Reflection 2

Culture and Inclusion

Nina Godette

Throughout this course I have realized that over my years in education I have
continued to learn strategies and instructional practices that have improved the
educational experience for all of my students. I also continue to seek professional
development opportunities to continue to learn best practices. Although I have been in
the educational field, I still feel like a somewhat new teacher. This is because there is
always learning to be done and ways to improve our methods in the classroom. When I
reflect on these marginalized groups of students I always question if I am doing enough
for my ELL and my SPED students. As this course has progressed and I complete the
weekly readings and reflect on my own teaching practices I have often felt validated that
what I am doing in the classroom is having an effect on the ELL and SPED students in
my class. I do also believe that my current curriculum has helped me to bring in a more
culturally responsive environment because we teach about ancient civilization of India,
China, and Greece while also learning about the culture of Japan. We also explore the
civil rights movement and how life was during the civil war. My current curriculum does a
great job at teaching a worldly view of different cultures and religions as well as their
experiences through time. However, like it was stated in the “Learning Lakota” article,
teachers need to be aware of the textbook version and the real version. There are
pieces of information present in many curriculums that do not give students the full truth
so as educators it is our job to do extra research or readings to be knowledgeable of the
content we teach.
While reading last week's “Promoting Respect for Cultural Diversity in the
Classroom” I made many connections to what a culturally diverse classroom should
have to reach all students. As I have stated before my current class is extremely diverse
serving students from at least 7 different cultures so creating an environment that
embraces their cultures is the first step in creating an environment that will eliminate
fear in how they are different from their peers. Learning about people from various
backgrounds that have contributed to the world throughout curriculum or celebrating
and researching during different months such as hispanic heritage month, black history
month, and women's history month helps students to see that people of all backgrounds
help contribute to our society. Another important aspect is providing a print rich
environment. I love taking the opportunity to create anchor charts with my students. This
is a great way to take observational data on students' learning. Having vocabulary
present with pictures and examples is another way to provide a print rich environment.
Finally I think it is important to provide students with a variety of ways to answer and
respond during lessons. One way I like to provide flexibility during lessons is to create
opportunities for students to collaborate with each other. For example, turn and talk or
table talk is one way to eliminate a filter of fear of saying the wrong things. Also I have
started a teaching practice of tasking not asking. I read research from Anita Archer that
suggests when you ask students questions and they have to raise their hand you are
really only teaching to the percentage of students who know the answer. Rather than
having students raise their hand to provide answers, you rephrase your questions to
show their learning on their whiteboards. Phrasing questions as “show me ______”
gives observational data on each student's level of learning.
Something I could do to improve the educational learning for my students of
different marginalized groups is to do a better job of learning about their cultures and
background on my own. Learning more about their customs, home life traditions, and
language could help me provide a more culturally sensitive approach in the classroom.
Being a middle class white teacher from the south I have my own cultural experiences
that limit my understanding of other cultures. Growing up I was not around a lot of other
cultures nor were they embraced by my family. I want to change that not only for myself
and my class, but my own family as well.