Academic  Session  Secondary  Schools  Interest  Sec3on  

TESOL  2014  Portland,  OR  

   

Culturally  Responsive  Teaching  for  Students  with  Limited  or  Interrupted  

Formal  Educa3on  (SLIFE)  

Andrea  DeCapua  –    NYU  Helaine  W.  Marshall  –  LIU-­‐Hudson  

©2014  MALP,  LLC.  For  terms  and  condi:ons  of  use,  contact    informa:on@malpeduca:on.com  

Deep  Invisible  Cultural  Values  

“Culture  acts  as  a  filter  or    set  of  lenses  through  which    

we  view  and  interpret    the  world  around  us.”  

 

(DeCapua  &  Wintergerst,  2004)  

Teachers  and  learners  assume  that:  

1.  the  goals  of  instruc:on  are  a)  to  produce  an  independent  learner  b)  to  prepare  that  learner  for  life  aMer  schooling  

       

2.  the  learner  brings  along  a) an  urge  to  par:cipate  as  an  individual  b)  age-­‐appropriate  prepara:on  for  

(i)   literacy  development  (ii)   academic  tasks  

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009; 2011; Marshall & DeCapua, 2013)

Three  Major  Differences  

1.  Orality  vs.  Literacy  2.  Collec:vism  vs.  Individualism  

3.  Informal  Learning  vs.  Formal  Educa:on  

 

I  never  care  about  reading  un:l    I  come  here    In  my  country  nothing  to  read  but  here,  everywhere  print,  words  and  signs  and  books  and  you  have  to  read  

The  most  importants  I  have  learned  about  the  United  States  that  is  a  book,  newspapers,  or  notebook  and  pens.      These  things  are  always  let  me  know  how  to  live  here.        

Collec3vis3c    vs.  Individualis3c  Cultures  

(Adapted  from  Luria,  1976)  

Sample  Academic  Task  

Teachers  and  learners  assume  that:  

1.  the  goals  of  instruc:on  are  a)  to  produce  an  independent  learner  b)  to  prepare  that  learner  for  life  aMer  schooling  

       

2.  the  learner  brings  along  a) an  urge  to  par:cipate  as  an  individual  b)  age-­‐appropriate  prepara:on  for  

(i)   literacy  development  (ii)   academic  tasks  

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009; 2011; Marshall & DeCapua, 2013)

(Ibarra,  2001)  

Students with Limited/Interrupted Education U.S. Classrooms

CONDITIONS  

PROCESSES  

ACTIVITIES  

(Adapted from DeCapua & Marshall, 2009, 2011; Marshall, 1994,1998)

Aspects of Learning

 Two  Different  Learning  Paradigms  

 

   

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks

Academic Tasks

Interconnectedness

Oral Transmission

Independence

Written Word

Future Relevance Immediate Relevance

Two  Different  Learning  Paradigms  

U.S. Classrooms

Immediate  Relevance   Future    Relevance  

Shared  Responsibility  

Pragma:c  Tasks  

CONDITIONS

PROCESSES

ACTIVITIES

Interconnectedness  

Oral  Transmission  

Independence  

(DeCapua  &  Marshall,  2009,  2010;  Marshall,  1994,  1998)  

Aspects of Learning

Individual    Accountability  

Academic  Tasks  

Wri^en  Word    

Standardized  Tes-ng!  

Students with Limited/Interrupted

Education

Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm – MALPTM

Instructional Model

SLIFE U.S. Classrooms

Interconnectedness Independence

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks

Academic Tasks

ACCEPT    SLIFE  CONDITIONS  

COMBINE  SLIFE                      &  U.S.  

PROCESSES  

FOCUS  on  U.S.  ACTIVITIES  with  familiar  language    

&  content  

Immediate Relevance

Oral Transmission Written Word

with

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009, 2010; Marshall 1994, 1998)

Future Relevance

     FAMILIAR      SCHEMATA    

   UNFAMILIAR        SCHEMATA    

Describing your favorite game in your

native language

Writing a science lab report in academic English

Class  Survey  :  Crossing  the  Mekong  

•  Interviewing  at  home  

•  Sharing  data  in  class  •  Drawing  map  &  flags  

•  Entering  data  in  table  •  Using  sentence  frames  

•  Responding  to  ques:ons  

•  Class  brainstorming  

•  Five  most  common  ac:vi:es  

•  Interviews  in  class  •  Data  gathering  •  Graph  •  Sentences  below  graph  

 Bar  Graph  from  Survey  Data  

 

Ways  of  Learning  Con3nuum  

U.S.  Mainstream  Formal  Educa3on  

Struggling  Learners  

Informal  Ways  of  Learning  

Deficit  View  –  they  know  how    but  cannot  do  it  –  lack  ability  Dissonance  View  –  they  are  star:ng  

from  a  different  paradigm  

More  about  MALP?  

Our  Books:      Making  the  Transi.on:  Culturally  Responsive  Teaching  for  Struggling  

Language  Learners  (2013)    

Breaking  New  Ground:    Teaching  Students  with  Limited  or  Interrupted  Formal  Educa.on  in  U.  S.  Secondary  Schools  (2011)  

 Our  Websites:    

h^p://malp.pbworks.com  H^p://malpeduca:on.com  

Contact  us:    

Andrea  DeCapua          drandreadeapua@gmail.com  Helaine  W.  Marshall    helaine.marshall@liu.edu      

©2014  MALP,  LLC.  For  terms  and  condi:ons  of  use,  contact    informa:on@malpeduca:on.com