Sarah Findlay

Chapter 4 Reflection

Review-What did I learn?

There are two ways in which teachers approach their students in terms of expectations and biases.  Noel explains in Chapter 4, that they are called Deficiency Orientation and Difference Orientation.  Deficiency Orientation means that the teacher assumes that the student is deficient in some area due to their culture, skin color, language or community.  They may also assume that their home is lacking of the proper support.  These teachers want their students to adapt to the mainstream culture of the school or society.  The responsibility for the child’s success is wholly dependent on the student and the home.  The Difference Orientation is quite the opposite.  In this orientation, teachers understand that the cultural differences are not deficiencies but may possibly be strengths.  These teachers can use the cultural, linguistic, or ethnic backgrounds to build upon and use to their advantage.  Teachers that adopt the Difference Orientation often examine their own teaching styles and adapt them to the needs of their students.  The responsibility for the child’s success in this orientation falls upon the teacher. 

Students come to us from a variety of cultural upbringings.  These cultural upbringings, among other influences, develop into the students learning style and learning intelligence.  Students often prefer a specific physical setting such as bright lighting, soft music, or warm temperatures.  They also tend to like working in a group or alone better and tend to use a specific sense to absorb information.   Students also learn best using one, or a combination of Gardner’s Intelligences.  These intelligences include linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal, or naturalistic.  With each of these students scaffold their knowledge based on their strengths.  They are able to retain more information using their specific intelligences.  Knowing the learning styles and learning intelligences of our students gives us in insight on how to teach them best. 

           

Reflect-What does it mean to me?

In self-reflection, I see that I have some characteristics of both the Difference Orientation and the Deficiency Orientation.  I teach in a lower socio-economic school, where all of my current students come from a very different cultural background than I do.   I feel that I have adopted the Difference Orientation in the sense that I love to bring in their cultures.  I try to link what we are learning to their language or culture as much as possible.  For example, today we were learning the major mountains and rivers of the United States. I asked them if they could tell me what Rio Grande meant in Spanish.  They were able to say “big river.”  I then told them that the way that I remember which river on the map is the Rio Grande is because it is the only one that borders both the United States and Mexico and its name is in Spanish.   Hopefully this little clue will help them to retain that information. 

In terms of learning styles and intelligences, I am very familiar with my own learning style and intelligence but I have not taken the time to find this information about my students.  I tend to use a lot of technology, color, movement, and pictures to teach.  To me, this is a perfect way to learn, however, there may be students sitting in my classroom who are not retaining any information because I am disregarding several of the intelligences.   I would like to give all of my students a learning styles or learning intelligences inventory and use that information to better plan my lessons. 

             

Refine-How will I use this information in the classroom?

I will now take a closer look at the cultural biases I have towards my students.  I do not want to be the teacher with the Deficiency Orientation.   I realize now, that I am guilty of assuming that my students are lacking in both language and home support.  I must change the way I look at their differences and use them towards my advantage.  I would like to involve more parents in the classroom so that they can both teach us about their culture and see what our classroom culture is like and become more of a support for their child.               

I also want to give my students a learning styles inventory.  After reviewing the information on this, I realize how powerful this knowledge is.  I am very interested to see what strengths my students have and how they like to learn best.  I am curious to see if some of my assumptions are correct.  I will then re-evaluate my teaching styles.  I could form groups according to the different intelligences and differentiate the activities that I assign these groups.  I could also add more things like music, kinesthetic activities, and naturalistic experiences to my lessons to help the students who have the intelligences that I tend to stray from.  

                                                                                   

Bibliography

Noel, J. (2008). Developing Multicultural Educators. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. .

                                                                                                                                               

Chapter 4: Classroom Orientations and Learning Styles

1. Review – What did I learn?

            After reading chapter four of Jana Noel’s book, one of the things that I learned is that there are two very different viewpoints that teachers take as they attempt to understand why students may be struggling in school.  The first viewpoint, the author describes as the deficiency orientation.  A teacher with a deficiency orientation would see a student struggling and assume that the reason behind the struggle is that the student is deficient in some way.  According to the author, this attitude became popular in 1960’s educational literature. 

