The Multicultural Challenge

Where are these people that have these “Aryan” views? I was highly disturbed by many thoughts in PJ Tobia’s article. To be perfectly honest I never realized there were such opposite opinions regarding multiculturalism. It doesn’t seem like it should be this complicated of a debate. In my mind, multiculturalism simply means respecting others people’s beliefs and cultures. You don’t have to believe what they believe and you certainly don’t have to agree with it. However, you do need to accept the fact that they can have their own opinion.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

It is very easy for people to cross a line when they are arguing equality. For instance, I think the minority quotas in work places have gotten out of control. In theory it sounds like a wonderful idea. You have to have a certain number represented of every demographic to ensure equality in the workplace. But if you have already filled you “Hispanic” quota does that mean no one else with a Hispanic background can get a job even if they are more qualified than the other applicants? Why does it even come down to race? I thought the point of equal opportunity America was that everyone had an equal opportunity REGARDLESS of their color not BECAUSE of it. Why is financial aid based on your ethnic background more than financial NEED?

When it come to education, I just do not see how discussing and learning about different cultures could possibly have a negative effect. No one is saying rewrite all the history books and offer a different curriculum for each ethnic group, because that is unrealistic and Samuel Taylor’s article. However, why can’t we bring in books, movies, and speakers from different backgrounds to teach us about where they come from? What makes some people think they have nothing to learn from anyone different from themselves? I recently read Inside Separate Worlds by David Schoem for another class and I think that Sherri Campbell said it best when she wrote, “A white person in America who does not associate with other races will never know how others feel and, in effect, will deprive himself of education” (Schoem, p.126).

Standard English and Grammar Usage

I always viewed Standard English as the kind we learned in school. English in itself has many different dialects all of which are acceptable depending on where you live, where you are from, and who you are talking to. I agree with the argument that there really is no single standard of English. However, I do believe that there should be one standard form chosen to be taught as a basis in a school setting. I also think it is very important to teach students that there are different times and places to use different dialects and accents of English. Obviously the way that we speak and the way that we write are completely different. But it is important to remember that the way we speak also differs depending on the setting. I think that all students personally vernacular should be acknowledged because it is part of their culture. My parents both grew up in New Jersey and moved to Tennessee when they were pregnant with me. My mother stayed at home with me for most of my early development years and I spoke like her, with a northern accent. When I entered school I was surrounded by the southern accent influence with caused my speech to change. However, at the same time I was learning “Standard English” in school. I picked up very quickly on the fact that my classmates would make fun of me for saying “northern” words. However, when we went back to New Jersey to visit family, all of my cousins would make fun of me for using “southern” words. Unconsciously, I began to change my dialect depending on who I was speaking to. I think this is something that many students learn to do automatically; however, I think it’s important for students to be aware and exposed to different dialects besides their own.

Another interesting thing I noticed about Standard English is that I very rarely hear it spoken. I think that this is why it takes the longest to learn. I think that the best way to learn Standard English outside of English class is through books. Written or book language most often follows the Standard English rules. The realization that Standard English does not involve pronunciation was a new one for me. I had always just assumed that it did. This is an interesting point especially regarding ELL students. They can master “correct” Standard English and still pronounce things differently, just like I can speak “correct” Standard English whether I am pronouncing things “southern” or “northern”.

Now grammar is a whole different discussion all together. I am very interested in descriptive grammar. I think that it is fascinating to observe the structure of the language and how it is actually used by speakers and writers. However, I students should be taught prescriptive grammar initially. Students have to know the way that grammar is expected to be used in the academic society. I have always thought that grammar had to do with errors or correctness and that was it. I had never thought about how grammar can make a sentence sound interesting or make it come alive. I think this is an important lesson that I never really understood in school. Grammar is the way we make our sentences come alive for the reader. The structure of our sentence can determine what kind of picture the reader sees in their head. Show your students how grammar helps their stories come alive. Because I am a big believer in Vygotsky’s scaffolding teaching strategy, I also align with the inductive approach to teaching grammar. I will use lots of higher order thinking questions to guide the students through interactive grammar exercises. I think this is the most developmentally appropriate way to teach any student, especially ELL grammar and Standard English.

SPSE 6712-Observation #2

Teaching Issues

The biggest problem I have noticed during my observations has been regarding the student’s prior knowledge. Building on student’s prior knowledge is an important part of teaching. Sometimes it is difficult because not all our students have had the same experiences. Unfortunately, this is an even bigger challenger with second language learners because even though they have prior knowledge to build on, they don’t know how to express it because of the language barrier. I feel like this problem is easily fixed simply by bringing in more pictures, videos, or hands on objects so that the students can associate them with the word/topic. Another problem I noticed was in regards to conducting the lesson in a small group. Even though the students are all level 1 ELL they still have a very broad range of skills. During this lesson the same students would point out the high frequency word every time. I felt like the ones that needed to learn it the most didn’t have a chance to look because the higher level students would find the word and point it out before the lower level student had a chance. I have also noticed this happening with other lessons as well. It seem like the students are all working together at the same time instead of them each getting their own chance to answer the question. This particular lesson might reach every one better if they took turns pointing out the word can on each page. This way only one student was looking at a time and you would be able to tell if they were getting it or not.

