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Diversity in the Classroom

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It is very important as an educator to teach tolerance and justice in the classroom.  I plan to teach with empathy and sensitivity that is inclusive of my student no matter their race.  As an educator, I know it is my responsibility to be a role-model of positive behaviors and show respect to everyone.  I plan to teach my students to respect everyone and to embrace their culture, ethnicity and socio-economic status.  We will celebrate all of our differences. 

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I plan to follow Kenneth Zeichner, the director of the Teacher Education Program, at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education associate dean for undergraduate, international, and teacher education.  Kenneth Zeichner, has done extensive work in working in diverse schools.  (1992) has summarized the extensive literature that describes successful teaching approaches for diverse populations. From his review, he distilled 12 key elements for effective teaching for ethnic- and language-minority students.

 

  1. Teachers have a clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities.

  2. Teachers communicate high expectations for the success of all students and a belief that all students can succeed.

  3. Teachers are personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students' learning.

  4. Teachers have developed a bond with their students and cease seeing their students as "the other."

  5. Schools provide an academically challenging curriculum that includes attention to the development of higher-level cognitive skills.

  6. Instruction focuses on students' creation of meaning about content in an interactive and collaborative learning environment.

  7. Teachers help students see learning tasks as meaningful.

  8. Curricula include the contributions and perspectives of the different ethnocultural groups that compose the society.

  9. Teachers provide a "scaffolding" that links the academically challenging curriculum to the cultural resources that students bring to school.

  10. Teachers explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students' sense of ethnocultural pride and identity.

  11. Community members and parents or guardians are encouraged to become involved in students' education and are given a significant voice in making important school decisions related to programs (such as resources and staffing).

  12. Teachers are involved in political struggles outside the classroom that are aimed at achieving a more just and humane society.

 

http://www.washington.edu/alumni/partnerships/education/news/200909/zeichner.html

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