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I really enjoyed Cluster 5’s readings, because it summed up what I have been experiencing all my life in school and still am. I am glad that the Module 15 mentioned that in most Asian cultures, the students do not question their teachers due to respect. This is important for teachers to know, because most of the time they will assume that the student does not want to participate or know the answers. Knowing that it may be part of culture, the textbook didn’t really mention how to encourage the students to speak more in the classroom. At my workplace, the Hmong and Karen students are generally shy in the classroom and it’s hard to bring them out of their comfort zone. Personally, I would like for the students to feel comfortable communicating back to me but I still am figuring out ways to create more engaging conversations for their learning. I have a good feeling that I will be teaching ELL students as well, and I believe that every teacher should read Cluster 5 because there are so many teachers that still do not understand the cultural/language barriers of minority students.

Re: Zack’s Post

Some suggestions for your questions: As a non-English speaking student myself, I think that it would be helpful for teachers to understand the basic dialects. Teachers do not have to know the rules by heart, but look for the common dialect differences. Moreover, most of the time students are not aware of their dialect difference so it would be harsh to hold them accountable strictly to their own dialect. As with all students, they are still learning Standard English and mistakes should be welcomed. Maybe, to celebrate this diversity is to allow the students to switch their dialect back and forth. By that I mean, have them write in Standard English, but allow them to speak their dialect openly without pinpointing every Standard English mistake that they are saying.

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Having attended a French immersion school, I was really interested in hearing about dual language development and how the brain is used at a young age (pg 195). When teaching younger kids, I've noticed that their brains absorb knowledge so much quicker, like sponges. I also thought it was interesting that the book states how those who learn two languages use the same parts of their brains as those learning one language when they are younger than 5 years old. As people get older, they need to apply more brain power to acquire language. I thought it was helpful that the book explained how we can learn languages at any point in our lives, but it will just take more effort. Having studied four languages, I find this extremely helpful information. I have noticed that my French accent is the best due to having learned the language at a young age though. My American accent dominates the other pronunciations.

Re: Christopher
I really like what you said about re-phrasing and and adjusting language as needed to encourage your gymnasts to perform safely. I'm sure that was not easy, but like you said, as you made it a habit I'm sure it got easier. When I was teaching English in Indonesia, I obtained an almost British accent because I would speak slowly and precisely with most of my students there (and I was teaching with mainly British people also). I also had classes with mixed levels so I found myself repeating instructions several times and different ways.

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As the U.S. student population becomes increasingly diverse, education runs into several barriers to communicating content to learners outside of the “traditional” spectrum or backgrounds.

I found it really helpful to have “expressive” and “receptive” vocabulary explained (p. 188). When I think more about it, it seems obvious that people could understand more than they are able to communicate in a particular way/language, but that definitely wasn’t my default understanding. It was also interesting to learn how adults different cultures/subcultures ask different kinds of questions, e.g. ones that are “obvious” (probably checking comprehension) and those that are more about thinking critically or storytelling. A particular lesson with a student is sticking out in my mind: I was explaining powers, base numbers, exponents and the student didn’t seem to get it so I explained it multiple times, trying to do it in slightly different ways, but it still didn’t appear to click. At the time I was frustrated because he’s smart and I couldn’t think of another way to explain the concept, but I wonder now if it was some combination of him having the receptive vocabulary (in a math sense maybe: written numbers), but not the expressive vocab to verbalize what he understood.

Re: Hleeda

I think having, at least the awareness of if not the classroom time with, diverse teaching staff can only affect the quality of students’ education positively. As society is moving (in some spaces) towards being more diverse and inclusive, teacher training programs are catching up with diversity training. I agree there’s still a lack of diversity within the teacher candidates, but at least we’re/they’re getting some tools to teaching diverse learners.

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Children develop prejudice with or without explicit teaching. Although there is a popular belief that children are “color-blind” and must be taught biases by their parents, this is not supported by research. Two main sources of prejudice are us/them grouping and cultural values.

