeks it was amazing to see the progress that these students had made in their reading. My favorite part of this experience was being able to see the students smiles when they were chosen to work in the "special gorups" each week. It was evident that just by being there and giving them one on one time you were making a difference in their life.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Prompt 5 - Brown
The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students’ learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.
Over the past couple of weeks I have seen Mrs. F try and call parents while on a break, walk out to the school yard in the morning to try and see parents, ask students if their parents had gotten her message, and send notes home in their “Friday folders”. Many parents never answered or called Mrs. F back. Those who did make appointments hardly ever showed up. Mrs. F told me that periodically the school will hold after school functions and supply food. At these meetings many parents arrive with their children for the food and teachers will meet with the parents while they are “trapped”.
One week a student I typically work with, Christopher, was extremely upset. He didn’t want to work, he didn’t want to behave, and he was extremely snappy especially with the teacher. This was not Chris’s typical attitude he was normally kind and well behaved. I wondered why Mrs. F had not corrected his attitude since she had normally not stood for this type of behavior. What I didn’t realize was that earlier Chris’s father had lost his job and Chris might now have to live with his grandmother in another state because his father couldn’t properly care for him. Luckily Chris’s father is very involved in his education and Mrs. F knew and understood what Chris was going through.
This reminded me of the article we read by Brown. The students felt that the teachers didn’t understand them and that they were being misunderstood. Had Mrs. F not understood Chris’s situation she could have made things worse by pushing him to tell what was bothering him, by scolding him for not behaving properly. Had Mrs. F pushed him she would have made him more upset and Chris could have completely shut down. By the next week when I got there Chris was back to normal and Mrs. F had found a school councilor for him to talk to so that he could release his anger with someone he felt more comfortable.
Over the past couple of weeks I have seen Mrs. F try and call parents while on a break, walk out to the school yard in the morning to try and see parents, ask students if their parents had gotten her message, and send notes home in their “Friday folders”. Many parents never answered or called Mrs. F back. Those who did make appointments hardly ever showed up. Mrs. F told me that periodically the school will hold after school functions and supply food. At these meetings many parents arrive with their children for the food and teachers will meet with the parents while they are “trapped”.
One week a student I typically work with, Christopher, was extremely upset. He didn’t want to work, he didn’t want to behave, and he was extremely snappy especially with the teacher. This was not Chris’s typical attitude he was normally kind and well behaved. I wondered why Mrs. F had not corrected his attitude since she had normally not stood for this type of behavior. What I didn’t realize was that earlier Chris’s father had lost his job and Chris might now have to live with his grandmother in another state because his father couldn’t properly care for him. Luckily Chris’s father is very involved in his education and Mrs. F knew and understood what Chris was going through.
This reminded me of the article we read by Brown. The students felt that the teachers didn’t understand them and that they were being misunderstood. Had Mrs. F not understood Chris’s situation she could have made things worse by pushing him to tell what was bothering him, by scolding him for not behaving properly. Had Mrs. F pushed him she would have made him more upset and Chris could have completely shut down. By the next week when I got there Chris was back to normal and Mrs. F had found a school councilor for him to talk to so that he could release his anger with someone he felt more comfortable.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Prompt #4 - Johnson
“The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.”
Everyone has a different perspective and a different opinion. It is up to the person whether or not they share and act on their opinions. These opinions and perspectives come from an individual’s background and their upbringing. I come from a very supportive and loving family. My parents are both originally from the Upper East Side of Providence but have made our home in Greenville. The town of Smithfield, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, is a mainly white upper middle class town. The school system in Smithfield is very good. Part of my life I attended public schools in Smithfield and the rest I attended catholic school. Besides the education there wasn’t much difference. Neither of the schools suffered from the lack of finances. Teachers liked to assign big projects that cost a fortune to create and never had a problem asking our parents for more money. For high school I attended a private catholic high school in Providence where the tuition was about $10,000 a year and students had the best of everything. No child there suffered from poverty or went to school hungry.
While growing up I have heard comments such as, “Oh those parents don’t care about their kids it’s like they have them to get more money from the system”. It is hard to not have these constant comments influence you. But my students have proved these comments wrong. During my experience at the elementary school I have seen many mothers come to the schools for meetings and watched them walk their child to school and have a friendly conversation with the student’s teacher, proof that these parents are so involved with their children that they know the teacher personally.
I generally work with first graders around the age of 6 or 7. Although my upbringing is extremely different from those of my students I can still easily relate to them. I used to play many of the same sports they do and I remember when the most important thing to me at the end of the school year was field day. I can also relate to them because I have a six year old niece. She and my students watch many of the same shows and it excites the kids when just like them I’ve seen the latest episode of Phineas & Ferb! Being able to relate to them on this level is great. The students feel more open to talk to you and it allows me to know and understand them on a deeper level.
