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Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers .

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Use text features and search tools to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

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Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

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How can we better understand our culture being mixed with those around us to create a more supportive classroom and community?

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Fluency, reading level, context, standards based curriculum, technology, community, culture.

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Family culture, value of education in the home, reading material that is available, school funding, norms at home and at school, as well as societal norms.

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Third Grade English Language Arts Common Core State Standards

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Find third grade English language arts worksheets and other learning materials for the Common Core State Standards.

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3.B.1.2 Compare values, beliefs, cultural practices and traditions of various groups living in local and regional communities

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The Meaning of My Lunch | ReadWorks

This text helps students understand and form ideas that although all students are not the same, we all have something to contribute and share about ourselves with those around us. Students will use this text to support their opinions with text evidence from the article.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom

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Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom

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https://gbc-education.org/insights/esg-how-education-can-drive-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwk7ugBhDIARIsAGuvgPb-qdBDmG8wcBNJF14QoY7d_ezONheNw7EVIUJyV42V1CB-P56yJhUaAhyPEALw_wcB

This article talks about how we can create an equitable classroom by all students and teachers in the room working together. Specifically, by using technology to create an inclusive classroom.

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On the face of it, there are few industries better placed to lead the way on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) than the tech sector, with its young, creative workforces building content for diverse, young audiences. But for years, tech's record on DEI has been frustratingly poor, with representation of minorities, women, and people with disabilities significantly below desired levels. There is acute awareness of this within the sector, but until recently there has been virtually no concerted effort to address the problem and the material threat it poses to businesses.

That has begun to change with the ACT Report (Action to Catalyze Tech: A Paradigm Shift for DEI), a blueprint published in late 2021 for any company wanting to promote DEI in the industry. Endorsed by 30 influential tech companies, its working group was chaired by Snap Inc's Vice-President of DEI, Oona King. As the report's preamble states, "historically, the tech industry's approach to DEI has been dispersed, individual, and short-term." Its goal is to create a "new DEI paradigm, one that is holistic, collective, and sustainable," and one that is also applicable to all types of businesses.

Crucially from the perspective of GBC-Education, it recognizes the importance of education to improving DEI. The report shows an understanding that improving DEI is not just a matter of diversity in recruitment but of educating the future workforce and creating a pipeline of talent from younger generations. "It means tackling educational inequity generally, and increasing access to computer science education specifically."

Three of the report's ten key actions that companies can adopt to change the DEI paradigm relate to education:

advocate for computer science (CS) to be required in all schools;

build systems capacity to create more CS teachers at all levels, and invest in CS faculty in colleges of education;

invest in organizations that connect talent from underrepresented groups to tech careers.

The report's launch coincided with the creation of the Catalyze Tech coalition and an investment of $20 million - with Snap Inc. providing half of the funding - in four teaching colleges to exponentially increase teachers equipped to teach computer science (CS) across America. This investment was used to create endowments whose interest will help support more than 2,000 new teachers or instructors year after year, with a collective potential of impacting more than a million students over the course of their teaching careers. This will start addressing the acute lack of computer science teachers, especially within underrepresented communities. The CS effort focuses on digital literacy and developing computational and critical thinking skills in all students starting from kindergarten. It aims to empower all youth to be proficient in technology in addition to reading, writing, and math.

Such initiatives complement GBC-Education's efforts to place education at the core of corporates' ESG strategies, captured in our major new report, "Unlocking Impact and Equity through Education: A New Approach to ESG. "

The report examines education's role in ESG and analyzes key material issues for education, with DEI prominent among them. Others include staff recruitment, child labor in the supply chain, resilience to climate change and brand reputation, among others.

At a GBC-Education panel discussion to coincide with the report's launch during September's United Nations General Assembly, Bish Paul, PhD, Snap Inc's Global Head of DEI Industry Collaboration, gave more detail of the company's DEI initiatives and how education fits into them.

Paul emphasized what an important development it was for tech companies to be collaborating on education. "We [Snap] realized that we wouldn't be able to do this alone. So we decided to practice collective action, a cross-industry collaboration, because [one company] cannot solve a systemic issue such as education access."

Having large companies like Google, Uber, and Salesforce on board "has really helped us scale up our impact", he said.