For a long time I bought into the popular belief, yet as an anthropologist I knew that it wasn’t logical. Humans are group animals, it is a characteristic of most primates. From a survival aspect, we trusted and worked with the members of our band/family/troop. We also suspected those from outside our troop. The need to make snap judgements was also important for survival – safe/not safe for instance. But our world has changed. For most of the Earth, we are no longer small isolated groups fighting to survive. Dichotomous thinking and group belonging have caused many problems in the world of today. Thus we find ourselves attempting to re-define belonging.

Prejudice against others is not new. It was never fair, and perhaps not right, but it kept the small groups safer. Now we must learn to redefine the group membership. But how? How do we quickly change thinking based on millennia of experience?

Re Danielle:

Absolutely addressing some cultures will touch on religion, and that may be okay. You would need to check with your admin and probably offer an opt-out assignment for that day if you are presenting specifics, but acknowledging that different cultures include different religions is generally acceptable. Another way to do that is to allow students to present the cultures so that religion is not being taught.

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In our textbook, Woolfolk discusses children’s development of signed languages (e.g. American Sign Language). If children acquire ASL or another naturally-developing sign language (e.g. Nicaraguan Sign Language) early in development, the parts of the brain used are the same as are used when developing spoken languages. These parts of the brain are primarily located in the left hemisphere. Through Petitto’s research we have learned that the human brain shows no preference for spoken languages over signed languages. The languages are equal in potential assuming they are used by at least some individuals who are nearly fluent. Both signed and spoken languages include complex grammatical structures, morphological richness, and levels of vocabulary. Every possible thought can be expressed equally well in either signed or spoken languages.

The study of the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language since the late 1970s spearheaded by linguist Annie Senghas has enhanced our knowledge of sign language use even more. At that time, the first Deaf school was set up in Nicaragua allowing all Deaf students to come together. These young students, who had come to school only having a few gestures to communicate with hearing family members, became the ones to develop a full-fledged sign language in Nicaragua. Researchers have been able to gain significant knowledge about who is involved in actively enriching languages. They have discovered that the individuals exposed to sign language prior to age 7 are the ones who expand languages to the current richness we use today whereas individuals who are older seem to only use the parts of languages that have already been developed previously (Senghas & Coppola, 2001).

Another population that has allowed us to expand our knowledge on the development of new sign languages is the population of a Bedouin village in Israel (Meir et al., 2010). As a large proportion of the residents are Deaf, both Deaf and Hearing individuals acquire Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language in order to communicate with one another.  When the students attend high school, they are sent to a high school in Jerusalem where they learn Israeli Sign Language for school.

Response to Hleeda Her:

I fully agree with you that we need more teachers who come from similar backgrounds as the students. This background includes but is not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, SES, sexual orientation, ability, and native language. In order to achieve this goal, education programs need to reach out to potential students in order to recruit and retain diverse students and decrease potential barriers to education. The barriers may be of financial, attitudinal, racial, and linguistic among others. Having a teacher who is different from the students definitely affects the quality of education students receive. Without having role models who are similar to themselves, the students may not be able to relate to the content and culture in today’s schools. Students may believe that they cannot succeed in the academic environment as students, much less become teachers themselves. Although some colleges try to teach cultural competency to their students, I strongly believe that there can never be enough of it. We need diverse teachers and faculty in all schools ranging from preschool to universities to teach by example.

References

Meir, Irit, Wendy Sandler, Carol Padden, and Mark Aronoff (2010). Emerging sign languages. In M. Marschark, and P. Spencer (Eds.) Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education, Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 267-280.

Senghas, A. & Coppola, M. (2001). Children creating language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language acquired a spatial grammar. Psychological Science, 12, 323-328.

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Years ago I infrequently took part in a weekly event that met with foreign exchange students at one of my previous colleges.  The point of the meeting was to give foreign exchange students a chance to interact with other students, foreign or American to practice English in a safe environment.
Never knowing what was going to come out of these conversations or what some of these people wanted to talk about was so interesting. These conversations could come from a class, TV program, or something they saw on campus or while they were out and about in the city. Over time I started to meet with certain students more and more and became friends. It was fun to learn about them and help them with English. From my experience many of these student picked up the language even faster when they made a connection with an American.

