InTASC STANDARD 2: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse

cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to
meet high standards.
Name of Artifact: Instructional Activity on Orality and Literacy
Course: Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives in Language Teaching (FLL 665)
Date: Spring 2018
ACTFL Standards Addressed: 3.2, 4.2, 5.1
Rationale:
The lesson plan that I have included as a representation of standard two was created in a
class on sociocultural and sociolinguistic perspectives in language teaching. It was specifically
created for students learning English as a second language. This lesson plan was inspired by a
chapter that I read on orality and literacy in different cultures. The purpose of the artifact is to get
students to realize that the classroom, much like the world, is a multicultural place. The lesson
makes use of different texts as a microscope for finding even minor comparisons between native
and target cultures. In the planned activities, I use literature and storytelling to give students
insight into other cultures. This is important because I teach in a rural, small-town area, where
students are predominantly African-American. Other than some of their teachers, who are either
White or Indian, they have little exposure to people who are different from them. We have had a
small number of Arabic, Hispanic, and White students, who usually drop-out or transfer.
Sometimes, students transfer due to maltreatment by classmates. The realization is that some
students within the district do not know how to coexist peacefully with fellow students who are
different from them culturally. They learn social skills within the classroom sphere with
activities like these for the world at large.
Literature and storytelling help both educators and students to understand cultural details
of distinct communities. Waldore, Florax, and Beckhusen (2008) relay that “traditionally,
immigrants have located in large gateway cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and
Miami. In recent years, however, we have seen a growing number of newcomers choosing to live
in nonmetropolitan areas (Kandel and Cromartie 2006)” (p. 1312). This means that there is a new
growth of immigrants in rural areas. Thus, students need implicit views into the cultural views
and perspectives that foreigners bring to understand their practices. Literature and storytelling
are good avenues into culture because they present ideas and deeds in settings where they can be
easily accepted and comparisons with the learners own culture are magnified to an extent that
cannot be ignored. For instance, within the artifact, I discuss a story passed down orally in
Chinese culture called The Grandmother Tiger, a story where a tiger eats a child after he lets him
into his house. The reader cannot doubt the similarities to Little Red Riding Hood. Although
different animals are symbols of voraciousness and conniving in the two stories, namely the tiger
and the wolf, the general morale is the same: Beware of strangers. When students realize this,
they can then begin to appreciate the differences, such as the import and symbolization of the
tiger in Chinese culture. In this and in similar ways, educators can foster appreciation for
diversity.

Reference
Waldore, B., Florax, R., & Beckhusen, J. (2008). Spatial Sorting of Immigrants across
Urban and Rural Areas in the United States: Changing Patterns of Human Capital
Accumulation since the 1990s. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 90(5),
1312-1318. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.lynx.lib.usm.edu/stable/20492391