            In order to make the assumption that a student is deficient, the teacher would need a standard for comparison.  The standard would naturally be what the teacher knows and expects based on their experiences and cultural values.  In other words, the teacher had one way of learning and one way of problem solving and if a student didn’t conform to this mainstream way of doing things then the student was deficient in some way.

            A teacher with a difference orientation would view things quite differently.  A teacher with this viewpoint would see a student struggling and would not immediately assume there was a deficiency in the child nor would the teacher be quick to blame the child’s home life.  Instead, a teacher with a difference orientation would examine what he or she can do differently.  A teacher with this attitude would look for ways to celebrate each student’s uniqueness and then to build upon those qualities as part of the curriculum.

            In addition to contrasting two very different viewpoints or attitudes toward students, this chapter also talked about a variety of ways that students learn. In order to best meet the needs of each student, it is important to recognize the different learning styles, modalities and intelligences of each student and to be willing to adapt and use a variety of strategies so that all can be successful.  This is not only effective teaching but it also creates an atmosphere that is respectful to the uniqueness of each individual.

2. Reflect – What did it mean to me?

            The most interesting and thought provoking idea in Chapter 4 was the following statement mentioned on page 128: “I could teach these students better if they were just more like me.”  The author described this statement as one that encapsulates the viewpoint of a teacher who has a deficiency orientation. The converse of this idea: “I could teach these students better if I just knew more about them” describes the viewpoint of a teacher who has difference orientation.

            I think these two conditional statements sum up very well how two different viewpoints, one just as easy as the other to assume, can make such a difference in the way you treat your students, the way you treat the curriculum, and the way you feel about your job.  The difference orientation is one that allows hope, fuels your passion for teaching, and helps you see the best in your students.  The deficiency orientation, on the other hand, places the responsibility entirely on the student and in a sense minimizes your potential to create change.  By owning some of the responsibility, you also put yourself into a position to make a difference since you have control over how you view and teach the curriculum.

3. Refine – How will I use the information in my classroom?

            As the author said on page 127, “The key distinctions involve who is seen as needing to change or improve and whether or not there is a belief that there is one way of learning or solving problems to which all students must adhere.”  Although there have been times when I have been quick to blame students for not learning the material, I am much less likely to make that kind of premature assumption as I mature as a teacher.  My philosophy has continually evolved over the years and when I look back I feel like it has most of the time changed for the better.  I read the following quote once, “Never question student ability, always question teaching strategy,” and I think it sums up the difference between the deficiency orientation and the difference orientation very well.

            A key theme which comes through in this chapter and the preceding chapters as well is the importance of getting to know students and their background.  I do agree with the author that differences are not deficiencies, rather they are potential strengths.  Getting to know students is the key to seeing these differences in a positive light.  Tomorrow, in class, I will be asking the students to compare and contrast linear functions with exponential functions.  Before I ask them to answer these questions concerning math content, I am going to ask them to answer some similar questions regarding their culture and another culture.  In my second period class, for example, I may pair up two students, one from Guatemala and another from el Salvador, and ask them to find one similarity between their two cultures and one difference between their two cultures.  After they discuss and then share their conversation, I will then ask them to answer the same two questions but this time with linear and exponential functions.  I might even end class with a quick write asking students to tell me how their culture is more like the straight consistent nature of a linear function or more like the less predictable and curvy nature of the exponential function.

            These short writing assignments and class discussions are small things but I think if they are done frequently, they help create an atmosphere of respect for our differences rather than a culture of conformity.  I think that this kind of habit sends a great message to the students but it also helps remind me that I am not teaching content and I am teaching students and each one is unique.

Mendoza-Mini Conference Reflection!

Mendoza

Reflection Journal #3

Review-What did you learn?