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Pragmatics and Academic English are two topics that are strongly linked. The text defines pragmatics as “the rules for when and how to use language to be an effective communicator in a particular culture.” Using this definition, Academic English would be the version of English that follows the pragmatics of the educational culture of the United States. These concepts are also connected to dialects and how we as teachers expect our students to communicate. Throughout this section I was reminded of a David Foster Wallace essay called “Authority and American Usage.” In it he recognizes the political nature of language and how Academic English is promulgated by the dominant culture and can be used to exclude other cultures. Wallace discusses his openness with his students about the political nature of language and explains that, although it might not be fair or right or good, in order to be successful it is necessary to be able to communicate using Academic English. I hope to have this same openness with my students. I also think it is important to allow students to explore their dialects (just as it is important to allow ELLs to explore their heritage language). I am left questioning how to both promote a multicultural classroom (especially in terms of dialects) and also provide students the tools they need to be successful. One possibility is instead of considering dialect usage as wrong explaining how it might differ from Academic English.

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Peer influences and resistance cultures in education can be a real problem in the classroom. On the same note, teachers can be the solution to these problems by creating a classroom climate that is beneficial for students who don't succeed in a 'traditional' classroom. This makes me reflect on a friend of mine who you could say, 'resisted class.' He has a severe case of ADHD and doesn't like regular schoolwork to begin with. By the time he was in high school, he was allowed to go into an intensive alternative route. It was sort of like a tracking plan for him. He stopped taking most traditional classes, other than reading and writing courses, and they were replaced with shop classes. He took all shop classes for his encore coursework, science, math, economics, he even got a woods class to cover a geography credit somehow. Anyways, that tracking course was wonderful for him to become and do what he wanted at the time, but now at age 24, he feels that he lacks the traditional skills necessary for furthering his education. He feels trapped doing 'blue collar' manual work for a low wage. How can we as teachers properly track students, or aid in their development in ways they prefer, without funneling them into a lifestyle they may feel trapped into later in life?! I can see how we can positively influence kids when we get to know their strengths and weaknesses, but is a tracking program such as the one I described actually hindering a student's social mobility later in life?

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Hleeda  Her - Diverse classrooms but no diversity in teachers.

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Hleeda  Her - Diverse classrooms but no diversity in teachers.

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This week's reading continuously addresses the issue that the classrooms are becoming more diverse, but it doesn't address the lack of diversity of teachers in schools, albeit this book was written for teachers and not administrators, but I still feel that is a huge missing puzzle piece.

In the reading, diversity in teachers includes race, ethnicity, language and economic level, but I would also include male into the mix, predominantly men of color. Also, from the statistics in the book, one could argue that it is pertinent that students get exposed to a diverse body of teachers. They need role models they can relate to and not just mostly white and mostly women. Young men and women of color who are experiencing difficulties at home or in school need that strong role model that they can relate to during their education experience, considering the dropout rate in the US for students of color and gender. What is being done about this issue, as teachers in the classroom continue to teach as culturally as possible?

The book addresses this issue in one incredibly short paragraph and then never touches on it again in the cluster. So, my questions are, does having a teacher of a different gender, race, ethnicity, economic level etc. affect the level or quality of education with the diverse body students?

Are the colleges preparing teachers enough with culture competency?  Is one or two class on culture and diversity enough? Will we be culturally competent and how do you measure if someone is culturally competent?

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English language learners with disability: This is a small section in this cluster, but I think it is an important one.  I was a little disappointed in this section.  It simply gives you some questions to ask and although that is important, it is not enough.  I work with children with communication interaction disorders and a few of my students are bilingual, primarily speaking English at school and at home they speak another language.  We try to encourage our children to teach us some of their language and they think it is pretty funny.  They always laugh when we try to pronounce certain words.  But it is important for them to see that their language and culture is important too, even in school.

