Discussion Two

Submitted by rjoseph on 22 April 2012 - 10:16pm
  • Reflection 2-How do we
    work with students who are exceptional and culturally different? How do we
    embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
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discussion 2

Submitted by mike52006 on 24 May 2012 - 1:34pm.

There are many different students from different cultures in classrooms everywhere. It is important for teachers to take that into account when planning lessons. I think that often times advanced students get left out or aren't challenged enough because the teacher focuses a lot of time scaffolding and trying to minimize the gap in student knowledge. I have personally noticed that I made the same mistake of teaching students and planning lessons that have a big focu on catching up students who aren't performing well, without enough emphasis on the advanced and bright students who are bored with the content because its too easy. I have now taken into account that I need to lesson plan for everyone and try to make sure no one is bored during instruction. Recently I tried to plan a culturally relevant lesson for the students which would allow students to play a game that is relevant to their culture and simulteniously teaches them probability. Some of the things they learned in that lesson were sample space, outcomes and probability of outcomes. They also learned about theoretical vs experimental probability where they calculated the experimental probability for each outcome based on the data they collected during the game. Overall the questions that followed the game really got the students to think about the content and standards covered, and they were able to do it in the context of the game which allowed a higher level of engagement and critical thinking that a lecture would have done. After the game portion was over and I asked the class to do the questions in groups many wanted to keep playing the game and didn't want to move on. I think the overall interest in the game, and the fact that many students found it similar to the game they played with their families made the lesson much better. It allowed many students to share their knowledge and contribute to the lesson. Having the game in the lesson was successful and I think I will continue to have culturally relevant lessons with games in order to have the students learn and have fun while simulteneously covering the standards and reaching the goals of the unit.

Reflection #2

Submitted by ktse on 24 May 2012 - 4:08pm.

Reflection 2-
How do we work with students who are exceptional and culturally different?
I have always made it a point to reach all students in my classroom by allowing my lessons to embody my students' diverse cultures and backgrounds.  Even though all the students are of Hispanic and Latin descent in my two classes, their home cultures and lifestyles vary drastically.  First as a teacher in South L.A. of Asian-American heritage I already look and sound different than the populations I'm serving.  I made it a priority to learn and identify my student populations' heritage, culture, home country, language spoken at home, native language, and foods they consume.  Once I've informed myself about these topics I can start to build and nourish relationships with my students.  My students are mainly from backgrounds from Mexico, Guatamala, and El Salvador, with about 50% being native U.S. born.  I identify the struggles and challenges that our unique to their cultures and neighborhoods.  For example, in South L.A. most students have issues with language acquisition and development which has greatly hindered their educational retention in the schools.  Once i have identified their cultures I can then develop lesson plans that are "culturally relevant", and include language skills in them, in order to peak the interestes of most my students and engage them in the learning process by integrating their interests and pop culture attractions.  
How do we embed a human relations approach into our teaching?
I embed human relations approaches into my teaching by interacting with all of my students on some personal level and make certain in-class connections through conversations, teachings, lessons, group work, readings, and the use of technology.  I believe that by simply being interested in what my students are into and talking to them on a daily basis that it has already humanized the relationships between student and teacher for them.  They have grown up in the inner-city where dehumanized relationships run rampant, from students and parents, students and authority figures, students and teachers, students and police, students and older adults, etc.  The processes in my classroom allow for the bridging of the gap and testifying to the possibilities of having humanized and "real genuine" relationships with our students and the debunking of possible myths is key.  We need to look beyond race, ses, gender, culture, and meet a "safe" centralized location where we can have mature and thought-provoking conversations that are raw at the core.  Once I can start to build these highways, then i can help students navigate them on their own in order for them to have relations with other entities of their lives.