After the past two modules, I have a newfound desire to teach my students in such a way that they feel their culture is accepted and celebrated, instead of forcing them to be a carbon copy of American culture. The immigrant students feel more comfortable and accepted when their culture is accepted, so shouldn’t we as future educators work to make it so that they feel the classroom is a safe environment where these students can express themselves? Ladson-Billings introduced a new pedagogy that promotes “a closer fit between students’ home culture and the school” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p.160). This pedagogy is called culturally relevant pedagogy. “Culturally relevant pedagogy rests on three criteria or propositions: (a) Students must experience
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To bring the student out of the silent stage, their inner world must meet with their outer world. “The inner world is where fears and unreasoning joyousness, fantasies and intuition move and speak” (Igoa, 1995, p.46). Immigrant children mostly feel fear, isolation, and loneliness because of the cultural differences they are experiencing. Most teachers do not take the time to understand a child’s culture, and a child’s constant defiance may be the result of the conflict at home or their need for attention. Igoa tells of a Samoan child that she worked closely with, and researched his culture to aid in making this child feel more accepted in this new culture. Igoa discovered that a key aspect of his culture is storytelling and, after a while, he created a film strip to share part of his story. This allowed the child to combine his inner and outer world to the point where he was more comfortable returning back to his class full time (Igoa, 1995).
While discussing this module, I was shown how crucial it is for students to feel as though they are accepted, especially if they have a different culture. Immigrant students are often looked at as the children who require constant discipline, but if we as teachers were ever in their situations we would be looked at as the same way. The recent ELL simulation in my P-5 science was an eye opening experience that brought a new found respect for these students, along with a desire to teach these students in a way that allows them to feel accepted in the new culture along with acknowledging and celebrating their
To bring the student out of the silent stage, their inner world must meet with their outer world. “The inner world is where fears and unreasoning joyousness, fantasies and intuition move and speak” (Igoa, 1995, p.46). Immigrant children mostly feel fear, isolation, and loneliness because of the cultural differences they are experiencing. Most teachers do not take the time to understand a child’s culture, and a child’s constant defiance may be the result of the conflict at home or their need for attention. Igoa tells of a Samoan child that she worked closely with, and researched his culture to aid in making this child feel more accepted in this new culture. Igoa discovered that a key aspect of his culture is storytelling and, after a while, he created a film strip to share part of his story. This allowed the child to combine his inner and outer world to the point where he was more comfortable returning back to his class full time (Igoa, 1995).
While discussing this module, I was shown how crucial it is for students to feel as though they are accepted, especially if they have a different culture. Immigrant students are often looked at as the children who require constant discipline, but if we as teachers were ever in their situations we would be looked at as the same way. The recent ELL simulation in my P-5 science was an eye opening experience that brought a new found respect for these students, along with a desire to teach these students in a way that allows them to feel accepted in the new culture along with acknowledging and celebrating their