I found the ESOL Endorsement Mini Conference to be very interested and useful at the same time.  I really enjoyed learning about others people’s culture such as the interpreter Beatriz Uribe, Eunsook Lee, Lan Schlecht, Yisu Brasel  and Vesna Vujinovic.  I enjoyed learning about the Asians interpreters because we have a lot of students from different countries in Asia.  It was particular interesting to learn about how people from the Asian countries feel when they are refer as Asian people as to if Asia was a country I related a lot to that because I am from Dominican Republic but everyone refer to me as if Hispanic as if it was a country.   After living several in the United States I got used to it, but I must confess that when I first immigrated to the USA I was quite confused with the term.  I also found interesting to learn that Koreans don’t liked it when their name is written in red; because it symbolized blood, and that most of the Korean immigrants come from South Korea I was not aware of that fact. One of the things that enjoyed the most from this conference was learning about the Chinese language how it does not have any tenses, it made me really understand student’s performances in my Spanish class, specially the ones that come from china and how challenging it must be for them to learn about verbs conjugations in Spanish.  What I enjoyed the most was to see how education is valued differently depending on the culture and social economics backgrounds.  Students that come from different countries in Asia are expected to achieve highly in school, because they come from countries where there is a lot of competition because they are overpopulated countries. Last not but not least, when dealing with Hispanic students we should be aware that Spanish is spoken in 22 countries and our Hispanic students come from different Spanish speaking countries and although they speak the language, their Spanish might be different from others Spanish native speakers. 

            For the breakout sessions I attended immigration in picture books taught by Dr. Mandi Burgess and Laurie Rohm in the Enterprise Lab and for breakout session II I attended ELPP taught by Maria Gillentine in the Norcross Lab.    In my opinion, they were both good conference because as a Spanish teacher I could use them in my classroom.  I particularly enjoyed the immigration workshop because there was a lot of useful information on immigration which is very hot topic in the United States and I teach Spanish for native speakers where most of students have immigrated to the USA and I teach about immigration therefore a lot of the resources I can use in my class. 

Reflect-What did it mean to you?   

This conference was very useful to me because it helped me understand more the Asian community as well as others immigrants communities which are represented in the student population at NHS.  I particularly enjoyed learning about Asian community because it helps connect more with those students and it help create lessons that are meaningful them that they can relate to.

Refine-How will you use the information in your classroom?

This conference was a good one because now  I am more aware of the students from different countries in Asia, I feel that I will be planning my lessons targeting those student’s needs, taking into consideration that students from china have not being expose to verbs tenses, and in Spanish we have a lot tenses.  I also will take into consideration grading with red pen because it might be offensive to our students and parents of Korean descent.  I believe this conference was very interested because it made me aware of the needs of students that are from different cultural background.  I also feel that this conference brought up a good topic war, we must be sensitive to this because a lot of our students come to our classroom with traumas from war because they gone through this horrible experience.  Therefore, we should take this into consideration when planning our lessons specially when using picture that might be too much representations of war. 

Frisbee Cultural Event Reflection

Review – What did you learn?

            Listening to the Gwinnett County Public Schools translators was enlightening and thought provoking. I found the differences and similarities between the different cultures to be interesting.

Vesna Vujinovic discussed how schools can help Bosnian students and parents. It was interesting to hear how parents did not understand the concept of special education in our schools and how Bosnian parents are accustom to monthly meetings to discuss how their students are doing in school and how strange it is that our schools only seem to contact parents when a problem comes up.

Beatriz Uribe cleared up the difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino. It is nice to now know that Hispanic represents anyone who speaks Spanish and anyone from Latin America is called Latino.

Eunsook Lee explained that the majority of Korean Americans are from South Korea. She also explained the concept of Goose Family. Many Korean parents send their children to the United States for an education alone or under the supervision of one parent while the other parent remains in Korea to support the family. I have taught students who were alone in this country and had no idea it was a culturally supported method of educating their children.

Yisu Brasel is an ESOL teacher at Peachtree Elementary school and a Mandarin Chinese translator. She explained the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese and how Mandarin is the official language of China. She addressed the lack of in the Chinese languages. I found this to be one of the most interesting pieces of information relating to teaching our students. Even though I teach math I can see how not having tenses could interfere with students working on application word problems. Communication has been a major focus in schools for several years and with writing across the curriculum it is important for teachers to be aware that special attention must be given to Korean students in order to help them be more successful.

