How have you (or the classroom teacher) communicated in ways that demonstrated sensitivity and responsiveness to sociocultural and linguistic differences?
In my classroom in particular, there are a number of mainly Spanish speaking students. Many, as mentioned in a previous post, struggle with English, and their scores on standardized state testing reflect their struggles. There is an ESL teacher and an English specialist that circulate to all of the classrooms and work with a number of students each day, once a day. These teaching assistants are very patient, caring, and responsive to their students. I enjoy watching the time and techniques that go into the private instruction given to selected students in the back of the classroom each day, and the smiles that spread across students faces when they come to a correct answer.
Both myself, and the teacher take time to speak a bit slower, and repeat instructions for those that may need more help ( the majority of the students ) in understanding English. The teacher in the classroom has also, this year she explained, begun to write down instructions on the board, and have the class read them aloud together in addition to her reading and explaining them. This enforcement of repetition and making the directions available at the front of the room eliminates the embarrassment and anxiety that many of the students may have about asking for clarification, or not understanding all aspects of the given task or question.
In class activities also speak to socio cultural and linguistic differences. The children always bring real life examples to lessons in class. In turn, all students learn a little bit about one another and grow to acknowledge and respect the differences in the families of those around them. For example, some students come from homes with divorced parents, and while not explicitly saying it, make it known to other students that they have more than one family, while comforting other students who may experience the same home life. One student during a class discussion told me that he was glad to hear that his classmate had divorced parents too. He said that he always thought that it was a bad thing, and that he had been teased for it when only one parent came to a school function. Knowing that someone else came from a similar background creates a sense of unity and community within the class and the school that helps to foster a stronger out of school community thanks to the teacher created in class activities.
When I work personally with the 'problem' students who also tend to struggle in English, I've found that it helps to repeat things, and to speak a bit slower. I've learned to select my words more carefully to best, and most effectively tell the students what I'm trying to say. I've tried my best to use my limited Spanish to throw in a word or two to help clarify a sentence or a grammatical rule, and it's really seemed to help. The code switching that I've observed in the students, while often ended upon being heard by the teacher, has helped a lot of the struggling students to successfully complete in class activities and better understand material. I tend to let the code switching go in our private learning sessions because I know that it helps the students, and as long as once they understand it they repeat it in English, the lesson has served its purpose... plus, the students help me with my own Spanish skills!
