challenging assumptions: culturally & linguistically responsive instruction

Challenging Assumptions Culturally Responsive Instruction

for Diverse Learners

Dr. Catherine Collierwww.crosscultured.com

[email protected]

Percent of K-12 ELL

© 2015 Dr. Catherine CollierAll Rights Reserved

HS Completion Rates 2006-2012

Completion four years after enrollment0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%White 06

White 12

Black 06

Black 12

Hispanic 06

Hispanic 12

AmerIndian 06

AmerIndian 12


Percent Scoring Proficient on State Math & Language Arts Assessments

California Texas Florida Washington Oregon0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Migrant Students

All Students

Low-Income Students

Behavior Suspensions in Preschool 2011-2012

Black NonBlack0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Enrollment

Suspensions


2014 Teachers in US Schools

White NonWhite Female NonFemale0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100



LD EBD AS

5.80%2.50%

.6%

12.90%

4.40%.10%

NonELL ELL

Disproportionality WA

Disproportionality ASD

Am Ind/AK Nat

Asian Black Hispanic Nat HI/Pac Isl Two or more White0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

District Enrollment LD Autism

Texas ELL

Texas IEP

Definitions

The concept of things that particular people use as models of perceiving, relating, and interpreting their environment.

Difficulty in perceiving and manipulating patterns in the environment, whether patterns of sounds, symbols, numbers, or behaviors.

The process by which individuals perceive, relate to, and interpret their environment.

Culture CognitionLearning Disability



What we know

We need to know more than what works…..

We need to know what works with WHOM

The role of culture

Educators have become increasingly aware in recent years of the central role that culture plays in learning and teaching.

Teachers and children bring to the classroom values about education, work habits, interaction norms, and ways of knowing that were learned in the home and community.


Culture and teaching

Neither teachers nor children leave their cultures at the classroom door. It is, therefore, imperative that teachers gain greater awareness of how their culture affects their teaching behaviors, and how the intersection of diverse cultures can impact classroom dynamics and outcomes.


A definition of culture

Culture is what people know, what they do, and what they make and use. Everything we do is influenced by our culture. Culture pervades our ways of thinking, behaving, and believing. How we spend our time, where we work, who we visit, and what we do for fun are all affected by culture.


Culture is always both (1) explicit–that which people can describe, such as foods, festivals, dress and (2) implicit or tacit - that which people know and do unconsciously and would have trouble describing.


Explicit culture

Explicit culture is easier to see and talk about. People can describe what kinds of food they cook, their holidays, their dances, their religion, their kinship relations, and the cultural rules for appropriate behavior among kinsfolk. Tacit cultural knowledge, which remains hidden, is harder to uncover.


Tacit cultural knowledge

Our culture has a large body of shared knowledge that people learn and use. Although tacit cultural knowledge is hidden from view, it is of fundamental importance because we all use it constantly to generate behavior and interpret our own and others’ experience.


Culture is the human form of adaptation to the environment.

People all around the world have developed customary tasks, activities and tools that enable them to utilize the available resources.


Culture is Diverse

Cultural diversity is the result of differences in environments, historical symbolism in human life. People in all societies pattern of facing change and the importance of face similar challenges but have many different cultural solutions to the types of problems.


Culture is Dynamic

Cultures are constantly changing through inventions, improvement and borrowing from other societies.

For example, all of these processes have influenced the development of various means of economic exchange. Many different forms of money function in a wider range of cultural environments.


Culture is Symbolic

People live in a world of symbols. A symbol is any object or action to which meaning is attached. Members in a society share those symbols which may have a profound impact on behavior.

The meaning and importance of one’s society symbols may not be obvious to members of other groups.


Members of the dominant culture (‘Anglos’ in the United States, for example), often believe that they do not have a “culture.” Culture is considered something that belongs to members of minority cultural groups and people of other countries.


Reading

Reading is based on symbols and symbolic relationships between sounds, symbols, meaning, and understanding.

Reading is an example of a cultural activity.

Reading depends on many cultural artifacts.