"It's a new thing for us [and the whole sector] to be able to do this. But we decided that there is no way we can have the workforce of the future, or for the present, without working on systems change together."

He added that education was not only a priority of the philanthropy team. Snap had also designed a holistic collaboration to prioritize education across university outreach programs, technical recruiting teams, public policy initiatives, and DEI team strategy.

One pillar of Snap's DEI strategy is inspiring empathy through storytelling and sharing personal journeys and experiences. Within the stories, education was often a key feature. "Every team and leader uses storytelling as a tool to explore race, gender, class, disability and other issues. I talk about education, and how that was the pathway my family used to break out of intergenerational poverty. My dad, the last job he had was as a migrant worker in Dubai, washing dishes. And education was the way to economic stability, success and to me even being here today."

Collective action by companies can transform young people's lives. As those youth become employees, they transform an industry from within. It's a win-win for the future.

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ESG: How education can drive diversity, equity, and inclusion

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On the face of it, there are few industries better placed to lead the way on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) than the tech sector, with its young, creative workforces building content for diverse, young audiences. But for years, tech's record on DEI has been frustratingly poor, with representation of minorities, women, and people with disabilities significantly below desired levels.

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Students will create a family tree map to show the history of their family. It should include family, culture, traditions etc. Students will then do walk through of all of the family trees.

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Students will create a map of resources around their community. This project will be done in groups of 3 and requires research, collaboration, a poster of the community map, and a paper listing all of the resources the group found, with a couple of sentences on what service that resources provides.

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Create a school wide campaign to create culturally inclusive classrooms within the school. Projects will include research on culturally responsive classrooms, a slideshow, and presenting it to the class as well as a panel of teachers.

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https://youtu.be/H-P3wm1Fvv4

This is a fun resource to get a new idea on what culture means to children. It's important to take into consideration, what kids think culture is and how we can apply it in daily life.

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What Is Culture, According to Kids?—Milton Hershey School

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https://youtu.be/fnENd6MDCEs
This is a great resource for classroom culture, how to appreciate one another and the culture and background in the classroom.

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https://youtu.be/JeMVNDWSVL4

A fantastic resources for looking at how culture and present itself as a behavior issue in the classroom. How can students start to better understand one another so that we can work through the differences and create an inclusive environment for all student backgrounds and culture.

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How culture may impact behavior in the classroom

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Students will use this resources to support Reading RL.3.1 to draw information from the text to support their questions in the research they are doing.

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Skip to main content

Educators today hear a lot about gaps in education - achievement gaps, funding gaps, school-readiness gaps. Still, there's another gap that often goes unexamined: the cultural gap between students and teachers.

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Educators today hear a lot about gaps in education - achievement gaps, funding gaps, school-readiness gaps. Still, there's another gap that often goes unexamined: the cultural gap between students and teachers.

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https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/importance-of-cultural-diversity-in-classroom/

This article gives an idea of the different ideologies about culture in the classroom and the importance of embracing the different cultures represented in the classroom.

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The Importance of Diversity & Multicultural Awareness in Education

Drexel University School of Education

Cultural diversity in the classroom is on the rise. In 2014, U.S. public schools hit a minority majority milestone with Latino, African-American, and Asian students having surpassed the number of white students. In 2044, the U.S. Census predicts that over half of the nation's population will be people of color, so this trend will likely continue.

In our increasingly diverse and multicultural society, it's more important than ever for teachers to incorporate culturally responsive instruction in the classroom -- whether teaching elementary school, middle school or high school students. And the increase of diversity doesn't only relate to race and ethnicity; it can include students of different religion, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and language background.

Interested in becoming a teacher? Learn more about Drexel's Teacher Certification program.

Why is it Important to Encourage Diversity in Schools and Workplaces?

Fostering inclusion and awareness around multicultural education and taking a culturally responsive approach to teaching benefits all students. Not only does creating greater multicultural awareness and inclusion help students with different backgrounds and needs succeed, but it encourages acceptance and helps prepare students to thrive in an exponentially diverse world. Our Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Wellness Certificate Program is a great opportunity for teachers to learn how to create positive classroom environments and can serve as a foundation for understanding how to promote diversity in your classroom.

Diversity in and out of the classroom will continue to grow, so it's essential we prepare students to adapt to an evolving world and embrace those different from themselves. Learn more how the programs at the Drexel School of Education are helping to prepare more culturally-responsive educators today.

