I really enjoyed this chapter as I feel we are beginning to dig into the practical ways of supporting and growing our diverse students. This chapter really got me thinking about what I can do to better my classroom and integrate diversity education into my curriculum. As discussed by Dr. Cantu in the video module and also addressed on pg. 29, Banks' 4 different approaches to integrating ethnic content into curriculum (contribution, additive, transformation and action) seem like a great place to start in considering what actions to take. Initially, the action approach strikes me as the one which facilitates the highest level of thinking amongst the students, and I see a great value in this approach. I really liked the idea of writing to legislatures on behalf of an ethnic group; I would like to include this activity in my English class. However, I disagree with the opinion that some hold that action is the only acceptable way to integrate ethnic content. After reading about each approach, I definitely view these as a continuum through which teachers can move. One piece of diversity education that bothers me is only focusing on the empathy approach of opening students' hearts toward people of another ethnicity. I know it is very important and necessary to foster empathy in students, but I feel as this approach, when isolated, gives students the idea that this other race of people is less than their own for whatever reason and can subconsciously feed the mindset of racial superiority to well-intentioned people. I think the contribution approach is very important and necessary to balance this out. Students need to see how their lives have been changed for the good by individuals of other races and this creates a thankfulness and respect toward other races in general. It puts all people on the same playing field to be both contributors to society and also to have a need. I love February, Black History Month, where I have the perfect opportunity to help students discover how individuals who are African American have changed their lives, and then look for ways to change our society's present-day prejudices.
I was really enlightened by the information on pg. 39 about how many cultures do not like to function as individuals but prefer, rather, to operate and learn as a group. I think this serves a dual-purpose in the classroom in both meeting the cultural needs of students and also being a natural ethnic learning experience for students as they are united and interacting with students who are different to achieve a common purpose. I would like to integrate more groupwork into my classroom design to facilitate this!
With that being said, my question to you is: What practical ideas for integrating ethnic content into curriculum popped into your mind as you were reading? Let's share our ideas!
Integrating diverse literature into my classroom has been on the backburner as I started my career, but I am finding that it has never been more important than now with a growing number of diverse student population. I have implemented a few different readings including multi-cultural Cinderella stories. I used this to introduce the idea of plot and then asked students to read the same story, from different cultures and create a plot diagram. I also teach an advanced literature class in which the entire first semester is dedicated to different cultural literature, including hispanic-american, african-american, asian-american, and others. The more multi-cultural, diverse readings we bring into the classroom, the less "foreign" it will seem.
ReplyDeleteHave your tried any current event articles which students can discuss after reading? That is always good way to get the ball rolling. I know that there are some sites on the web that give your stories in different reading levels. That could be beneficial for all.
ReplyDelete