Know yourself, know your students Know your culture, the

culture you bring to teaching

Understand how your culture fits into the culture of the larger society

Be aware of the culture of the school and how this impacts your CLD students

Be aware of the context you create in your classroom


Know Your Students

Know the individual’s qualities, interests, aspirations, and areas for growth

Know the sociocultural contexts the student brings to learning, and how s/he reacts to the instructional contexts of the school and your classroom


Know your students

Effective teaching involves activating the conceptual frameworks that children already have and building on them to expand the children’s knowledge and introduce new concepts.


Reflective teaching

Good teaching involves an ongoing process of self-reflection, including critical examination of your culture (ethnic, class, regional, religious, national), your assumptions about your students, and your role as a teacher.


Self-reflection helps you to:

Be aware of the assumptions made about the knowledge and experience by you, your students, and the mandated curriculum you are implementing;

Be clear about the cultural values being transmitted through you via the curriculum and your pedagogical practices; and

Be cognizant of your impact as a human being on the development of the children or youths in your care.


Reminder

All students do not share the experiences and background knowledge that teachers, textbooks, and curriculum standards may assume.

Children from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds have different experiences and knowledge than mainstream teachers and children.


Become aware of the contexts shaping CLD student learningKnowing your students involves becoming familiar with the sociocultural contexts that help shape students’ ways of learning. It also involves understanding the dynamic relationship between group culture and individual difference. Individualizing curriculum and instruction for CLD students is a critical component of the adaptation process.


Be aware of cultural productions

Sometimes it is easier to understand students in terms of group attributes.

But individuals are constantly negotiating their identity and their culture within their peer groups and their community culture is not static.


Cultural productions

Individuals create their own cultural norms that often challenge the status quo. At the same time, there are pressures on the individual to conform to the culture, both to the minority group culture and to the dominant mainstream culture.


Cultural productions

School personnel need to change their perceptions of culture, from something that is shared by all students from the same ethnic or historical background to something that is actively constructed by the individual in a given social setting.


What can teachers do about cultural productions?

1. Get to know each student as an individual;

2. Understand why the student accepts and rejects the various aspects of the school’s culture that he or she does;

3. Work with her students to transform those aspects to the social and academic setting that she believes are hindering their successful growth and development; and

4. Help students learn to question and explore their own reasons for resisting and conforming in the ways that they do.


Krashen’s Critical Elements for Language Acquisition

1. Provide Comprehensible Input in Target Language

2. Lower the Affective Filter

3. Maintain Subject Matter Education

4. Maintain and Develop Student’s Base Language


Growth in Native Born LEP

40%

40%

20%

First Generation Second Generation Third + Generation


The Deadly Plateau

Texts are frequently at i + 10, not i + 1

Growth in reading and academic achievement levels off

Motivation decreases


LD Behaviors SLA Behaviors

Difficulty following directions Difficulty following directions in English

Difficulty with phonological awareness

Difficulty distinguishing between unfamiliar sounds

Slow to learn sound/symbol Confusion with sound/symbol correspondence in English

Difficulty remembering sight words

Difficulty remembering sight words when unfamiliar with meaning

Difficulty retelling a story in sequence

May understand more than can say in English

So what can teachers do about language transition?

Simplify language of instruction Utilize frequent comprehension checks Allow for collaborative learning and discussion

in primary language when appropriate Break lessons/information into smaller chunks Provide hands-on activities and concrete

examples Use visual aides/physical clues Provide outlines and graphic organizers to

stress important concepts and facilitate note- taking

Proximity seating w/limited distractions Provide specific and immediate feedback Provide page numbers for answer locations Permit the use of bilingual dictionaries or

electronic translating device Provide simplified study guides w/answers in

advance of unit or lesson Utilize resources in the student’s first

language


More Instructional Accommodations Allow student to edit or revise after re-

teaching when appropriate Provide a daily or weekly syllabus of class

and homework assignments Give alternate homework or class

assignments suitable for the student’s linguistic ability

Extend time for assignment completion when necessary

Allow student an opportunity to give oral responses to be recorded by teacher or aide

