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ED 250-Diversity and Multiculturalism Bella

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ED 250-Diversity and Multiculturalism Bella

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As a future elementary education teacher, I believe that there are several challenges in regard to teaching multiculturalism in the classroom. One challenge might be that students may not fully understand what multiculturalism is and the background behind it. Students may also have different levels of understanding and knowledge on the topic as well, which makes teaching it even more difficult. A promise of these lesson plans that it allows you to look at multiculturalism with different perspectives and allows you to put yourself in others shoes and become more understanding. It is also a topic that can be discussed widely about and allow for meaningful conversations.

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As a teacher (hypothetically), some of the promises would be that the students will be able to put themselves into someone else's shoes/perspective. Also, if taught to the appropriate age group, these ideas will actually resonate with them. The challenges, however, can be how to actually teach the lesson. This teacher gave a good lesson by having the students create dialogue, but that may not get through to all of the students. Another challenge could be if the students are taught too soon, and they don't understand the topic/take it seriously. Overall, I believe that these lessons plans were thoroughly planned out and the perfect material for junior/senior age students in high school.

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After evaluating the readings during class today, it is clear that there are challenges and promises to teaching multiculturalism. A challenge for me, as a future educator, students may not have the basic understanding of what multiculturalism is. I feel as though the basics of what diversity and multiculturalism is should be taught at a younger age than it is, ideally early elementary school. Then, as children get older, they can continue to go more and more in depth with learning about these topics. Then, by eighth grade, the students can engage in thoughtful discussions and connect to their own lives. If this starts happening more in education, it is a promise that students will become engaged and interested in discussing topics like these.

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Exploring multiculturalism in the classroom can be quite difficult for several reasons. For some students, fully understanding the terminology may be taxing and lead to misconceptions. Another challenge could be determining what historic events/content are too serious to share with students at a particular age. They may also ask questions that are difficult to answer. However, introducing the content in these lesson plans can help make talking about cultures and races in the classroom more comfortable. By learning about history students can become more empathetic and compassionate toward people of color.

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I have always found history to be an interesting topic in school, but was frustrated that we continued to learn the same concepts over and over again. The lesson plans that we discussed in class would have provided another layer of depth to our education that I had not heard about before. The interactive manner of the lesson plans would have allowed me to take on different perspectives of history instead of being lectured about it. My greatest concern would be students who did not take the lesson seriously, making the experience uncomfortable and ineffective for the rest of the class. Maturity and understanding that these are serious topics would ensure that these plans were successful and give the students the perspective of those who do not have a strong voice in history.

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Victoria Walsh

As a future elementary education teacher, I think there are many challenges on teaching multiculturalism to other students. Students may have knowledge on this topic and may not have as much background as other students based on what they have learned from previous years/ experiences. This topic must be brought up to students because it is so important for others to be more educated on this topic and it may help the students want to learn more.

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As a future elementary teacher, I believe that there are some challenges with teaching multiculturalism in the classroom. I think a lot of it depends on the age. After reading the articles and listening to other groups in class, i have realized some of the difficulties. Based on the reading group i was in, 8th grade is a difficult grade becuase I believe they are old enough to learn about specific topics, but we also don't know what previous knowledge they have whether they have learned it from past classes or at home. In my opinion, I beleive that levels of maturity is a big factor in teaching specific topics.

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After exploring and learning about the different lesson plans there are some challenges that can arise. When talking about multiculturalism in a classroom setting it is important to note the maturity of the children in the classroom. Certain topics are hard for certain ages to understand and process. In my article it was projected towards high school students. I think this was an appropriate age for these students to comprehend and not take the information that is being presented in the wrong way. But maturity is important and there are always going to be students that have a better maturity than others even in high school.

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After analyzing Pump Up Blow Out, there are some challenges and promises that can be identified as the lesson plan of teaching multiculturalism presents itself. One promise being to allow the children of any age group to know that it is okay to share their own personal opinions. The students should feel comfortable to discuss difficult and uncomfortable topics for their age group. It is interesting to think that young children have to be exposed to mature topics at a young age as their knowledge will follow them as they mature. A challenge that relates to these specific topics children as students should be exposed to in a classroom setting might be the difficult topics. It is almost as if young kids are thrown into the world, maturing quickly.

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Sarah H- As a future elementary education teacher, I think some of the challenges of teaching multiculturalism and social issues in the 8th grade level is the fact that they might struggle or have not learned the starter knowledge of equity vs. equality. A promise of these lesson plans there is opportunity for deep discussion. There must be a certain level of trust when talking about inequalities. There needs to be a lot of context and explanation to discuss this issue because of the complexity. It is important to look at how this topic will affect all students 

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Sarah H- As a future elementary education teacher, I think some of the challenges of teaching multiculturalism and social issues in the 8th grade level is the fact that they might struggle or have not learned the starter knowledge of equity vs. equality. A promise of these lesson plans there is opportunity for deep discussion. There must be a certain level of trust when talking about inequalities. There needs to be a lot of context and explanation to discuss this issue because of the complexity. It is important to look at how this topic will affect all students 

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As a future elementary teacher, I think there can be multiple challenges when teaching about multiculturalism in the classroom. Some challenges could be that at such a young age these kids may have no idea what multiculturalism and diversity means. These lesson plans showed that children have to be mature enough to hear this information and it can be difficult because you don't know how much previous knowledge they already had. I think if you teach these hard topic at a young age the students won't understand it well and may not take it seriously. The lesson plans are good for an 8th grader to understand because they can begin to have discussions on the topic and already have prior knowledge.

