Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions - please keep sharing and discussing them here.
During our first "date" of the evening, we discussed Principle 1: Culture has deep, often hidden elements. Following are the questions with some points from the discussion:
· What struck you as interesting or controversial in this section?
-That ELL is not really different from other situations - good teaching is about RELATIONSHIP. We need to get to know our kids- then we can teach them!
-ELL students have a HUGE task - learn academics at the same time as learning a language AND, adapt to a school culture that is different from their home culture.
- Building relationships is imperative in breaking down cultural barriers
- In the book, the illustration of the cultural iceberg shows that language, religion, food, music, art clothing, architecture, crafts are the aspect that we see, but the MORE IMPORTANT PART is the part we can't see - they ways of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, acting, using, language
- Educators must reflect on and explicityly teach our culture - this takes courage and honest reflection becuase we often aren't aware of just how much our culture plays out in our lives and expectations of others.
- It would be good to access people in our community who share the newcomers' culture to teach us about that culture.
· What are some issues from your cultural baggage that may influence your teaching style? (Exploring your attitudes, values, opinions and beliefs.)
- We all come with expectiatons about "how it should be done" - how we've been brought up and our experience within our culutre strongly affect these attitudes. Most often, we aren't even aware of our expecations.
- Kids act the way they've been brought up - and with all of those cultural expectations.
- we have SO much to learn from our students - even the littlest ones :)
During our second "date" we discussed Principle 5: Disempowerment is a natural characteristic of diverse classrooms unless and until the teacher takes active steps to combat it.
· Do we assume that people who moved to our country need to forsake their culture and subscribe to ours? Can they? Is it ever possible to completely change from one culture to another?
- know that we may not be the best/only/right way to education, but this where we are and how we do it - so, we better teach kids how to be successful
- the students are overwhelmed academically, linguistically, and culturally
· Do you think ELL students in your classroom are in a position of disempowerment? Why or Why not?
- Homework that requires parent involvement is disadvantaging and disempowering for a number of reasons.
- The discussion led to these ideas are NOT just for ELL kids - they are for all students
- who are the disempowered in our classrooms?
· How do we try to change the dynamics of disempowerment by our own active efforts?
- become aware of our cultural baggage and expectations - maybe an activity for staff meeting??
- Teach kids not only what, but how, to think.
- Directly teach empathy (and other virtues). Teach students to read social cues and signals. (facial expressions, body language - these may be different from their cultural expectations.)
- Have more than sympathy for children and their families. Move into empathy, knowledge and action.
Please add your comments and questions to the discussion