Lan Schlecht mentioned the similarities between Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese students and parents. She spoke of the Vietnamese traditions and the attire worn by students especially girls. Students coming to the United States often find our informal attire very different from the attire in Vietnam. Having never visited Vietnam I found the video interesting.

Reflect – What did it mean to you?

            The one thing that keeps running through my mind is that all teachers need to be aware of the cultural differences presented to us and the differences in other cultures not presented. There are very few teachers at my high school who are not exposed to students from different cultures. Just because you don’t teach ESOL classes doesn’t mean you don’t work with students who are in ESOL classes or were served by our ESOL program. Gwinnett County has changed in the fifteen years I have been teaching. My high school was diverse when I began but has become even more diverse.

            I must say I love being a teacher and contribute my passion to my mentor teachers in Maine and to my desire to learn as much as I can. I always approach professional learning as an opportunity for me to improve my teaching for all of my students. I believe that if we are to instill a love of learning in our students we must model this to them by continually learning ourselves. So why do I mention this? I think teachers are feeling overwhelmed at school and finding it difficult to fit professional development into their hectic schedules. If the county is embracing our ESOL population then then the county will need to find ways to compensate teachers to attend cultural awareness training.

Refine – How will you use the information in your classroom?

            I will use the information gained at the culture awareness mini-session to be more open minded and aware of differences in my classroom and in the hallways when interacting with students. I will take time to find out a little more about my students and their backgrounds and cultural traditions. We all know showing interested in students is key to building a strong relationship and relationships help student achievement. I’ve already learned that just a few seconds of my time can change a student’s perception of a class and the knowledge gained from this session will help me engage in conversation with my students at a different level and hopefully improve their performance in my class and others.

Effects of Culture on Teaching and Learning-Web Search
Sarah Findlay

There is an amazing amount of research on this topic.  Not suprising however, with the recent immigration trends in the United States.  I found several very informative articles, books, websites, and research papers.  One specifically stuck out to me.  It's a paper, what seems like part of a course at Stanford University.  In this paper, the authors discuss the idea that we can not be successful teachers without first knowing our students.  Their culture is what they bring to school, what they know, and how they behave.  If our schools do not adopt a responsive attitide towards these cultures, students may become intimidated and alienated, and furthermore, unsuccessful students.  This article states that "culturally responsive teachers not only carry out certain practices, but perhaps more importantly, possess certain expectations and beliefs about their students." (Jones, 2003)  I feel that this article will be a great resource to me as I write Part II of the Case Study.  Here is the link in case your interested.  http://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/06_culture.pdf

Bibliography

Jones, J. (2003, 6 19). TLCguide v5.qxd. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from www.thelearner.org: http://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/06_culture.pdf

How Culture Affects Teaching and Learning

[I]n the words of a wonderful Native Alaskan educator: ‘In order to teach you, I must know you.’ I pray for

all of us the strength to teach our children what they must learn, and the humility and wisdom to learn

from them so that we might better teach.

—Lisa Delpit (1995, p. 183)

I found the above quote about teaching and learning from one of the first sites I visited when researching how culture affects teaching and learning. As educators we all have most likely had classes during college concerning various theories in education, how students learn best, and stages of learning students experience. All of these theories are great, informative and have their place; however, I think, as educators, we cannot forget the role a student's culture has in their education. Just as our own culture has had an effect on us, both as students and teachers.


Source:
http://www.learner.org/courses/learningclassroom/support/06_culture.pdf

Evans-Reflection #4

Review

            In preceding chapters, we learned how our individual cultures, as well as, our encounters with stereotyping, prejudice, and racism help to form our identities. This chapter presents another variable that can affect the way an individual’s identity is constructed. It is argued that a teacher’s attitude and perceptions of a student have a great impact on that student’s identity also. It is discussed that there are two views that a teacher may have regarding a student: the deficiency orientation and the difference orientation.

