Teaching Essay, Research Paper

Culturally Responsive Teaching focuses on how to educate under achieve diverse student of color, and how our children can receive a better education.

The author states,? We must insist that this empowerment stop now and set into motion, change strategies to ensure that it does.? Teachers can change the life of his/her students that are underachievers. She can find ways to show that she cares that will empower them to want to learn. They should never compare an achiever to an underachiever. Never show a failing grade so that the other may see it. Be sensitive to each student?s feelings and needs. It helps if an achiever works with an underachiever. Sometimes help from a student is better explained than from a teacher. Parents should be involved to reinforce lessons that are learned at school on a daily basis. Parents should participate in visits to the library and after school programs. This helps the children to better themselves and reinforce what is taught at school. Homosexual teachers (2000) who genuinely care about students generate higher levels of all kinds of success than others do who do not. They have higher achievements. Children are learning about power and privilege in every interaction- in families, school, and communities. (Ramsey) 1998 Teachers in contrast, have short term but intense impact on their children?s lives. They provide a lot of stimulation with activities, books, trips, and visitors, as well as by fostering interactions among the children in the classroom. At home, there are consistent people and messages year after year. Nevertheless, in school, each year is hopefully a new adventure, as new teachers and new classmates come together from a variety of experience and perspectives. At school, children hear and see thing that surprise, intrigue, and trouble them because they may mesh with messages and experiences at home. Children often become much attached to teachers, but usually teacher-child relationships do not have long-term intimacy of parent-child relationships.

Thus, parents and teachers can work together to enhance the learning of the students.

The family environment in which a child lives has an impact on many aspects of that child life including school performance. Certain family characteristics such as family structure and poverty level, single parent households, living in urban areas are associated academically to difficulties.

(Source: U.S. Department of Commerce)

Primary Education

(White and black children have similar rates of participation in preprimary education. However, at the age of 4 (prior to entering Kindergarten) there are differences in literacy and numeric skills and participation in literacy in the home. Participating in early childhood programs such as Head Start, Nursery school, and Pre-Kindergarten, can better prepare a child to enter first grade. While black and white children have similar participation rates in preprimary education, black behind whites in demonstrating early literacy skills.)

Students who feel that their teacher care about them will develop a sense of well-being and willingness to learn. Teachers that interact with students can have a positive affect on their learning and behaviors. Teachers can set the tone in the classroom. For example, asking open-end questions encouraging the student to ask questions and keeping in mind that students are different and unique and learn in different ways. A teacher with a negative attitude toward their student can deter them to learn. School systems need to be aware of the changing ethnic groups in our schools and train teachers to be caring, culturally sensitive teachers.

Cultural responsive teachers, empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using knowledge, skills and attitude. Teachers should manifest an attitude of respect for cultural different looking at normative behavior from student?s culture. A belief that all students are capable of learning high expectation for all student-learning activities to meet children needs. Teachers can increase their knowledge by knowing the community from which they come from. Spend time with the student and work with then in their community. Teachers should implement an enriched curriculum for all students. Culture in values learned behavior that is a characteristic of social environment in which and individual grows up. Culture is based on customs and traditions. Some of the socializing techniques by which cultural expectations influence behavior are group pressure, tradition, rites and rituals, and symbols. The author states, ?Even without our being consciously aware of it, cultural determines how we think, behave, and these in turn, affect how we teach and learn.?

Many people live in the United States live in communities with other more alike than different from themselves. Despite and increasingly diverse population, students should be taught to relate better with people from different backgrounds. Culturally responsive teachers use a variety of approaches to empower ethnically diverse students to achieve individual abilities and academic success. The relationship between teachers and students in their goals for academic teacher-learning process based on the teacher?s attitudes and expectations, cultural communication in classroom, culturally diverse content in curriculum.

Communication is essential to both teaching and learning, it is very important that teachers increase thier knowledge about general communication. Of underachieving students, most ethnically diverse students relate to the difference in the organization of thinking, writing, and talking.

The school systems need to improve culturally diverse curriculum for all students of color. Curriculum should be designer to meet the needs of all students using a variety of textbooks, literature, mass media, music, personal experience, and more accurate cultural information. Students are exposed to a positive and negative images about ethnic groups portrayed by books, television, movies, and newspapers. The best information is needed to improved student?s achievement, both within and outside of schools.

The author state? Curriculum source and content that provide accurate presentations of ethnic and cultural diversity offer several other benefits for improving student?s achievements.? First, they provide those who never had close personal contact with members of ethnic groups other than their own with opportunities to communication and engage with diverse people as well as to confront themselves. This experience along with calm some fear, dispel some myths, and produce some learning that cannot be intimidated from new knowledge enhances receptivity toward and mastery of it. Second, students are actively involved in their own learning. Surely students will learn better that which is of their own creations.

The causes are many as are the solution, without the proper backing such as help from family, teachers, community, government, and churches nothing can be accomplished. This is something that cannot or should not be put on hold. This problem with the cultural diverse students of color has to be addressed now.

James Baldwin wrote,? Not everything that is faced can be changed until it is faced.?

Geneva Gay

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Theory, Research, and Practice

Copyright 2000 by Teachers College, 3954-5

Columbia University

Patricia G. Ramsey

Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World

Multicultural Education for

Young Children

Copyright 1998- 2nd ed. By Teacher College

Columbia University

Source: U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics,

(NCES), 1991

(Early Childhood Education File)

and 1996 (Parent and Family Involvement in

Education File).