I realize that students in this Providence school are not as privileged as I have been. Many of them come from lower class, poor, dysfunctional families. According to theorist Allan Johnson “Privilege is a social advantage that is both unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category.” As a teacher I must understand that all students are not privileged and that they come from diverse backgrounds. I must remember that , “each individual is unique and a member of a specific social group”. If I remember this then I will not fall to the common bias about the cultures my students come from.
Everyone has a different perspective and a different opinion. It is up to the person whether or not they share and act on their opinions. These opinions and perspectives come from an individual’s background and their upbringing. I come from a very supportive and loving family. My parents are both originally from the Upper East Side of Providence but have made our home in Greenville. The town of Smithfield, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, is a mainly white upper middle class town. The school system in Smithfield is very good. Part of my life I attended public schools in Smithfield and the rest I attended catholic school. Besides the education there wasn’t much difference. Neither of the schools suffered from the lack of finances. Teachers liked to assign big projects that cost a fortune to create and never had a problem asking our parents for more money. For high school I attended a private catholic high school in Providence where the tuition was about $10,000 a year and students had the best of everything. No child there suffered from poverty or went to school hungry.
While growing up I have heard comments such as, “Oh those parents don’t care about their kids it’s like they have them to get more money from the system”. It is hard to not have these constant comments influence you. But my students have proved these comments wrong. During my experience at the elementary school I have seen many mothers come to the schools for meetings and watched them walk their child to school and have a friendly conversation with the student’s teacher, proof that these parents are so involved with their children that they know the teacher personally.
I generally work with first graders around the age of 6 or 7. Although my upbringing is extremely different from those of my students I can still easily relate to them. I used to play many of the same sports they do and I remember when the most important thing to me at the end of the school year was field day. I can also relate to them because I have a six year old niece. She and my students watch many of the same shows and it excites the kids when just like them I’ve seen the latest episode of Phineas & Ferb! Being able to relate to them on this level is great. The students feel more open to talk to you and it allows me to know and understand them on a deeper level.
I realize that students in this Providence school are not as privileged as I have been. Many of them come from lower class, poor, dysfunctional families. According to theorist Allan Johnson “Privilege is a social advantage that is both unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category.” As a teacher I must understand that all students are not privileged and that they come from diverse backgrounds. I must remember that , “each individual is unique and a member of a specific social group”. If I remember this then I will not fall to the common bias about the cultures my students come from.
Prompt #3 - Goldenberg
“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.”
There are many different children in my school and each child learns in a different way. For some students it is a struggle for others it is easy. For many of these students it is not a struggle because the material is too hard or that the teacher doesn’t teach to suit them but the language barrier. As mentioned before many of the students at this school are either Hispanic or African American. For many of these students it means that their first language is Spanish. Teachers need to understand there students and know their backgrounds. In Mrs. F’s classroom there is a Kindergarten student who only speaks Spanish and knows very little English. He and his parents moved to Providence only a year ago and “Joe” has struggled to learn English. Mrs. F realizes the difficulty that he has and tries to accommodate him. They constantly do work sheets with pictures and she helps him to sound out the words and they play games that help him to identify words. Mrs. F also allows him to tell her stories while they are getting ready so that he has better practice with his English and she corrects him on words he mispronounces. According to Goldenberg to be culturally competent the student must fully understand their first language in order to understand and learn in a different language. In order for Joe to learn he must think in his first language, Spanish, and then transfer it to English.
For Joe it is very difficult to take a timed test because he needs to transfer the information and unfortunately ends up doing poorly due to timing. Unfortunately, Joe is not the only student in the school with this problem. There are many students in higher grades who also struggle do to their language barriers. They have not fully mastered their first language and so it is difficult for them to learn in English because they cannot effectively transfer the information. According to infoworks.com over 70% of students are ESL (English second language) learners. And none of the students in the school are bilingual. ( see chart below)
Teachers must realize that each of their students are different and that they learn in many different ways. For some students it is easy to learn for others it is extremely difficult. Once the teacher recognizes what affects each students learning they can accommodate them and teach using appropriate techniques.
There are many different children in my school and each child learns in a different way. For some students it is a struggle for others it is easy. For many of these students it is not a struggle because the material is too hard or that the teacher doesn’t teach to suit them but the language barrier. As mentioned before many of the students at this school are either Hispanic or African American. For many of these students it means that their first language is Spanish. Teachers need to understand there students and know their backgrounds. In Mrs. F’s classroom there is a Kindergarten student who only speaks Spanish and knows very little English. He and his parents moved to Providence only a year ago and “Joe” has struggled to learn English. Mrs. F realizes the difficulty that he has and tries to accommodate him. They constantly do work sheets with pictures and she helps him to sound out the words and they play games that help him to identify words. Mrs. F also allows him to tell her stories while they are getting ready so that he has better practice with his English and she corrects him on words he mispronounces. According to Goldenberg to be culturally competent the student must fully understand their first language in order to understand and learn in a different language. In order for Joe to learn he must think in his first language, Spanish, and then transfer it to English.