No matter what grade or subject we are in, as teachers the most important thing is for us to know our students and to advocate for them.  For instance, one of my students only speaks Spanish at home because that is what his parents speak and although he speaks English at school, we noticed there were some delays.  He has been enrolled in speech services and has bee excelling, but there were still delays.  We had to advocate for this child to receive ESL services because people just assumed that it was his disability that was causing a delay.

If I had not know my student as well as I did, I could have overlooked the fact that additional services were required.  There are many resources in our schools and we need to make sure that our students are benefiting from them.

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My great-grandmother, Grannie Annie, came to America “fresh off the boat” from Sicily. She learned to speak English here and maintained most of her heritage language. My grandmother spoke Italian when she was younger, but by her teen years, her heritage language dwindled. By the time it got to my mother (and by extension, me), all that was left were Italian pasta shapes, deli meats, cheeses, and, of course, curse words. The language loss is so significant, I can barely do an Italian accent when acting. However, if you’ve ever watched “The Sopranos,” that was pretty much what every holiday dinner sounded like (without the mob connections, though I do think there’s a distant relation to “Little” Nicky Scarfo.)
On the advice our text gives on teaching kids with linguistic diversity, it has been my experience that “ensur[ing] comprehension by repeating instructions using different words and by asking students to paraphrase instructions or give examples” is good practice for all children. My gymnasts did not come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. They were primarily rich white kids, but their ages ranged from three to eighteen and they were all at varying stages of language development (the teenagers being the most incomprehensible of the lot.)  Many of the safety issues surrounding the sport were often related to communication issues, so it became rote to go over instructions, have them repeated, rephrased, etc, to avoid accidents. I used the same techniques when working with autistic students, multi-disabled students, learning disabled students, and it always bolstered their comprehension. Make it a habit.

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The study about African-American students with strong Afrocentric beliefs obtaining higher achievement goals and self-esteem makes a strong case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Students of color come into the classroom with consciousness of difference and/or overtime come to realize differences.

When teachers adapt their classrooms into a 360 degree support for a multicultural learner, greater achievement is possible. How do teachers, staff and administration address the dichotomy of an ideal multicultural educational environment and what society at large is saying? For example, if you follow the rules, you’ll be rewarded, yet it’s still okay in a “post-racial society” for cops to kill a black child with no consequence. How can teachers help students become critical of their race/ethnicity double consciousness? Is it their job to?

Module 18 makes the case on differences and stereotype threat is an interesting concept I can relate to in my higher education. How does institutionalized racism impact the education system beyond prejudice and discrimination? Like Danielle, I appreciated the point about moving beyond melting pot to multiculturalism and finding relevant practices to adopt in the school system. Self identity is critical for multicultural students to find value and a voice in the class and school environment.

Not waiting to celebrate until nationally recognized months or holidays will also show intentionality about acceptance of difference. How might teachers adapt to conflicting cultural values and learning preferences to reach the same common goal? What does a model multicultural school look for in their teacher candidates?

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During this cluster, more than any of the others we have read thus far, I found myself trying to make connections to my theatre classroom.  I envision a theatre classroom as a unique space in which some of the rules of academia—indeed, some of the Academic English—do not always apply.  In this way I would hope my classroom fosters risk-taking—language learners, students who speak different dialects at home, etc.—might feel empowered to explore a theatrical exercise in their first language while also being given a safe platform to take a risk and practice their English speaking, in this way promoting bilingual learning.

I used theatre to practice English with a group of English learners in Rwanda.  Improv games were successful in this class because they forced the learners to react in the moment, in English, and respond to their playing partners.  So often, students reflected that they ‘knew more words’ or ‘understood more English’ than they thought they had.  Their confidence in speaking English improved over the six weeks when I gave them opportunities to think in their feet & trust their stored English knowledge to support them. I can see activities like this being valuable in an ELL classroom.

I think a theatre classroom also provides valuable space for honoring, exploring, highlighting the cultural diversity and “funds of knowledge” students bring to the classroom.   I agree with you, Ryan, that schools must work to honor and celebrate the linguistic diversity of its students, and identify ways that teachers can incorporate native language maintenance in ELL programming.

