Week 8: Response to "Deep Culture in the Elementary Classroom"

Diverse cultural paradigms are crucial to teach ESL students. Teachers need to understand them to help students to learn a new language. In 1997, Dean Simonton a professor at the University of California-Davis decided to dedicate a large portion of his research agenda to discover some of the more salient factors involving and producing a developmental environment (when they are kids) might contribute the likelihood he or she will be a person of high achievement? To answer that question, Simonton analyzed the lives of approximately 5,000 highly creative people from 700 BCE to 1839 ACE and concluded that, although many factors positively influenced achievement, one of the more significant ones was exposure to cultural diversity. Specifically, he found a positive correlation between highly creative individuals and exposure to cultural diversity in their younger, developmental years. 

Cultural diversity in the classroom is essential to start the learning experience. Cultural environment opens the student's mind, and be capable to learn. The Second language acquisition 

Examples of  cultural diversity in the classroom:

• Language and dialect
• when to talk, when to be quiet
• Eye contact
• Personal space
• Questioning/answering style
• Waiting vs. interrupting
• Private vs. public learning
• Teasing
• Cooperation vs. competition
• Families
• Use/conception of time
• World view
• Learn each other culture

Cultural instruction in elementary grades, high school, and even college for that matter as well as different cultures. We need to recognize cultures deeply and not just superficially. Educators who take a bilingual and bicultural or multilingual and multicultural perspective value their students culture. They also look at the language (s) their students speak as a complementary skill. However, educators who take a monolingual perspective see the language each student speak as a challenge and they have the tendency to separate students or categorized them. 

To be an effective teacher, we need to develop new skills and break our bias about multicultural education. We need to consider students backgrounds and value their knowledge. Use effective strategies to promote students' motivation to learn, communicate well with students and parents. Teachers also need to integrate technology into the curriculum, invest time and effort into teaching, and have confidence in their students. Teachers need to love their students and be open to learning from them.