            When a teacher has a deficiency orientation about a student, he believes that the student is lacking in some area. Often, a teacher with this orientation believes that  there is one right way of teaching or knowing, and if a student is struggling, then it is assumed that there must be an outside reason such as poverty, language issues, or an unstable home life. This assumption places the “blame” for the student’s failure back on the student because he or she does not fit with the teacher’s version of “normal.” In order to be successful, the student must be the one to change.

            Teachers who have a difference orientation in regards to a struggling student realize that everyone has a different learning style in addition to outside factors that may affect how they learn. A teacher with this view finds ways to change their teaching to meet the needs of their student instead of expecting the student to be the one to change. They believe that instead of being a liability, the student’s differences can be turned into strengths and built upon.

            The chapter then goes on to discuss how teachers who are difference oriented try to examine their students’ individual learning styles and intelligences to better meet their needs. People approach learning situations in many different ways. Some like to study quietly by themselves in a library setting, while others may prefer to work in a group in an atmosphere where there is music playing or other conversations going on in the background. Over the years there have been many assessments developed to try and inventory individuals’ learning styles. A sample of four of these was presented as well as a summary of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and how they relate to learning styles.

Reflect

 It is so much easier to be the deficient teacher! Wouldn’t it be lovely if all of our students’ cultures and learning styles matched our beliefs and teaching styles? Unfortunately, this is not the case. We as teachers need to always remember this as we plan everything from our classroom environment to how we will go about teaching each and every concept to our various students. I can relate to both the deficient orientation and the different orientation.

            When I first began teaching in Gwinnett 14 years ago, I knew quite a few teachers who were firm believers in the deficient orientation. They taught one way, and if they had students who were struggling, they sought help elsewhere (ESOL, Reading Recovery, EIP, special ed.) instead of looking at what they might do differently within their own classroom. I am guilty of this myself at times, especially when it comes to student behavior.

            I now think however, that many teachers in Gwinnett (especially elementary) have changed their thinking with the push toward differentiated instruction. This type of instruction is basically the same as the theory of different orientation. I don’t know of any K-2 teachers anymore who stand at the front of the room and lecture. We’ve all been taught the importance of teaching to multiple intelligences and learning styles.

            In reflecting on my own classroom, I have areas where the whole class can meet together as a group or where small groups can gather, and I have areas for working independently or with partners. We incorporate music and movement with our learning. We have quiet working times and not-so-quiet working times. We use manipulatives for hands-on learning, and we have paper and pencil activities. I think primary teachers do a pretty good job overall of trying to meet the different needs of our students. The challenge is (and probably always will be) trying to differentiate for each student, in all subject areas, every day.

Revisit

            A couple of sections spoke to me in this chapter. The first was the example of a deficient classroom with the fourth grader named Bing. His story hit home with me when it talked about how he was proud of the fact that he could speak two languages, but how it upset him when his writing was returned with lots of grammatical corrections but not much about his content. It also described how the other students in the class began to correct him all the time like their teacher, and how he wished they would just listen to his ideas and not his grammar. This all made me question how many times I may have made my own students feel this way in my efforts to be “helpful.”

            One of my current EL students also has a speech problem. When he speaks in front of the class, I don’t correct him, but I generally try to repeat back to him what he has said so that I know we’ve understood him and so he can hear it spoken correctly. I’ve noticed recently, however, that some my other students have begun copying the way he speaks in a teasing manner or telling him that he is not saying something correctly. He loves to participate in class discussions now, and I don’t want that to change, so I am going to have to be more aware of how I and others are responding to him. I am also going to have to revisit with the students that our classroom is a place where everyone should be able to speak and share their ideas and thoughts without fear of being ridiculed.

            The second piece that jumped out at me was the suggestion of Howard Gardner that we should assess students’ multiple intelligences in their everyday interactions within the classroom. As I was reading, certain students jumped into my mind. One little girl who’s always humming might have a musical intelligence, a boy who gets upset when he doesn’t get to go to the block center might be a bodily kinesthetic intelligence. It made me wonder about the other students in my class and want to know what they might be. I’m going to try to observe them with this in mind in the coming weeks and try to tailor my lessons to some of these specific intelligences to see how they perform.

            In general, this chapter reinforced the importance of differentiated instruction and really getting to know your students and how they learn best.