Types of Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

Every student is unique. In order to properly understand and promote cultural awareness, teachers need to understand all the different types of diversity they may encounter in their classrooms including:

Race

A person's skin color can have a great impact on their experience in society. It can also impact how they view themselves and others when engaging in classroom activities.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity relates to a person's culture and nationality. Ethnicity is sometimes confused with race, but it is important to recognize that while some people may have the same skin color, they may come from different places and have vastly different cultural beliefs and views of the world.

Religion

It is important to understand that people have different religious belief or no religious beliefs, and it may impact their participation in the classroom. Students may react differently to lessons based on their religion or may not be able to be present on certain religious holidays.

Language

While English is commonly used in American classrooms, for some students, it is not the language they speak at home. Accommodations should be made to help students for whom English is a second language.

Socioeconomic Status

A student's socioeconomic status can affect their ability to participate in the classroom without some type of accommodation. For instance, access to a computer at home or reliable internet access is not a given for some children. Teachers should be aware of this and the stress it may cause students who may struggle due to a lack of resources.

Sexual Orientation

A student's sexual orientation can have a great impact on how they are experiencing the world. Teachers should understand the struggles that exist and ensure that the lessons taught in their classroom are inclusive.

Gender Identity

Similar to sexual orientation, it is important to understand each student's gender identity and how they would prefer to be recognized. Teachers should respect their student's identity and use preferred pronouns when interacting with their students.

How can you Promote Diversity and Multiculturalism in the Classroom?

There are several ways teachers and administrators, such as principals and coaches, can ensure that both the classroom environment and curriculum are responsive to the increasing cultural diversity of our society. These strategies will encourage all students' cultural awareness, enhancing each student's sense of identity, and foster inclusion in the classroom community.

1. Get to Know Your Students Ensuring that cultural awareness is promoted in the classroom starts with the teacher understanding each individual student. Take the time to learn about each student's cultural background, hobbies, learning styles, and what makes them unique. Demonstrating a genuine interest in learning about each student and their culture will help establish trust and allow you to form a bond with them so they feel valued. If students feel appreciated by and comfortable with the teacher, there's a better chance they'll feel comfortable talking with and respect their peers in the class - and communication is the core to a culturally aware and inclusive classroom.

2. Maintain Consistent Communication Aside from getting to know your students, teachers should also continue to maintain ongoing communication throughout the semester or school year. Scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with students to "check in" every so often will allow you to consistently improve how accessible the classroom is to everyone. Students can talk about whether they felt included in the classroom culture. This can help identify issues or ways to improve the overall experience. It's also an opportunity to discuss their progress in the class and offer guidance on how they can improve, based on their individual needs as a student.

3. Acknowledge and Respect Every Student It's also important for students to celebrate and respect their own diverse backgrounds, as well as each other's. When appropriate, teachers should encourage students to research and learn about their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This allows them to better understand their own culture as well as the differences and nuances with their peers. As a bonus, this can be a great ice breaker assignment, allowing students to give presentations about their family traditions and culture to help expose the class to concepts outside of their own familiar comfort zone. Acknowledging these differences and creating a safe space for discussion helps promote understanding in the classroom and beyond. Also, as you encourage students to learn about their diverse backgrounds, remember to take the time to highlight what's offensive and the distinction between cultural celebration and appropriation. Learning how to talk about other cultures in a respectful, mature way is essential for success in life outside the classroom.

4. Practice Cultural Sensitivity While it's important to keep an open dialogue amongst students, it's equally as important to make sure you're being sensitive to everyone's culture, beliefs, and language concerns. Take the time to understand each student's cultural nuances - from learning styles to the language they use - and use these insights to design your lesson plans. For example, provide English language learners with appropriate and relevant resources that help them improve their English comprehension skills. Rather than teach with a traditional lecture style, create learning experiences that are more interactive and require collaboration. These considerations will help ensure that every student feels included, is given the space to learn in their own way and is given a chance to succeed.

