Diversity and Differentiationin the Classroom Chapter 2

Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education

The educational strategy in which students’ cultural backgrounds are used to develop effective classroom instruction and school environments. It is designed to support and extend the concepts of culture, diversity, equality, social justice, and democracy in the formal school setting.

Gollnick and Chinn

Culturally responsive teachers develop effective strategies to use with widely diverse groups of students---

Exceptional students Children with disabilities Gifted children

Culturally and ethnically diverse students

Gender Social class Language diversity

All of us belong to many different “microcultural” groups

Ethnic Group

Region

ReligionGiftednessDisability

Race

Social Class

Gender

The Individual

Why is Multicultural Awareness Important?

By the year 2020 about half of the United States population will come from groups traditionally labeled minority: African American Asian American Native American Latino or Hispanic

While the proportion of diverse students is increasing, the teaching force is becoming more homogeneous. (Harper, et al.)

By 2010, an estimated 95% of K-12 teachers will be white middle class females.(Haberman)

Most teachers have limited experiences working with cultures unlike their own. (Haberman.)

Cultural and Ethnic diversity

Theories of cultural blending “Melting Pot” “Cultural Pluralism” or “Salad Bowl”

Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Teaching in culturally diverse settings

“Culturally assaultive” approaches perpetuate biases and stereotypes

Discussion of cultures only as they existed in the past

Incorrect or stereotypical versions of how people live

Emphasis on differences rather than similarities Token representation of the group in the

classroom “Holiday” units on minority groups

Cultural and Ethnic DiversityCulturally responsive teaching Acknowledges the legitimacy of the cultural

heritages of different ethnic groups Builds bridges of meaningfulness between

home and school experiences Uses a wide variety of instructional strategies

connected to different learning styles Teaches students to know and praise their own

and each others’ cultural heritages Incorporates multicultural information,

resources, materials into all subjects

Cultural and Ethnic diversity Teaching in culturally diverse settings

“Cultural connectiveness” method (infusing multicultural education into daily learning experiences)—suggested steps:

Know your community Seek family support Give equal attention to all groups Fill your room with curriculum materials

from many cultures Invite visitors to speak Draw from the arts

Language Diversity Over 200 languages now in US Ongoing controversy between “English only”

and bilingualism Three main terms:

ELL (English Language Learners) students who come to school speaking a main language other than English

LEP (Limited English Proficient) students who are not yet fluent enough in English to perform school tasks successfully

Bilingual – students who speak fluently in English at school and a native language at home

Language Diversity

Guidelines for bilingual instruction Environmental print Culturally conscious literature Literacy instruction through natural

use of reading and writing throughout the curriculum

Language buddies Work with the ESL teacher

Exceptionalities

Children with disabilities Many similarities with non-disabled

students Inclusion and “least restrictive

environment” Federal Legislation PL 94-142

(Individuals with Disabilities Education Act –IDEA)

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

Where are we today with Students with Disabilities? (Data from New Hanover Co. Schools 1997)

25% of SWD were exempt from state tests

50% of students tested for SpEd did not qualify

10% of students had IEPs 60% of students on special route busses

missed a day of instruction per week 40 children identified with autism 50%+ of SWD were served in sub-

standard classrooms

Where are we today with Students with Disabilities? (Data from New Hanover Co. Schools 2006)

100% SWD participate in state tests 90% students tested for SE qualify 14% students have IEPs 95% students on special route busses

receive full day of school 100% students receive instruction is

classrooms comparable to peers 234 children identified with autism (3rd

in state)

Some Special Education Program Names----New Hanover County

Intensive Academic Support Intensive Behavior Support Intensive Social/Communication Support Specially Designed Academics-Daily

Living Specially Designed Academics—

Functional Academicswww.nhcs.k12.nc.us/sped/

Exceptionalities --- Teaching children with disabilities—

Guidelines Learn something about specific disabilities Maximize interactions between children with

disabilities and nondisabled children Individualize your program Assess classroom environment Choose books that help children learn about

and appreciate diversity Seek assistance from EC teachers!

Exceptionalities ---

Gifted Children Characteristics

1. verbal skills 2. abstractions 3. power of concentration 4. intellect 5. behavior

Exceptionalities --- Gifted Children- suggestions

Faster paced instruction for skills and content based learning

More use of inquiry and independent research

More advanced materials (higher level reading)

Reorganization of content to explore issues across curricular areas

Use the Multiple Intelligences approach to reach the tremendous variety of learners!

