TEGR 585

 Response #7

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Diverse Classroom

“Are dialogue and relationships culturally authentic?” (Vacca, pg. 57) This chapter emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive instruction. What then is culturally responsive instruction? Vacca defined culturally responsive instruction as instruction that is related to the students’ way of knowing, their funds of knowledge and their motivation for learning. In a more simplified form it is making and drawing on the students’ prior knowledge and experiences. With this said how then can we as educators ensure that successful teaching and learning are happening in our linguistic and cultural diversity classroom?

We need to respect the student and his/her family.

We need to be aware of the students’ diverse cultural background.

We need to recognize that all children are linguistically, cognitively and emotionally connected to the culture and language of the home environment.

We need not only to acknowledge, but also, to have students’ illustrate their knowledge and capabilities in many different ways.

We need to ensure that parents and families are actively involved especially in the early learning program.

We need to identify what the students already know and build upon his/her prior knowledge/learning.

We need to promote an environment that will engage all children in learning.

This then is just a few suggestion to promote social interaction as well as to meet the students’ needs in a cultural diversity classroom and the culturally and linguistically nation in which we live.