By: Melissa Payne

- In the Hispanic culture, there are behavioral norms, social values, family values, gender roles, academic standards, and traditions that are instilled within and throughout the culture. - Hispanic families stress the importance and have a strong emphasis of close family relationships.

 The Role of Hispanic Men:  maintain the integrity of the family unit  uphold the honor of their family members  provide for their family  support their family financially  The Role of Hispanic Women: - provide and care for the children - teaching the children their culture and religion (Carteret, 2011).

 In the 1960’s was when laws and policies came into place for multicultural education.  In 1965, Mexican-Americans and Spanish- speaking people from Latin America became identified as an ethnic group (Wardle, 2013).  The move toward equality in American education saw multiple advancements in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  In 1990 the Hispanic option was offered as a racial choice on the census.

 Challenges that Hispanic students are faced with are: - under developed basic verbal and cognitive skills in their native language - lack of sense of cultural belonging - low self-esteem and self-efficacy within their own native language - the majority of the school professionals typically only speak English (Wardle, 2013).

 Teacher needs to have some basic knowledge about each individual student such as the following:  are the students new immigrants?  what minority group do the students belong to?  are they low income?  are they special-needs children?  what is the students’ primary language and does the student know and understand English?

 Teacher needs to also be knowledgeable about the history in the families in the school and communities.  Teachers need to acknowledge the differences that the students bring to the class and school such as:

 The educational curriculum that teachers develop for the students needs to do the following:  raise student expectations and promote active participation  acknowledge the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other diversities  provide students with meaningful reasons to take education seriously  abandon the traditional content-driven curriculum for a system of coaching and questioning  emphasize rigorous self-questioning  teach students character and the appropriate values needed to function in society  consider teachers as artists (in contrast to data-driven technicians) (Wardle, 2013).

 It is essential that for the Hispanics that are dual language learners, to receive the following teaching methods to help ensure academic success:  provide verbal input that is slightly beyond the learner's proficiency level, but with a variety of nonverbal cues  create conversational-based activities that generate low anxiety levels  set up tasks so that learners are forced to talk and listen to each other  scaffold language and content instead of just simplifying tasks  find ways to integrate many of these approaches simultaneously (Wardle, 2013).

 Some other helpful tips for teachers to teach Hispanic dual language students in their classroom is to do the following:  use literate in the students’ native languages  learn some key words and key phrases of the native languages of students in the class and teach them to all students  encourage second-language learners to teach other students some of their home language  create audio recordings of greetings, simple conversations, songs, and stories in the students' native languages  invite professionals and other people from the community who are proficient in the language of the dual-language learners to give presentations (e.g., readings, songs, etc.) and discuss with students the struggles and victories they have achieved as language-minority professionals (Wardle, 2013).

 Low-income Hispanic families are less likely to be involved in their children's school programs and academic success. A few reasons for this are the following:

 There are several ways in which teachers can get Hispanic parents more involved with their student education.  communicate with parents through phone calls, s, and hard-copy information about up-to-date program-related issues, students' progress, and other student issues (Wardle, 2013). (in their native language)  encourage parents to volunteer in their students’ classroom and school-related activities  Home visiting is another option to get Hispanic parents involved in their students’ education.  schools’ educational expectations of the students  engage the parents in educational goal-setting for their children  Requiring direct parent involvement in important school-based decisions and providing parent meetings and trainings based on expressed parent needs and at times and places convenient to working and single parents (Wardle, 2013).

 The schools can also offer families education and tools for Hispanic parents that support the students in their academic success.  The schools can also get Hispanic parents involved in PTA’s or PSTA’s, joining committees that organize school events, and providing the parents the opportunities to join school boards.

 Collaboration with the Hispanic community is also important for the students’ educational success.  Schools can do this by coordinating with:  Businesses  local agencies  other groups to provide needed community resources for families, children, and the school (Wardle, 2013).  Community involvement will demonstrate that the teachers, and the schools are actively working together to ensure that all students are getting the best education as possible.

 For Hispanic students to be successful academically, it is crucial to understand the culture in which they have come from.  Once teachers understand the Hispanic culture, then they can apply curriculum and instruction that will benefit Hispanic students’ education.  Parents and community involvement is also essential in the academic success of Hispanic students.  When students, teachers, schools, parents, and communities work together, that is when true academic success can take place for each individual student.