For Joe it is very difficult to take a timed test because he needs to transfer the information and unfortunately ends up doing poorly due to timing. Unfortunately, Joe is not the only student in the school with this problem. There are many students in higher grades who also struggle do to their language barriers. They have not fully mastered their first language and so it is difficult for them to learn in English because they cannot effectively transfer the information. According to infoworks.com over 70% of students are ESL (English second language) learners. And none of the students in the school are bilingual. ( see chart below)
Teachers must realize that each of their students are different and that they learn in many different ways. For some students it is easy to learn for others it is extremely difficult. Once the teacher recognizes what affects each students learning they can accommodate them and teach using appropriate techniques.
Prompt #2 - Kozol
“The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of her or his students, families, and communities when planning for and delivering instruction.”
Almost all the students I work with at my service learning school are African American or Hispanic. There are actually no white children in the entire classroom. One day I stayed later then usual and had the privilege of going with the students to lunch and see how they interact and behave. As I looked around I noticed that there were actually very few white children. I could actually count the amount of white children on one hand. I decided to look deeper into this and went to infoworks. From the website I found that 54% of students in this school are Hispanic, 28% are African American, 9% are Asian and 9% are White. These percentage reports were shocking to me. I automatically thought of the theorist Jonathan Kozol. Kozol wrote about how schools are becoming resegregated and that minorities now make up the highest percentage of students in schools. His beliefs are evident in this Providence School.
The students in this school come from an array of backgrounds and each of them brings their own specific cultural capital. It is up to the teacher to identify these differences and modify their teaching ways for the student. For instance many of the students in this school come from a poor socio economic background. Many of the students do not live with their parents but are left in custody of their grandmother because their parents cannot afford to keep them. Many of these families live primarily off of well fare and it is evident when the end of the month is near. Students come to school hungry and the clean clothes they had at the beginning of the month are now dirty. Mrs. F understands this and never assumes that the children have the necessary equipment for their homework at home. One night the students were assigned a worksheet that required the students to cut out the words at the bottom of the page, paste them in the appropriate box, write the word on the dotted line and color the coordinating picture. Before the children left we together cut out and pasted the words in case the students did not have scissors or glue. The students were then sent home with a crayon or two to finish the work sheet.
From these students we can learn new things and hopefully learn a new effective way of teaching. Hopefully from the many things we can learn from these students we can change our society for the better and include these new cultures into our own. It is evident that the “minority” is now becoming the “majority”, society and democracy must recognize this an modify its ways for the upcoming generations.
Almost all the students I work with at my service learning school are African American or Hispanic. There are actually no white children in the entire classroom. One day I stayed later then usual and had the privilege of going with the students to lunch and see how they interact and behave. As I looked around I noticed that there were actually very few white children. I could actually count the amount of white children on one hand. I decided to look deeper into this and went to infoworks. From the website I found that 54% of students in this school are Hispanic, 28% are African American, 9% are Asian and 9% are White. These percentage reports were shocking to me. I automatically thought of the theorist Jonathan Kozol. Kozol wrote about how schools are becoming resegregated and that minorities now make up the highest percentage of students in schools. His beliefs are evident in this Providence School.
The students in this school come from an array of backgrounds and each of them brings their own specific cultural capital. It is up to the teacher to identify these differences and modify their teaching ways for the student. For instance many of the students in this school come from a poor socio economic background. Many of the students do not live with their parents but are left in custody of their grandmother because their parents cannot afford to keep them. Many of these families live primarily off of well fare and it is evident when the end of the month is near. Students come to school hungry and the clean clothes they had at the beginning of the month are now dirty. Mrs. F understands this and never assumes that the children have the necessary equipment for their homework at home. One night the students were assigned a worksheet that required the students to cut out the words at the bottom of the page, paste them in the appropriate box, write the word on the dotted line and color the coordinating picture. Before the children left we together cut out and pasted the words in case the students did not have scissors or glue. The students were then sent home with a crayon or two to finish the work sheet.
From these students we can learn new things and hopefully learn a new effective way of teaching. Hopefully from the many things we can learn from these students we can change our society for the better and include these new cultures into our own. It is evident that the “minority” is now becoming the “majority”, society and democracy must recognize this an modify its ways for the upcoming generations.
Prompt #1
For my service learning project I was assigned to a Providence Elementary School. The neighborhood surrounding the school is possibly one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. There are many shootings and supposedly members of one of the biggest Laotian gangs lives on the same street as the elementary school. I had been to this school many times before and had even volunteered in this school before. The first difference I noticed while walking into the school was that there was now a bullet hole in the teachers parking lot sign. It really made me feel uneasy and I very quickly ran into the building. The building hadn’t changed much from the last time I had been there, the school is dated but clean and there are many colorful posters and signs encouraging the children to do well. I knew this was going to be a great experience.