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After reading and learning about these different lessons plans, there is definitely pros and cons when it comes to teaching about multiculturalism. Yes, it is important for our students to be educated on these topics, but you definitely need to consider their age. Maturity will play a big role in most of these lesson plans meaning the students need to be serious when discussing these topics to ensure that they are getting the full understanding of the lesson. As a future elementary teacher I want to make sure that I am educating my students on multiculturalism but at the same time making sure they are ready to learn and interpret what I am teaching them.

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I want to be an elementary education teacher one day and I know there are challenges surrounding multiculturalism. Some challenges would be students not being educated on these topics and while teaching it they may be confused. Another challenge would be introducing this topic too early. The younger the students are the more confused they will be, I think if you make the lessons fun and engaging the students will be more likely to be intrested and want to learn more. Some promises would be having the students think about their lives and be able to put themselves in the shoes of someone less fortunate than them. They will be more accepting to culture and races by learning more about it.

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After hearing about different lesson plans, I recognized some promises and challenges that they present. My group read a lesson plan in which students would engage in a role play about Cherokee removal. A promise of the lesson plan is student engagement. Students will become engaged because they will each represent a different role. A challenge that might occur due to a role play lesson plan is that students might not take it seriously. They might not realize the severity of what happened with the Cherokee removal, because they are fooling around with their friends/classmates during the roleplay. Students need to be mature and respectful when learning about certain topics.

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I believe that there are many promises and challenges with teaching multiculturalism to any age group. For me wanting to become an elementary ed teacher I see more challenges. For example in elementary grades a lot of the students are at different educational levels so their knowledge of understanding multiculturalism may vary. Along with teaching them multiculturalism may be difficult when they are at a young age because multiculturalism is a deep topic. A promise to teaching multiculturalism is that you are staring to teach the children young and make them aware.

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Even though I am not planning to be an instructor in the future, I can still see how these types of lesson plans present many promises and challenges. This type of lesson planned seemed to be very interactive as the one my group and I read included a script between tenant farmers and I think it could be a good way to engage all students. However, it definitely could go the wrong way very fast. I think this should be aimed at high school students, specifically juniors and seniors, because of their maturity. The teacher also needs to provide the class with context so students can handle this material respectfully and with an open mind.

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If I were to be a teacher I think that multiculturalism would be hard to talk about especially when talking about topics that involving incarceration. In lessons plans involving role playing having students play racist member of history involves them having to be degrading towards their classmates. Talking about it does give students a better idea of what was truly going on in history without sugar coating it. This would give students more confidence to be able to effectively communicate these ideas and be more comfortable talking about race and racial injustices.

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For me, the challenge with teaching multiculturalism to college-aged students is that many are not willing to make the connection that gaining an understanding of different cultures means acknowledging and exploring difficult histories. It's easy to say we are comfortable with the expression of culture from a pop culture or media standpoint, but we are often lacking in our knowledge of the story behind the heroes and icons we tend to celebrate or emulate. I'll give you two examples. To more deeply understand and appreciate the cast of the Jersey Shore and the tight-knit connection between them is to also appreciate that Italian- Americans share a particularly strong bond that happened as a result of immigration and discrimination in the early 20th century. To more deeply understand and appreciate the marriage of Cardi B and Offset as part of hip-hop, street, and trap culture is also to appreciate the history of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican music as it developed over generations of colonization and survivance. Beats and music are key to the storytelling culture of African Americans and Caribbean peoples.

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Some promises these lesson plans present are a deeper understanding of certain cultures and how they were affected by certain societal pressures and prejudices against them. Some challenges that could be presented could be students' misunderstandings of the cultures and how their ideas could affect those cultures in the future. Another challenge would be the appropriate time and age range to introduce some of these concepts to students. Culture isn't an easy topic to teach because it's so deep routed, there's not a concise area to begin teaching it.

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I think some of these lessons present some challenges, but also some promises to students from an instructor. One challenge that could be faced in the classroom is trying to navigate how to educate these children on such important historical events. It can be a struggle to know what to say in order to teach their students about these serious topics that can be challenging to understand at times. Another challenge could be making sure every student is being seen and represented because multiculturalism is important in a classroom. Some promises that are presented are making sure every student in the class gets to speak about their own personal experiences, and learn about different cultures than theirs. Another promise is ensuring students feel comfortable learning about these lessons, and to have a safe classroom environment to discuss the topics.

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Generally speaking, multiculturalism is conceptually complex. There is no fixed lens required to dissect the concept of multiculturalism. The lesson plans discussed in class all present beneficial ways for various school ages. Each lesson plan offered different tools and strategies that allowed students to be exposed to different cultures in an impactful way. Such as hands-on activities that engage the students to immerse themselves in other cultures, then reflecting on their experiences will allow them to learn in an impactful way. One challenge that can arise from teaching multiculturalism to school-aged children is how the foundation needed to grow upon the concept of multiculturalism is missing.

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Some promises that these lesson plans present as an instructor include creating a sense of unity and inclusion by addressing these topics that are not often talked about. For instance, if you are teaching students about the Cherokee Removal Act where many Native Americans lost their lives, it brings light onto the struggles of a different culture group that many don’t talk about. Even though it can be a difficult topic to address, having the basic knowledge on it opens the conversation to talk about the downsides of history. A challenge that these lesson plans present as an instructor is the different learning styles that students may have. For example, some students may not learn by looking at maps and need a whole lecture on the subject so it can be difficult as a teacher to accommodate every student in the way they need.

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I think a challenge is deciding how to go about teaching these kinds of topics to a young age and deciding what age they should be exposed to them. I think they should be exposed to them in the later years of elementary school and then grow to understand these topics of racism, discrimination, and multiculturalism as they go on into middle school and high school. I think the lesson plans we went over are most appropriate for high school students because of their complexity of understanding and the tasks they include. A promise of that these lesson plans provide is including multiple perspectives and allowing students to take on a role in someone's else shoes to full understand what is going on in these events that the lesson plans are for.