Creating a Multi-Cultural Experience for Students in Your Classroom By: Joanne Bernadette Deacon Solis-Cohen Elementary

Introductions In our group, let’s introduce ourselves. State: – Your name – Your school – Your position – Experience with ESOL/ELL students – Question

What is Multicultural Education? As an idea, multicultural education seeks to create equal educational opportunities for all students, including those from different racial, ethnic, and social- class groups. Multicultural education tries to create equal educational opportunities for all students by changing the total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and groups within a society and within the nation's classrooms. Multicultural education is a process because its goals are ideals that teachers and administrators should constantly strive to achieve.

Five dimensions of Multicultural education Five dimensions of multicultural education. They are: content integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, an equity pedagogy, and an empowering school culture and social structure (Banks, 1995a)

What Research Says about Content Integration? Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, generalizations, and issues within their subject areas or disciplines. The knowledge construction process describes how teachers help students to understand, investigate, and determine how the biases, frames of reference, and perspectives within a discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed within it (Banks, 1996). Students also learn how to build knowledge themselves in this. Research also indicates that lessons, units, and teaching materials that include content about different racial and ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive intergroup attitudes if certain conditions exist in the teaching situation (Banks, 1995b). These conditions include positive images of the ethnic groups in the materials and the use of multiethnic materials in a consistent and sequential way.

Calendar of Holidays/Multi-Cultural celebrations

Multicultural Planning Questions Does the lesson content and strategies promote educational equity? For example, does the lesson content help to create an inclusive curriculum, one that attempts to maximize student participation in the overall class curriculum? Does the lesson content and strategies make us or help to develop, collaborative, empowering relationships among parents, students, and teacher? Do the lesson content and strategies promote cultural pluralism in society or intergroup harmony in the classroom? Does the lesson content help to increase the students' knowledge of various cultural and ethnic groups, including heir own? Does the lesson content (a) help to correct distortions in the historical, literary, or scientific record that may stem from historical racism or other forces linked to the oppression and exploitation of specific ethnic and cultural groups, and (b) present material in a manner that suggests that racism related distortions are or may be part of the historical and scientific record the class is studying? Does the lesson content contribute to the students' willingness to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries to participate in and/or learn about different cultural and ethnic groups? Your Turn to Adapt a lesson! (Aim for a modified multicultural lesson)

8 Characteristics of a Multicultural School Banks (1999) described the following as characteristics of multicultural schools (p. 17): 1. The teachers and school administrators have high expectations for all students and positive attitudes toward them. They also respond to them in positive and caring ways. 2. The formalized curriculum reflects the experiences, cultures, and perspectives of a range of cultural and ethnic groups as well as of both genders.3. The teaching styles used by the teachers match the learning, cultural, and motivational styles of the students. 4. The teachers and administrators show respect for the students' first languages and dialects. 5. The instructional materials used in the school show events, situations, and concepts from the perspectives of a range of cultural, ethnic, and racial groups. 6. The assessment and testing procedures used in the school are culturally sensitive and result in students of color being represented proportionately in classes for the gifted and talented. 7. The school culture and the hidden curriculum reflect cultural and ethnic diversity. 8. The school counselors have high expectations for students from different racial, ethnic, and language groups and help these students to set and realize positive career goals.

Questions to Think About Reflect/Share: How can English as a Second Language (ESL/ESOL) teachers incorporate multicultural education into the classroom? How can general education teachers incorporate multicultural education into the classroom? How can students’ backgrounds and experiences be used to learn about various cultures?

Goals of Multicultural Education The goals of multicultural education include: Creating a safe, accepting and successful learning environment for all Increasing awareness of global issues Strengthening cultural consciousness Strengthening intercultural awareness Teaching students that there are multiple historical perspectives Encouraging critical thinking Preventing prejudice and discrimination

Advantages of Multicultural Education According to the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), multicultural education: Helps students develop positive self-image. Offers students an equitable educational opportunity. Allows multiple perspectives and ways of thinking. Combats stereotypes and prejudicial behavior. Teaches students to critique society in the interest of social justice.

Traveling Around the World Explain/Describe lesson plan on incorporating multicultural education with Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Domains represented within the lesson. General Goal(s): Students will learn about different cultures and countries around the world through a series of academic tasks that develop reading, writing, speaking, listening skills, and research skills. In addition, students will take away an appreciation of the different values and traditions that are shared around the world and become more culturally aware and respectful of the different people and places around the world. Specific Objectives: Students will research a country and design a brochure and include fifteen facts about the country in the brochure. Students will present their information about their country to their classmates by sharing five different facts about their country. Students will record/write two facts about each country they learned about and visited this week.

Before You Begin Students should be taught how to look up information in encyclopedias, record their facts and deciding what is essential information is and non-essential information is (tracking sheet) Review the terms- cultures and traditions with the students

Passport Page PASSPORT Student Picture Name: __________________________________ _________________________________________________ Date of BirthPlace of Birth _______________________ Date of Issue _______________________________________ Place of Issue The Secretary of State of _______________________________________ School hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give lawful aid and protection. _________________________________________ Signature of Bearer

Visas Page Visas Country ____________________________________ Population __________________________________ Geography/Area _____________________________ Government _________________________________ Climate _____________________________________ Currency ___________________________________ Transportation _______________________________ Economy ____________________________________ Religion _____________________________________ Other Interesting Facts ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Final Passport Page Why do you think this activity was important? What was something that was important that you learned through this project? What did you enjoy about the assignment? Has your thinking changed about different countries and people around the world? What will you change to be more accepting of different people from different countries and cultures? Would you like to share anything else about this activity or have any questions?

Incorporating Students/School Community Have students share their projects and set up a table for the “traveling around the world” day! Students can bring in food from their country, bring in money, dress in their countries attire Make invitations for administrators, teachers, parents and staff to come travel around the world to learn about other cultures/countries that are represented.

STUDENT STATIONS

Student Stations Continued

Traveling Around the World (with administrators!)

Traveling Around the World (with Staff)

Students Traveling Around the World

On our way to a multicultural classroom…..