After being buzzed into the school I went to the main office. The secretaries were very kind and showed me where the VIPS binder was kept and introduced me to my teacher. I would be working in Mrs. F’s Direct Instruction class room as a reading buddy. Mrs. F has one of the best classrooms in the building. The walls are a pastel blue with sponge painted clouds (she had painted the classroom herself a couple of summers ago). Her classroom is actually split into two by a wall and a large door connecting the two. On the right side there are three tables. There is one large table that sits about 10 students in the center of the room, a round table that sits about 6, and a smaller table to the back corner that sits 2. The center table is where Mrs. F most often works with the students as a group sitting amongst them. Mrs. F desk is by the main door to the classroom. It is covered by pictures of her students and her family and water marks left behind from her daily Dunkin Donuts iced coffee (which she calls her sanity medication). In the far back corner there is the teachers aid desk for Mrs. C. The classroom on the other side of the wall is much smaller. The floor is covered by a large area rug where the children can sit when Mrs. F reads to them before the beginning of each class. There are only a few small tables for the students to do their work and one larger table where Mrs. F sits to work with each student one on one. There are no desks in either of Mrs. F’s classrooms because she values group work. She believes that there is no better way to learn then working with others. She also believes that each student will learn respect for one another because they will see how each child learns and behaves and will have a better understanding of who that child is.
The students I work with are hilarious. I work with students from kindergarten to first grade and help them to learn to read. My first time being there all the students wanted to do was to find out who I was, why I was there, and if they got to work with me. Mrs. F split her students into two groups. One group went to the left side of the room the other half went to the right side of the room. She then set me up at the round table on the right side with 4 students. The group of four kids and I went around introducing ourselves. When I got to the fourth person in my group the little boy told me, “My names Young Money and baby I be rollin!” before I could even say anything Mrs. F was over to the table to talk to “Young Money”. She announced to him and the class that I was an adult they were to respect me like they do everyone else in her classroom. From her actions you could tell that respect for one another is highly valued in her classroom. I left my first day of service learning wanting to go back as soon as I could!
After being buzzed into the school I went to the main office. The secretaries were very kind and showed me where the VIPS binder was kept and introduced me to my teacher. I would be working in Mrs. F’s Direct Instruction class room as a reading buddy. Mrs. F has one of the best classrooms in the building. The walls are a pastel blue with sponge painted clouds (she had painted the classroom herself a couple of summers ago). Her classroom is actually split into two by a wall and a large door connecting the two. On the right side there are three tables. There is one large table that sits about 10 students in the center of the room, a round table that sits about 6, and a smaller table to the back corner that sits 2. The center table is where Mrs. F most often works with the students as a group sitting amongst them. Mrs. F desk is by the main door to the classroom. It is covered by pictures of her students and her family and water marks left behind from her daily Dunkin Donuts iced coffee (which she calls her sanity medication). In the far back corner there is the teachers aid desk for Mrs. C. The classroom on the other side of the wall is much smaller. The floor is covered by a large area rug where the children can sit when Mrs. F reads to them before the beginning of each class. There are only a few small tables for the students to do their work and one larger table where Mrs. F sits to work with each student one on one. There are no desks in either of Mrs. F’s classrooms because she values group work. She believes that there is no better way to learn then working with others. She also believes that each student will learn respect for one another because they will see how each child learns and behaves and will have a better understanding of who that child is.
The students I work with are hilarious. I work with students from kindergarten to first grade and help them to learn to read. My first time being there all the students wanted to do was to find out who I was, why I was there, and if they got to work with me. Mrs. F split her students into two groups. One group went to the left side of the room the other half went to the right side of the room. She then set me up at the round table on the right side with 4 students. The group of four kids and I went around introducing ourselves. When I got to the fourth person in my group the little boy told me, “My names Young Money and baby I be rollin!” before I could even say anything Mrs. F was over to the table to talk to “Young Money”. She announced to him and the class that I was an adult they were to respect me like they do everyone else in her classroom. From her actions you could tell that respect for one another is highly valued in her classroom. I left my first day of service learning wanting to go back as soon as I could!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
First Post!
Hi my name is Karleen Kelly and I am a secondary ed /math major. I have just transferred from URI and it is my first semester at RIC. So far I have enjoyed my classes and I am excited about meeting new people! When I am not in school or doing homework I am either working or spending time with my family and friends. I teach two Irish Step Dancing groups and love every minute of it! Lately I have questioned if I want to be a high school teacher or elementary school teacher so I am excited to be going to an elementary school to work with student and I will hopefully be able to decide which will be right course for me. See you in class!
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