Andrea Barroso ED 613 Reading Reflections Diversity in the Classroom One of the biggest challenges and probably the

most obvious regarding linguistic diversity is the language barrier between the students. The majority of English Language Learners are from Hispanic descent so some students may not be able to understand others and therefore create different cliques between them something I definitely do not want in my classroom. I plan on teaching the younger grades so the posters and any other decoration that I put up I can also put a Spanish translation to it. I also come from a Hispanic descent and speak the language very fluently and that can greatly help my students in the classroom. I can give directions in both English and Spanish so English speaking students can pick up a few words or phrases of Spanish themselves while the Spanish speaking students can learn English. I can also provide Spanish/English Dictionaries for the classrooms and ask the students to bring in a pocket dictionary for themselves. Racial and Cultural Diversity can somewhat go hand in hand. A challenge I can anticipate is some students not understanding that culture or race and not intentionally say something that can be offensive to that culture. The best way I can see to handle this challenge is to celebrate each culture and race and learn from it. If Im teaching Geography, instead of going through the list of different countries on the curriculum, I can teach the different countries of my students. I think that is more meaningful because the students are also learning about their peers as well as the country. I can also talk about my culture and maybe ask the parents to participate and bring in a popular dish from their perspective countries.