Utilize alternate reading assignments/materials at the student’s reading level

Orient student to expectations through models and rubrics

Substitute a hands-on activity or use of different media for written activity

Shorten length, not content, of assignment Permit the use of bilingual dictionaries or

electronic translating device


Acculturation

Heightened Anxiety

Inattention

Confusion in Locus of Control

Withdrawal

Silence/unresponsiveness

Response Fatigue

Code-switching

Distractibility

Resistance to Change

Disorientation

Stress Related Behaviors


The Intensity of Culture Shock is Cyclical

AnticipationPhase

SpectatorPhase

IncreasingParticipationPhase

ShockPhase

AdaptationPhase

AnticipationPhase

SpectatorPhase

IncreasingParticipationPhase

ShockPhase

AdaptationPhase

Highly Engaged Level

ModeratelyEngagedLevel

Normal Intensity of Emotions

ModeratelyDepressedLevel

Greatly Depressed Level


A cultural incident occurs

Causing a reaction

Which causes a withdrawal

• Elicits some type of emotion

• Anxiety• Anger• Fear• Irritation

• From new culture & language

• To familiar community

• Is unexpected

• Has a different meaning

• Is offensive


Culture Shock Cycle

Voluntary minorities such as Chinese immigrants to America generally consider education to be an important route to succeeding in society and are less concerned with prejudice and discrimination, as opposed to involuntary minorities such as African Americans and Native Americans.


Cycle of Acculturation

Of even more serious long-term impact upon an individual is Deculturation or Marginalization. Deculturation is the loss of connection to the traditional, home or heritage culture and language while not making the transition to the new culture or language.


What students need Friends to be

patient and persevering with them

Friends not to take offense at what they say or do

Friends to include them despite their odd behavior

Time from their teachers

Help to learn specific cultural knowledge

Patience from their teachers rather than referring them to special services for their culture shock behavior


Person becomes aware of their reaction

• Thinks through why they reacted as they did

• Recognizes that not everyone acts like me

A cultural incident occurs

Causing a reaction

And reflects on the cause so that the reaction subsides

• Thinks through why the other acts the way he/she does

Person observes the situation

Person develops appropriate cultural expectations


• Learns to see in a different culture light

• Learns to live with something that may not be morally okay with them

Is PS/RTI the answer to disproportionate representation of ELL?

Only if approaches are culturally and linguistically responsive and address both system and student issues.


5 Things that Work in PS/RTI for ELL

1. Adequate Professional Knowledge

2. Effective Instruction

3. Valid Assessments & Interventions

4. Collaboration Between District Departments

5. Clear Policies


Assessment Accommodations Provide a word bank for fill-in-the blank or

labeling items Allow student opportunity to have test read

aloud by teacher or aide in either regular or ESL class

Allow fact or formula note cards for exams Allow for small group administration of

assessments Re-write test items at a lower reading level Reduce the number of choices on

tests/quizzes Accept correct answers in alternate form

(drawing, misspelled, lists, graphic organizer, etc.)

Limit matching questions to 5 – 10 items per section

Allow extended time if needed Allow student an opportunity to give oral

responses to be recorded by teacher or aide Require reduced sentence or paragraph

length in open ended responses and compositions

Allow students to re-do or correct work when appropriate (may be for partial credit)

Permit the use of bilingual dictionaries or electronic translating device© 2015 Dr. Catherine Collier

All Rights Reserved

Contact Information

Catherine Collier, Ph.D.@AskDrCollier [email protected] www.crosscultured.com www.facebook.com/AskDrCollier


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.crosscultured.com/

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Thank you! Come visit us atwww.crosscultured.com

Over 45 years experience. Research on impact of

acculturation on referral & placement of CLD students.

Research on effectiveness of specific cognitive learning strategies for diverse learners.

Classroom teacher, diagnostician, faculty, administrator.

Social justice advocate, author & teacher educator.


challenging assumptions: culturally & linguistically responsive instruction

Education

catherine collier

definition of culture

role of culture educators

enrollment white

texas ell

particular people

teaching behaviors

students lowincome students