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Reading about the African American English and Spanish influenced English dialect differences, I was immediately brought back to 9th grade English, where my long-term sub, Mr. Taylor, insisted we use proper Standard English (e.g. “May I please go to the bathroom?” instead of “Can I go to the bathroom?”). I must admit that until recently I considered myself an English purist who cringed whenever I read or heard what I thought was a grammatical mistake. I even got upset when I heard that Standard English now accepts using they and their as a singular pronoun (but then I read this article and calmed down a little: http://grammarist.com/usage/they/).

While I want to respect and celebrate different dialects my students may have, I’m also wondering how to practically cope with this linguistic diversity without shortchanging my students into getting a second class education in the academic language of social studies. Since I’m not a native speaker of most of the dialects students may speak, how do I know if they are using the dialect correctly or just making mistakes? If I’m going to celebrate dialectical diversity, does that mean I first need to understand the dialects so I can hold students accountable to the dialect’s rules?

Re: Tang
I agree that it's important for teachers to understand common cultural traits, like how students from Asian cultures tend to be quieter in class, but is there a danger of relying too much on cultural traits to understand students? For instance, although many students from Asian cultures may be quiet in class out of respect for their teachers, what if there are students who are quiet for reasons other than respect for the teacher's authority? Getting to know individual students is probably the best way to overcome the shortcomings using common cultural traits to guide teaching.

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This week the tiny section on building a foundation of literacy stuck out to me. It describes a home life in which language and literary skills can emerge and flourish. I suppose I have up until now taken it for granted but the description sounded eerily similar to my childhood. “Parents and other adults value reading as a source of pleasure, and there are books and other printed materials everywhere. Parents read to their children, take them to bookstores and libraries, limit the amount of television everyone watches, and encourage literacy-related play.” This may as well have been a description of the first 12 or 13 years of my life. I remember my parents constantly reading for pleasure and then reading to us every night. And as a child I was not allowed to watch much television with the exception of a few select PBS shows.

Though this section actually didn’t speak to me on what kind of teacher I would like to be. It did show me what kind of parent I intend to be to my future children. The allure of the TV babysitter is all too easy to succumb to. But the importance of continued and constant practice in reading and speaking cannot be overstated.

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Like Andi, I was drawn immediately to the point/counterpoint section that drew distinctions between the arguments for English immersion for ELL students and those arguments for maintaining (and building upon) their native language while they simultaneously learn English. For me, the latter argument is clearly the stronger one. As the text explains, students who are forced to abandon their native language altogether in school are immediately at a disadvantage when they attempt to learn the material in a second language with which they are (likely) unfamiliar. I also appreciate the text’s point that in doing so, our education system is sending the message that their language and culture is somehow second-class to English.

In looking back at my own primary and secondary education, I see many of these arguments as truth. Coming from a small, rural school district, we were exceptionally limited on ESL resources for our (growing) Hispanic student population. Many of these students were thrown into the special education program, and I think it often gave the rest of us (and probably them as well) the perception that they were intellectually or developmentally disabled. It also probably helped parallel and cement the stereotypes that have become so ubiquitous in our culture. I think doing so also wasted a wonderful opportunity for both these ESL students and us English speakers to learn from each other and our respective cultures and individual histories.

Having very limited Spanish (or bilingual) speaking abilities, I do worry sometimes about my abilities to teach students whose first language is not English.  However, I hope that by taking advantage of such methods as “funds of knowledge” and others mentioned throughout the book, I can develop a classroom culture and personal relationship that is both respectful of each students’ respective culture and creates a two-way dialogue from which all my students can learn.

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"What is the Best Way to Teach English Language Learners?"  Interacting with the text and this point is what stuck with me.  How do we teach? is a very fluid question and I think what may be right in an area may not be effective in another area.  If a certain method words with Hispanic Immigrants does it mean it will work with French Immigrants?  I am always struck with the Beyond Either/Or sections because sometimes it feels like it is a cop out.  In this section I tend to agree and say, Both?  Both point of vie

ws seem to be the answer to me.

