Summary:
Chronicles the experience of multicultural diversity in the classroom. Discusses exposure to 2nd grade students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
During this semester, I had the opportunity of working with a class of 2nd Graders in the Long Beach area. Even though in my last two serve rotations I was exposed to students from different linguistically and cultural backgrounds, this year I had the opportunity of truly experiencing multicultural diversity in the classroom. Since Jane Addams is located in the ghetto area of Long beach, the majority of the students are the so called minorities. Mrs. Chavarria classroom represented pluralism and world cultures; in her classroom there were Filipinos Samoans, African Americans, Latinos a couple of white kids, and a Hispanic/Chinese boy. This last serve rotation gave me the opportunity to experience my mentor teacher's pedagogical approaches which engage cultural multiplicity in many effective ways. My mentor teacher as expressed earlier in my journals has been teaching for the last thirteen years and has been open to learn about new concepts and ideas central to addressing cultural pluralism in the core curriculum and have tested some practices that have proved to be useful. Some of these practices include multiple centers which allow groups to occupy the center of attention for specific times, and new pedagogies that seek to build on student experiences.
While reading some of the journals from my classmates in this class, I realized that cultural frictions exist, as stated in their own words, not only in the upper elementary levels but as early as in kindergarten. Hence, it is our responsibility as the future teachers of this nation to make sure that we make culture and social justice part of our curriculum. This of course, might not eliminate the cultural borders that presently exist in our society but certainly will help us to move towards a more equitable and democratic society. Because contemporary relations between groups cannot be understood without an examination of the images members of these groups have of themselves and of other groups.
I also learned that culture are the learned patterns of thought and behavior characteristic of a population or a society and that it is important for teachers to be aware and have a basic knowledge about different cultures because this awareness will help the teacher to plan her instruction according to the needs of her students and to guide them to develop the skills necessary to succeed in this challenging society. Teachers who are culturally educated can activate student's prior knowledge to help them clarify concepts and develop language. It is also important for teachers to learn to appreciate the diversities in a multicultural society and to learn to settle conflicts without violence and in a spirit of mutual respect. I had the opportunity to experience this idea of mutual respect in our EDEL 300 class and I am thankful for that.
The student that I was most focused upon was a 2nd. Grader from Mrs. Chavarria's classroom his name is Oscar. He is a Hispanic/Chinese, limited English proficient male, He is 9 years old. The language spoken at home is Spanish. He resides with his mother and his older brother who is twenty-five years old. He lives in Long Beach, where he has resided since the age of three, which is the age at which Oscar's parents separated. Oscar's father resides in Mexicali, Mexico and has not seen Oscar since the age five. Oscar has been classified ELD student since kindergarten and received RSP services since the first grade. There are a couple of reasons why I choose Oscar for my case study. The first one and most important one is that even though life has offered him many challenges, Oscar has a great attitude towards learning and life in general. The second one is that Oscar represents this idea of multiculturalism and the challenges that it offers to our students, teachers, and our society. I really enjoyed this semester and had so much fun during my serve hours and interacting with the kids.
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