Chpt 3: CulturallyResponsive Teaching in Diverse Classrooms

Chpt 3:
CulturallyResponsive
Teaching in Diverse
Classrooms
Diversity Technology Project
RDG 3773
R. Stortz
Weebly Site for Responses
sample site: http://culturaldiversityrdg3773.weebly.com
Your Weebly site should contain the following sections
each labeled with the appropriate heading:
 Freewrite one paragraph defining yourself (Slide 3).
 Most Important book poem (Slide 4)
 Responses to Discourse questions from Slide 9
 Response to Steinbeck passage (Slides 10-11)
 Response to Slide 15 about the science class
 Activity for last slide (Slide 16)
Freewrite (Tab on Weebly)

How do you define yourself?
Write a paragraph defining yourself. Using
what you write in the paragraph, create a
poem about yourself using the format found
in the picture book entitled The Important
Book. The format is on the next slide.
The Important Book
Format Example
The important thing about
an apple is that it is round.
It is red.
You bite it, and it’s white
inside,
And the juice splashes in
your face,
And it tastes like an apple.
But the important thing
about an apple is that is
round.
Think about the following
questions (no writing):

How do we define any one person?

What does an average classroom look like in
terms of cultural and linguistic diversity?

Is there diversity in literacy among students
with special needs?

Is there diversity in literacy among English
language learners?
Biker Bar Scenario

Imagine I park my motorcycle, enter my
neighborhood “biker bar,” and say to my
leather-jacketed and tattooed drinking buddy,
as I sit down: “May I have a match for my
cigarette, please?”

What’s wrong with this response?
Biker Bar Scenario (cont.)
Now imagine I say the right thing (“Gotta
match?” or “Give me a light, would ya?”),
but while I am saying it, I carefully wipe off
the bar stool with a napkin to avoid getting
my newly pressed designer jeans dirty.

This scenario is an example of Discourse—
ways of speaking, thinking, and behaving in
the world. Discourses operate as ways of
integrating and separating individuals and
groups.
Answer the following questions in a separate tab
on your Weebly site:
 What are some Discourses in which you claim
ownership?
 How would others recognize you as a member of
these Discourses?
 Do you change your way of speaking, thinking, and
behaving when you move from one Discourse to
another? Why?
 What connections can you make between the
example of the Discourse of the biker bar and the
Discourses you are apt to find in various school
settings?
Gendered language in the classroom
and the text
(tab on Weebly site)
Read the excerpt from The Pearl by John
Steinbeck found on the next slide. Then
respond to this question:
Consider why Steinbeck wrote the
description of Kino’s wife in this way.
Excerpt from The Pearl by
John Steinbeck
Kino wondered often at the iron in his
patient, fragile wife. She, who was obedient
and respectful and cheerful and patient, she
could arch her back in child pain with hardly
a cry. She could stand fatigue and hunger
almost better than Kino himself. In the canoe
she was like a strong man.
Dialect and Reading
Comprehension
 Does dialect interfere with
reading comprehension?
 Read pp. 74-75 in Vacca et
al. to answer this question.
(no writing involved)
Guidelines for Effective Literacy
Instruction of Adolescent English
Language Learners
 Know the learner
 Provide continued instruction in native
language
 Peer tutoring in primary language
 Use small group instruction with native
English speakers
 Use cooperative learning techniques
 Integrate reading, writing, listening, and
speaking in content area learning
 Use culturally relevant and familiar texts
 Use instructional level texts
More Guidelines

Provide explicit strategy instruction

Allow self-selected independent reading

Teach process writing approaches

Allow students to write before speaking out

Use Word walls

Use Repetitive talk

Bridge home and school
Explain how you would teach photosynthesis to your
class. (Tab on Weebly site)
Imagine that you are a science teacher. You have a
class of 25 students. Five of these students are
Hispanic. They speak English with varying degrees of
fluency and their English reading and writing skills
are minimal. Today’s lesson is on photosynthesis.
Your textbook contains a good description of this
process.
Final Activity
(tab on Weebly)
Complete one of the following activities:
1. Discuss how you would apply the seven
characteristics of culturally responsive
teaching and learning listed on pp. 72-73
to a lesson in your content area.
2. Write an explanation for each of the
following:
 Sheltered instruction
 SIOP Model
 Difference between bilingual classrooms
and ESL programs
3. Tell how you might use the strategies
described on pp. 84-90 in your content
area.