Teaching Children with Diverse Needs

What stereotypes come to mind Women Men African American Anglo American Asian American Hispanic American Native American A person with a disability A person who is homeless

Stereotyping Along with visual stereotyping sayings should also be discouraged in stereotyping-No way Jose’ and Indian giver

Children from Diverse Backgrounds African American Children Hispanic American Children Asian American Children Native American Children

African American Children (Bennett, 1995) Feelings oriented and personal interactions Nonverbal communication Teaching strategies that stress cooperative learning rather than competition Rich tradition of oral story telling and listening

Hispanic American Children (Garcia, 1992) Family and ethnic loyalty Interpersonal relationships Parents and teachers are highly valued

Asian American Students (Feng, 1994) Respect for authority and submergence of individual Responsibility for relatives View teachers as having high status Respect for elders and deferred gratification

Native American Children (Banks, 1994) Cultural preservation Holistic and shared view of the world Elders are highly respected and held in high esteem Value sharing and cooperation Learn through observation and patience

Other Key Factors Development of language is closely connected to cognitive development Learning in the first language helps a child gain knowledge more than attempting to learn the same knowledge in a language in which the child has little comprehension.

Recommendations Recognize all children are cognitively, linguistically, and emotionally connected to the language and culture of their home Acknowledge that children can demonstrate their knowledge and capabilities in many ways(diverse learning styles)

Instructional Practices of Culturally Response Teachers Hold high expectations for all students Achieve and maintain high levels of student involvement in learning tasks Have a strong sense of self-efficacy Create meaningful classroom activities built on students’ home cultural experiences

Where Do I Begin?

Before the school year starts Access information about the community your school is in Access basic information about school- population, test scores etc. Get to know your families

During the School Year Get to know the families Review your student’s files for information regarding-name of primary caregiver, home language(s) spoken, special academic needs, possible ethnic background Develop list of possible methods of communication for families (notes, person-to person, , telephone, fax etc) pages letters)

Developing the Curriculum Anti-basis curriculum-curriculum that challenges prejudice, stereotyping, bias, and the “isms.” Bias- any attitude, belief, or feeling that results in, and helps to justify, unfair treatment of an individual because of his or her identity. Multicultural curriculum-teach other’s culture so that they will learn to respect each other and not develop prejudice Tourist curriculum-teach culture through celebrations and through artifacts such as food, traditional clothing and household implements Multicultural activities are separate from daily ongoing curriculum

Assumptions and Issues involving curriculum and diversity Teacher assumes multicultural curriculum in needed only in a multicultural classroom Multicultural curriculum is standardized and not addressing the unique needs and backgrounds of the students in the class Multicultural Education may focus on the information about other countries and not issues related to Americans.

Recommendations (A.B.C. Task force; Derman-Sparks, 2000) Dangers of tourist curriculum should be avoided instruction Focus of Curriculum should incorporate all students particularly those in the classroom All students should participate in cultural diversity in instruction

Creating an Positive Atmosphere in the Classroom Images of children and adults of various ethnic groups should be in the classroom Avoid tokenism-representation of only one or two of a certain ethnic group A fair balance of men and women shown in the classroom doing a variety of jobs ( in the home and out of the home) Images of persons of various ages and abilities in the classroom

Materials Books,Dolls, manipulatives -reflect diversity in gender roles, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, abilities and range of occupations Present accurate information and images Variety of parents and family roles Different languages, Braille, sign Art should have various colors-tan, brown, black, and variety of artwork should be shown from various artists-ethnically diverse, women, men etc. Various forms of music and song from diverse cultures should be included

Holidays and Curriculum Issues- Halloween-Witches and Healer Evil and the Color Black Christmas, Easter,Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice Approaches to instruction Include holidays from several cultural groups Do not celebrate holidays and allow children to share what the did for breaks and mention similarities and difference

More on Lesson Planning Equity Relationships for parents student and teacher Knowledge of various cultures See and think from a multicultural perspective Correct distortions of historic and scientific record Improve society Willingness to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries

Terms Lesson plan- a plan of instruction for a single lesson Instructional objective Materials Methods Evaluation Time Origin

Ways to incorporate diversity into instruction Lesson sequence- series of individual lessons( one lesson builds on another) Instructional activity-integrated part of the lesson or an activity that can be the lesson itself (field trip; oral presentations, class meetings, programs) Unit of instruction-comprehensive, multidimensional plan of learning