Second Language Acquisition/ Ethnographic Perspective

The ELL teacher has been working on the high frequency word can this week. The lesson today consisted of reading the Eric Carle book, From Head to Toe. Kindergarten high frequency words are something that the regular classroom teacher works on a lot but the ELL students need extra one-on-one help with them. The lesson was very appropriate for second language learners because it used a children’s book that repeated the high frequency word on every page. Mrs. Horton gave the students pointers (glittery unsharpened pencils) to use to find the word can on every page. The students LOVED using their pointers and responded well to the story. Mrs. Horton would read the page and then the students would use their pointers to find the high frequency word. She also would pull them into the story by asking if they could do what the animals and kids in the story were doing, like scratch their head or beat their chest. The students enjoyed this because they were actively participating in the story. The book chosen also had lots of wonderful pictures that portrayed the words so even if the students didn’t understand all of the words, they could figure out what was going on through the illustrations. Another thing I liked about the book was how much repetition it had in it. Repetition is great for young learners and especially ones who are second language learners. The phrase, “I can do it” was repeated at the end of every page. By the end of the story the children had memorized it and would track print while saying, “I can do it.”Also, there was a sentence strip with the word can that each of the students could hold during the story to remind them what they were looking for, I thought that this was very helpful to them. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Mrs. Horton incorporated a lot of culture into the lesson. But I am sort of unclear as to how one would do that with this lesson. Perhaps next time the instructor could choose a multicultural book to use for the lesson.


Anna

SPSE 6810-Multicultural Education

When it comes to the topic of multicultural education, most of society would say that it is complicated. At least that’s the answer I have received many times when I have asked someone what they thought about it. I, however, would highly disagree with this. I think where we go wrong in education is that WE discuss multicultural education like it is an option, a suggestion, or even a chore. This is ridiculous. In fact, it is almost insulting that our society even has to come up with such a label as multicultural education. Shouldn’t our education system be multicultural anyway?

I remember taking a Day Care Perspectives class in undergrad and having to use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to design a developmental appropriate preschool classroom. One of the criteria was that the classroom had to be multicultural and there were lots of ways to do this. For instance: the dramatic play center had to have clothing that represented different cultures, the kitchen center had to have food represented of different countries, the library had to have books about different cultures with characters of different races, etc. This was the first time that I realized how much we as educators could affect societies beliefs about multiculturalism. At first I thought this was a really good way to implement multicultural education; however, I noticed that it also taught stereotypes. The students assume that everyone in Asia wears a Kimono because that’s the outfit in the dress up center. Or, they assume that everyone who is Hispanic only eats tacos because that’s the food in the dramatic play center that represents them. I think that these stereotypes can very easily be avoided if we as educators take multicultural education a step further. It doesn’t just mean having things in the classroom to represent different cultures, it means TEACHING students how to appreciate and learn from different cultures. It’s important to have parents come into the classroom and tell stories about their cultures, their traditions, their lives. Have students bring in their family’s favorite foods and games.

Multicultural education isn’t just a word with a definition; it is an attitude, a choice: a choice to get to know someone else on a personal level and appreciate where they come from. This is how we influence society, we start with our students.

Anna

SPSE 6712-Observation #1

I have been working at Mitchell Neilson Primary for my fieldwork and am really enjoying it! They have a sort of special circumstance because they share the ELL teacher with the elementary school as well. This doesn’t give her a lot of time to spend with each student. However, she has the kindergarten students for an hour everyday so I go during that time. This is what I observed during that time:

Teaching/ Ethnographic Perspective

The purpose of the lesson that I observed was to work on the students letter recognition skills. The teacher gave each student a dry erase board and asked them to draw a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other. Then, she gave them each a sentence strip with their names on it. She would choose a letter from a set of index cards to show the students. If the letter was not in their name then it made them sad : ( and they had to write that letter on the sad side of their board. If the letter WAS in their name than they were happy : ) and they got to write it on the happy side of their board. I thought that the lesson was very appropriate for the students. For the ones that were very low level it was good that she gave them their name cards because they were still in the matching stage of letter recognition. However, I thought that for the higher level learners it would have been beneficial to take away their names cards to see if they could recognize its presence in their name from memory.
The students really seemed to respond to the activity well and enjoyed making very sad or happy faces once they found the letters. I also liked how the teacher did not put a lot of stress on the student’s letter formation. Many of them struggled with writing the letters correctly. She would simply show them once how to make the letter, allow them to try, and then praise them for their effort. I think this was really important for them not to get discouraged or give up trying. It will come with practice. An observer would hardly notice the ELL group that is pulled out in each Kindergarten room. The classrooms are fairly large and she always pulls her ELLs out at a time when the rest of the class is at their desks. This way, she can take her group to one of the centers that are blocked off and not disturb the class. Sometimes this strategy is frustrating because they have to be very quiet in their small group. They aren’t able to do certain activities like sing songs or play noisy games because they would disturb the class. The teacher is very inviting and accepting towards her ELL students. Even though she has them for a very short amount of time she always asks them how their day is going and gives them a chance to share their feelings. The students are all happy to see her and are excited about going to her group. She does a very good job of making them feel special that they get to come see her. They don’t feel excluded at all from the rest of their class.

Community

When the ELL teacher works with the kindergarteners she goes into one class at a time and pulls the ELL students to a quiet spot in the room. All of the classes have at least 3 ELLs so it makes for good sized small group instruction. While the activity was for each individual student to recognize the letters in their own name, the students would help each other look for the letters. They all seemed to get along and want each other to find the letters. One student even said, “I am sad there is no A in my name, but I’m happy it’s in yours!” I thought that was so sweet! Most of the ELL students the teacher pulls out in kindergarten are level 1 proficiency according to their ELDA scores. They are seen by the ELL teacher every day. However, there is one student that scored a 3 on the ELDA but will still qualify for consultation services from the ELL teacher because the language spoken at home is Arabic.