5. Incorporate Diversity in the Lesson Plan The classroom environment is important for fostering cultural awareness, but you also should ensure diversity is represented in your actual lesson plan. For example, broaden history lessons so that they encompass the world beyond United States history and culture. Or, use references and analogies to other cultures in your lessons and assignments to help students with diverse backgrounds personally connect. Another great strategy is bringing in diverse speakers to add varying points of view and real-life context to different subjects.There are several ways you can ingrain cultural awareness and diversity into your lesson plan, and it will vary depending on the cultures represented in your classroom and the course you're teaching. Regardless of the subject, always try to present and connect lessons to real-world issues. It's easier to promote cultural awareness within your lessons when there's a real example for students to relate to.

6. Give Students Freedom and Flexibility Teachers often feel like they need to take on a strict, authoritative approach when it comes to managing their classroom. The most valuable lessons are often learned through a student's own experiences, so giving them some freedom in the course encourages more connection to the curriculum. Allow students to read and present their own materials that relate to the fundamental lesson so they can approach the topic from their own perspective. As a teacher, you can act as a facilitator and encourage conversation and healthy debate between diverse opinions. Group assignments are also a great way to expose students to diverse perspectives, allowing them to work together to explore and solve a problem. This will also help prepare them for a diverse workforce where they'll have to partner with a range of people to accomplish their professional goals.

Why is it Multicultural Education Important to Students?

It is important to remind ourselves why diversity and cultural awareness is so crucial in the classroom and the benefits it can have on students now and in the long-term. Teaching diversity exposes students to various cultural and social groups, preparing students to become better citizens in their communities. These culturally responsive teaching strategies will help you to promote diversity in the classroom.

With these culturally responsive teaching strategies in mind, it's important to remind ourselves why diversity and cultural awareness is so crucial in the classroom and the benefits it can have on students now and in the long-term.

Students Become More Empathetic

Promoting awareness and creating a personal connection with diverse cultures in the classroom can prevent students from developing prejudices later in life. It allows them to empathize with people different from themselves since they're more aware of the experiences someone of a different race or cultural group may face.

Students Gain a Better Understanding of Lessons and People

When working and learning with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures present in the classroom, students gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. It also teaches students how to use their own strengths and points of view to contribute in a diverse working environment.

Students Become More Open-Minded

Naturally, by exposing students to a diverse range of opinions, thoughts, and cultural backgrounds, you're encouraging them to be more open-minded later in life. This will make them open to new ideas and be able to attain a greater comprehension on a topic by taking in different points of view.

Students Feel More Confident and Safe

Students who learn about different cultures during their education feel more comfortable and safe with these differences later in life. This allows them to interact in a wider range of social groups and feel more confident in themselves as well as in their interactions with others.

Students Are Better Prepared for a Diverse Workplace

With the rise of globalization, it's more important to be able to work with people from different cultures and social groups. If students are exposed to diversity and learn cultural awareness in the classroom, it sets them up to flourish in the workforce.

Learn More About Cultural Diversity in Education

There are additional resources available to help educators grow their knowledge of cultural diversity and apply it to their classrooms. Here are a few sites where you can find more information:

Additionally, Drexel offers programs that can help broaden a teacher's expertise in multicultural education including our online Teaching English as a Second Language and Social Emotional and Behavioral Wellness certification programs. You can also contact us to request more information.

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The Importance of Multicultural Education - School of Education

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As classrooms become more diverse, it's crucial for students to learn about other cultures. Discover how students benefit from classroom diversity with Drexel.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/learning-recognize-and-celebrate-students-cultural-experiences/

This source talks about how some students and teachers view the difference in culture as a deficit, when we should be channeling our efforts into bringing out the culture and using it to help the child succeed.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

Children of color often come to school with differences in language and customs that some teachers see as deficits.

wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock

After teaching in both Harlem and New Orleans, I have seen many BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) students face the same tragic challenge, that schools view their differences in cultural background and language as weaknesses. Teachers have the power to shift their focus from what a student lacks to the vast array of experiences and diversity that such students bring. Teachers can focus on differences in their classrooms instead of deficits.

Every student who enters a classroom should feel that they have every opportunity to become successful. Students who come from backgrounds dissimilar to the majority's, however, often do not feel this way. When teachers do not actively employ culturally responsive practices and work to challenge students by understanding their strengths, teachers may communicate to these students that they are not welcome or capable of success.

