Preparing for Cultural Diversity: Resources for Teachers. How can teachers effectively engage students from diverse backgrounds? It's a question many teachers face, and of course, there isn't one prescribed strategy that works. Luckily, there are many useful resources to help new and veteran educators explore the subject.
If you're looking for a starting point, How Can We Prepare Teachers to Work With Culturally Diverse Students and Their Families? (an article from the Family Research Project at Harvard University) features insightful advice and useful tips from leading diversity education specialists. Two other sources of inspiration are Yvonne Pratt-Johnson's article Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers Should Know and this book excerpt from ASCD's Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners. More From Edutopia You'll find a trove of insightful articles on Edutopia. Sociocultural and Socioeconomic Influences on Type 2 Diabetes Risk in Overweight/Obese African-American and Latino-American Children and Adolescents. Sociocultural Factors and School Engagement among African American Youth: The Roles of Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization and Ethnic Ident... - PubMed - NCBI. Best Middle School Books, As Chosen by Teachers.
9. The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry Jonas lives in a society in which the government controls everything: childbearing, careers, marriages. His utopia has sacrificed emotions and uniqueness in favor of a safe and predictable life. When Jonas learns that life could be different, he can never turn back to the life he’s always known. 10. Ponyboy and his brothers, Darry and Sodapop have a tough life. 11. On a trip to visit her mother’s grave, Sal learns about herself and her family. 12.
Is eternal life really that wonderful? 13. Bud Caldwell, is a 10 year old orphan who has grown up in Flint, Michigan. 14. Basketball-loving twins Josh and Jordan find their way through isolation and conflict in this novel in verse by master poet, Kwame Alexander. 15. Melinda Sordino can’t tell anybody why she called the police to break up a party the summer before ninth grade. 16. 17. Parvana is eleven when the Taliban comes to power in Afghanistan. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.
Luke Garner’s existence is illegal. Edutopia | 500 Internal Server Error. When teaching a diverse group of students, whether they are English language learners or English speakers but have a different cultural background, it’s important to be mindful of the cultural differences in students’ behaviour. Recognizing and being able to distinguish these cultural differences allows the teacher to form a safe environment for all students. It’s important to recognize and understand these differences to be able to implement culturally responsive teaching and pedagogical practices in the classroom to ensure the success of every student.
Here are some of the cultural differences that you might notice in student behaviour: Eye contact: Many teachers notice that some of their students, especially English language learners, do not make direct eye contact with the teacher. In Western culture, this may be a sign that the person is not paying attention to the speaker. Asking questions: This can be applied to personality traits, i.e. some shy students do not ask questions. What New Research on Teens and Social Media Means for Teachers. As teachers, we all have assumptions -- and likely some opinions -– about teenagers and social media. But are those assumptions correct? Well, now we have research to help us find out. This week, Common Sense is releasing its latest research report, Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences, a deep dive into the social media habits of American teenagers.
This research is the second wave in an ongoing study tracking teens' attitudes about social media; we released our original report in 2012. Back then, Snapchat was just a fledgling start-up, and Facebook was a top choice for teens. It might seem like teens are using social media more than ever (it's true -- they are!). Here are four ways our latest research can inform your teaching: 1. Culturally responsive teaching helps students better connect with what they're learning. Here are a few, high-level findings to mull over: Teens' social media use has increased dramatically. Most American teenagers have a smartphone. 2. 3.
Culture in the Classroom. A 6-Step Guide to Understanding Your Students' Cultures - Education Futures: Emerging Trends in K-12. You probably already know that as an educator, you will be constantly challenged to examine your own cultural beliefs, values and biases. While you are in the process of doing this, you are also in the perfect position to start learning about other cultures.
Researchers have theorized that diverse cultures show common patterns of thought and behavior. If you want to explore these cognitive and behavioral patterns, you must be willing to spend some time reading about and observing the practices of various cultural groups that you will be dealing within the classroom. To help you along your journey, here is your six-step quick guide to exploring and respecting the cultural backgrounds of your students. 1.
Gather a wide base of knowledge about other cultures. 2. 3. Traditional teaching environments force students from those and other groups to modify their thought and behavior patterns to fit standard European-American norms or else face academic and behavioral consequences. 4. 5. 6. Inside The Teenage Brain | FRONTLINE. Understanding How Adolescents Think. Teenagers also aren't very good at reading emotion on others' faces. In addition to the obvious physical signs of adolescence, teens and 'tweens are undergoing a major neurological overhaul, which is why that perennial teen mumble "I don't know" may be closer to the truth than we'd realized. What this means for teachers, says Philp, is that they must be both patient and persistent. The point at which teenagers tend to withdraw and ask to be left alone is exactly when it's most important to engage them.
Below, Edutopia.org discusses Philp's conclusions with him. What is the first thing teachers need to know about the brains of their teenage students? I think one of the things middle school teachers need to recognize is the incapability of consistency from most kids. For young teachers, this is really hard on their developing confidence. Teachers often make assumptions that their directions have gotten through. Yes. Often, we let them go and we don't want anything to do with them. SAL Infographic pg1. Understanding the Teenage Brain: Infographic. Guest post by Amy Williams Have you heard the saying: "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck? " This phrase works great for identifying plants or animals. Typically if an object exhibits certain traits, then it is more than likely to be that item or fall into the same category.
However, teenagers are the exception to this rule and saying. Teenagers might look like adults, complete with facial hair or carefully applied makeup. Anybody with teenagers, however, knows that teens are different from adults in a few key ways. The Developing Teenage Brain Contrary to popular belief, teenagers are still in the midst of important developments in their brains.
During adolescence, the brain is about 80% developed. Similar to early childhood brain growth, the adolescent years see another surge of brain development. Decoding Teen Behaviors The transitional teenage years are full of risk factors heavily influenced by hormones and emotions. Identity, Purpose, and Happiness: Helping High-Achieving Adolescents Find All Three. Kathryn Grubbs The teenage years can be difficult, filled with questions, emotions, and decisions. For high-achieving adolescents who may experience asynchronous development or experience the world more intensely, these years can bring about intense emotions, feelings of isolation, or difficulty understanding the injustices of the world. As parents, we may try to protect our children from experiencing the same level of teenage stress we felt only to hear the common reply: “You’re not me!” While it’s natural to take this as a cue to disengage and parent implicitly, parents must provide explicit support of teenagers as they figure out who they are, what they will do as adults, and what makes them happy.
Who Am I? This question of identity rules the lives of most adolescents in one form or another, whether it is readily apparent. In fact, adolescents can be great at fitting in, but that does not mean conforming is without strife. To help your child explore who she is: “What do you believe?” Insight Into the Teenage Brain: Adriana Galván at TEDxYouth@Caltech. Adolescent Identities and Our Biases. Source: Photo by Bart LaRue on Unsplash article continues after advertisement All of us hold social identities. Some examples are race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, ability, and documentation status. Identities can be a source of strength and connectedness. We are categorized across our social identities in all types of situations: from going to the corner deli, riding the subway, driving in our own car, at work, school, and play.
Source: Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash In the name of understanding the nature of individual and group bias, there are two types of bias to learn about. Explicit Bias: When we are aware of our biases, they are considered explicit. Implicit Bias: Implicit biases are biases we are not aware that we hold. If you have never tried to understand the implicit biases you hold, a good place to start is the Project Implicit site where you can use their online tool to measure implicit biases you hold.