Verbal linguistic Logical mathematical Visual spatial Naturalist Interpersonal Intrapersonal Bodily kinesthetic Musical

Word Smart Math Smart Art Smart Nature Smart People Smart Self Smart Body Smart Music Smart

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Bodily Kinesthetic

Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Naturalist

Musical

Visual Spatial

Logical Mathematical

Verbal Linguistic

Intelligences

Verbal Linguistic

Logical Mathematical

Musical

Naturalist

Bodily Kinesthetic

Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Visual Spatial

Gardner’s model suggests that

Every child has capacities in each of the intelligences

Most people can develop each of the intelligences to an adequate level of proficiency

The eight intelligences work together in highly complex ways

There are many ways to be intelligent in each category

Instruction should help children develop all eight intelligences

Gender General guidelines

Avoid stereotyping masculine and feminine roles

Use gender free language when possible Use classroom materials which present

an honest view of males and females Balance the contributions of

men and women in social studies

instruction

Social Class Strong relationship between socioeconomic

status (SES) and school performance Some explanations for lower achievement of

lower SES groups Health, resources, family stress, discrimination Low expectations/low self-esteem Learned helplessness Resistance cultures Tracking

Groups to think about: Homeless, migrants, children in poverty

The majority of children in the South’s schools (54%) are POOR!

49% of children in NC are low income

This is a great challenge because low income students as a group begin school less ready, are the most likely to drop out, perform at the lowest levels on tests, and have the least access to college.

Social Class

What can be done? One suggestion: Eliminate tracking/ability grouping (Students should be grouped according

to the specific skills they need, and when instruction is completed, the group should be disbanded.)

Group children in various way, and change the groups often.

Social Class – Key Points from A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

1. Schools and businesses operate from middle class norms and use the hidden rules of the middle class.

2. For students to be successful, we must understand their hidden rules and teach them the rules that will make them successful at school and at work.

3. We can neither excuse students nor scold them for not knowing; as educators we must teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.

An interview with Ruby Payne--

What are some common misperceptions educators may have about children who come from a low-income background, especially if they are not accustomed to teaching low-income children?

Payne: That the students from poverty are not intelligent and that students engage in behaviors that make no sense. To survive in poverty, you must be very non-verbal, reactive, and sensory-based. To survive in school and work, you must be very verbal, very abstract, and very proactive (you must plan.) Abstract means that you can live in a representational world. For example, when a check is written, the understanding is that it represents money that is in the bank as opposed to cash, which is actual money.

Interview with Ruby Payne---

What are some strategies teachers can employ to help make lessons more relevant and understandable for children of all social classes?

Payne: We recommend these interventions: Build relationships of mutual respect with students. Use direct teach processes. This means that you are

very specific in the steps and procedures needed to do something. For example, a recipe has amounts of ingredients but will also tell the steps or order that must be followed to make the item. And in school, often the processes are not identified or written down so they can be consistently followed.

Use mental models. Mental models help translate between the sensory and the abstract worlds. Just as a blueprint translates between the conversation about a house and the actual finished house in the three dimensions, so a mental model translates between abstract constructs and the sensory world.

Teach that there are two sets of rules -- one for school and work, one for outside of school and work.

Eight home-based factors correlated with student achievement and eight that don’t matter

(data from late 1990s US Dept of Education Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to measure the academic progress of more than 20000 children from grades K-5—subjects chosen from across the country to represent an accurate cross section of American school children.)

The child has highly educated parents. The child’s family is intact. The child’s parents have high

socioeconomic status. The child’s parents recently moved into a

better neighborhood.

The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth.

The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten.

The child had low birth weight. The child attended Head Start. The child’s parents speak English in the

home. The child’s parents regularly take him to

museums. The child is adopted. The child is regularly spanked. The child’s parents are involved in the PTA. The child frequently watches television. The child has many books in his home. The child’s parents read to him nearly every

day.

Importance of “connectedness” “Good teachers possess a capacity for

connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connectedness among themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The methods used by these weavers vary widely: lectures, Socratic dialogues, laboratory experiments, collaborative problem solving, creative chaos. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts—meaning heart in its ancient sense, as the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self.” From The Courage To Teach by

Parker J. Palmer