There are so many things that can influence how this takes place in a school.  Is it in the budget to hire more bilingual teachers?  How many would a school need with over 6000 different dialects in the world? What would co-teaching method that can work in this environment?  How would this look for a student that cannot hear and is making the transition from France to America because now we are talking about interpreting and signing at the same time?

I also wonder if thought has been given what is going on outside of school?  How can you really track outside school activities?  Will families/parents participate in the learning process?  What students are doing outside the classroom has just as much influence as what is going on inside the classroom.  Discrimination influences what a student will allow in as learning as well.  I wish this was not what students focus on but socially a student may choose the path of least resistance from friends, family and culture.

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One topic that struck a chord with me was the idea of the American "melting pot". The text points out that this out-of-date idea (that people should lose their cultural distinctiveness) is finally being replaced with a more accepting and positive view on multiculturalism (the celebration of diversity). I'm fully supportive of ditching the old for the new. I went to a rather small high school, but it was pretty diverse for its size. The majority of our students were Native American, but this was not evident in the curriculum that was used and the type of courses that were offered. Sadly, I learned little about the Native American culture in my school. I think it's important for students to learn about other cultures to promote understanding and encourage acceptance of diversity. The loss of cultural identity may also inhibit students to discover their own self identity. Students who are bilingual/bicultural may become torn between two seemingly different worlds and may not feel like they 'belong' anywhere. Personal and peer acceptance of cultural diversity is important, and the first step is education. Promoting cultural diversity in our schools is very important. Elective language/culture courses can be offered, teachers can include assignments that allow for students to explore different cultures (especially in history and lit classes), hosting cultural/international celebrations.

One dilemma maybe how to incorporate education about all the cultures that may be present in the schools student body? If you only highlight the 2 most dominant cultures, you could risk leaving students from other cultures/minorities out. How do we include and highlight every culture? Also, it could be difficult to address different cultures without touching on the topic of religion.

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Genderlects (pg. 204), the different way males and females talk was particularly interesting.  The book did mention that “...girls have better memory for words…” (pg. 188). It also states that there may be disparity between cultures as well.

However, focusing on the culture of “white, middle-class children” in which it appears genderlects was first introduced, what in that culture makes these things different between male and female?  Are there biological reasons to the differences?

It made me think of the play, “Defending the Caveman”, where it tries to explain the differences of the genders going back to caveman times.  During those times the men were the hunters and spent much time alone or silent, waiting for the kill.  The women would take care of the children,gather berries and would engage with each other during these activities “to scare off the animals”.  In the play he suggests the past necessary skills were how we honed our skills for talking differently.

Is this why they observed the females speaking with more affiliative speech?  Is this why men don’t speak as much in their observation?

Current social expectations play a factor as well.  I recently read an article, (http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/06/28/experiences_over_stuff_is_a_tired_and_sexist_idea.html) that states, “Society continues to associate women with the home and the material, men with the outside and experiences.”  And states these ideas are outdated and need to be reevaluated.

Is that why we see the emergence of such words as, metrosexual?  Is this the definition of the evolved caveman, merging both the home and the outside?

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One correlation that I made while reading the text was when they were talking about the Generation 1.5 students. During that section they explained how most of them were “ear learners,” mastering language by listening to and interacting with the language models around them. After reading this section I started to think, “aren’t we all ear learners?” By the age of 5 we have a vocabulary of 10,000 words but we have yet to take a class in the English language. This proves that we learn by listening, copying, and modeling what is around us.

Another section that I found interesting was towards the end of the reading when they discussed what are the best ways for bilingual students to learn English. They said that it is best for these students to not abandon their first language. I completely agree with this statement. These students have a rich cultural background that they brought into the classroom with them and if we as teachers had them completely abandon this at the door, we would deprive them of their history and their true self. In order to help these students learn English we need to understand their culture and relate it as much as possible to the new language they are learning and making sure that they know that it is still okay for them to use their first language to at least understand more about the new language, but also so that they don’t forget their history.