In one particular example, a Native American student, like many students of color in public schools today, was viewed as incapable of accessing and mastering the material. He was wrongly seen as disadvantaged when he should have been seen as different. The skills he had learned from a young age-mastering his native language, an in-depth understanding of the environment around him, firsthand experience with a number of traditional Native American ceremonies-were not easily translated into the classroom and therefore were disregarded by his teachers.

Many students come into a classroom with an array of experiences and skills but learn to believe that these are useless when they cannot apply them to the classroom. These students therefore struggle in their classes because the curriculum is not responsive to their cultural and linguistic needs.

Often, this leads to BIPOC students being disproportionately referred for special education evaluations and interventions. These students are then labeled as learning disabled when the problem is not their learning ability but the curriculum they are being judged against.

This problem predominantly affects African American and Hispanic students. This issue of misclassification not only is detrimental to those students who are told that they have a disability when they do not, but also harms those students who actually should be classified as having special learning needs when resources are incorrectly allocated.

Changing the Curriculum

In order to fight against this problem of misclassification and misleading students to believe that they are incapable, teachers must ensure that their curriculum is responsive to the needs of their students. Because all students may not have experience in a traditional classroom setting prior to kindergarten, it is critical that teachers work with these students to identify their strengths and areas of growth as they enter the classroom. From there, teachers can identify ways to highlight the unique experiences and skills that these students bring.

To gain a better understanding of the backgrounds of students, teachers must invest time and energy into developing trusting relationships with both students and their families. This allows teachers to better align their classroom instruction and expectations with those of the family and the relevant cultural backgrounds. With this knowledge, teachers can also identify ways to include students' identities in the curriculum. This can look like including literature about and by those who identify as the cultures in the class, scaffolding material so that it reflects the prior knowledge of students, or including references to things that the students can relate to. Teachers will need to learn about their individual students to make this happen.

In my own classroom, this often looked like altering the context of given mathematical word problems to better align with my students' individual experiences; living in New York City, many of my students were particularly gifted with navigational skills and spatial awareness, which I was able to utilize when teaching geometry and the coordinate plane. These instructional shifts not only will communicate to students that their culture is valuable to the classroom but also will allow them to find more success with the content when they are able to make personal connections and utilize their previous knowledge to develop an understanding of new content.

Because all students are different, teachers must continually work to ensure that their instructional decisions reflect the experiences and values of those they teach. There is no one-size-fits-all curriculum, and teachers should not attempt to create one. Students bring their individual experiences and skills to the classroom, and teachers must ensure that they allow students to embrace these experiences and skills in order to find success. Doing so will ensure that these students are not disproportionately identified as learning disabled and will allow them to thrive in a classroom that recognizes and values their differences as opposed to one that views those differences as deficits.

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Learning to Recognize and Celebrate Students' Cultural Experiences

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Culturally Responsive Teaching Children of color often come to school with differences in language and customs that some teachers see as deficits. wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock After teaching in both Harlem and New Orleans, I have seen many BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) students face the same tragic challenge, that schools view their differences in cultural background and language as weaknesses.

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Prejudice in the Classroom and how to Prevent it

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Prejudice in the Classroom and how to Prevent it

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A great resource for learning how to keep prejudice out of the classroom so that we can create safe, welcoming, and productive learning environment.
https://prezi.com/xdbovlw4wdzz/strategies-for-reducing-prejudice-in-the-classroom/

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Strategies for Reducing Prejudice in the Classroom

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Another Hypothesis: The conditions of which different groups come together are critical. If an effort to provide good conditions to improve social contact are implemented, then positive outcomes and reduced prejudice will occur. This includes: equal status superordinate goals

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What is culture?
How are students impacted by their family culture, while at school?
How are students able to express and showcase their culture in the classroom?

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What cultures are represented in our class?
What are the demographics of our class (race, male or female, languages represented)?
What do we know about the demographics of our school and community?

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How can we create a welcoming and inclusive environment for students of all cultures in our classroom?
What roles can we create in our classroom to ensure this happens?
How can we utilize resources in the community to build out knowledge and respect for different cultures?

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1. We control the climate within our classroom.
2. As a class, we can set guidelines to create a respectful environment within a culturally diverse area.
3. We have the opportunity to utilize resources within our area to better understand and incorporate different cultures into our classroom by research and listening to one another.