Running Head: CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSITY
Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
Jason Weichert
Walden University
Instructor: Dr. Judith Orth
READ 6718: Literacy in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
March 15, 2015
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Part 2: Exploring Support Resources in the School and Community
The classroom landscape is quickly becoming more diverse in the students that we teach.
This change provide opportunities to bring about a new shift in how schools perceive, teach and
value the students in each classroom. Embracing cultural and linguistic differences can promote
positive academic and social growth in all students. To do this, teachers much be knowledgeable
about best practices and research to support language and literacy development in all students.
To share my learning experience with my colleagues I have create an interactive wiki to support
professional growth with various pages explaining best practices for teachers (Appendix A). The
wiki can be located at: https://literacydevelopmentfordiverse.wikispaces.com/
I teach fourth grade at a school located in Federal Way, Washington. Western
Washington has a wide range of diversity which is reflected throughout the schools. The school
district has nearly 22,000 students which 61% are an ethnicity other than white. Over the last 15
years the district has been dramatically changing in the diversity of its students. They have had to
shift their mindset and priorities to advocate for all students and prepare teachers and schools to
provide all the supports necessary. There are currently 3,000 active English language learners
(ELL) each year with another 5,000 to 7,000 students who are bilingual and still working
towards proficiency in English. Overall, there are 107 different languages spoken throughout the
35 schools (Federal Way Public School, n.d.).
My school, Olympic View Elementary, has the highest population of ELL and low
income students in the district. The primary language spoken by the students is Spanish. The
school has nearly 400 students with two classes for each grade level. The community around the
school reflect the socioeconomic status of the students and family. We get our students from two
separate low income apartment complexes and one low income housing project. However, not
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far down the road is the gated communities that surround the private golf course. The school’s
playground looks out onto the golf course. My school and community are a pocket of poverty.
The sense of community is very strong in the neighborhood. There are neighborhood watch
programs and families come together to support one another.
There are many programs within my educational setting that are available for supporting
culturally and linguistically diverse students. The most used program we have is the ELL
program. Due to having such a large Spanish speaking population, we have extra funding to
support ELL students. Classroom teachers work collaboratively with the ELL staff to support
students in the classroom and out of the classroom. This type of close collaboration has become
essential for general education students to learn the strategies that are most effective for ELL
students from the teachers who specialize in that area (Maxwell, 2013a). Another resource
available is our AmeriCorps volunteers. We have two volunteers who support student learning
throughout all grade levels. Both of them are bilingual and can help with translations when need.
The district also provides a translations phone call service. This service takes a day to turn
around but it is helpful when needed for both parents and teachers. During student-led
conferences the district provides translators of all languages so parents can communicate with
the schools. In the middle and high schools, students can join clubs and support groups of their
choosing based on their interests or cultural identity. All of these programs are supported by the
district and staff members.
The Federal Way School District have a Family and Community Partnership Department
that supports programs solely to connect families with the community. Partnering with families
is an essential part of helping students succeed. Maxwell and Nieto (2010) explained that
families of diverse backgrounds can often be neglected and felt unwelcomed by the school’s
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preconceived notions or lack of experience. But families often have more respect for education
than what is perceived by the schools. Family partnership strategies that initiate the connection
process are much more effective at connecting schools and families.
Federal Way also has many great resources available in our schools to support families.
The most important resources we have is our family liaison. She is bilingual and her sole
responsibility is to help the schools and community make connections. The district piloted the
program five years ago and the response has been so positive, most elementary schools have a
liaison. When needed, she can translate phone calls or conferences between parents and teachers.
During assemblies and celebrations, she translates everything that is shared. She can also
translate materials individual teachers send home to families. Federal Way’s Family and
Community Partnership Department explains the goals of this department and the family liaisons
is to help students reach their learning potential through strong family engagement (Federal Way
Public School, (n.d.).
The school district also offers adult English classes for community families. These
classes are offered to parents all around the district. They are often filled quickly because the
response has been so positive. To get more parents deeply involved, the school district provides a
Parent Leadership Institute. Parents learn how to help their child succeed, develop clear
expectations on how to get their child from kindergarten to college and allows their voices to be
heard.
An area that I would like my school district to improve upon is being more supportive in
is providing professional development around using best practices for ELL students. The best
way for teachers to gain a better understanding of issues around teaching ELL students is to gain
the experience. There are many skills and strategies that can be directly used to support diverse
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students. I would like to see my district have a higher priority of supporting teachers in becoming
more culturally aware and providing the resources to support diverse learners. The district holds
us to a high standard of teaching all diverse students but the lack of support in doing so may be
counterproductive (Hawley & Nieto, 2010). Each school has its own direction in professional
development around teaching diverse students. However, the district need to make this more of a
priority and provide the resources for all staff members. These practices should be in place well
before our district continues to become more diverse so we can begin supporting all students
early instead of trying to intervene later on.
Schools that embrace the cultural and linguistic change will be leading the charge in
helping all students succeed. Every learner is different and their language, culture, prior
knowledge, and socioeconomic status all play an important role in how they learn. These are
needed to be seen as strengths and used to accelerate learning. Changes are inevitable and
schools need to have the systems in place to use these differences as strengths to promote
positive academic and social growth. By providing resources for families to connect and help
their children succeed, school are gaining a valuable advocate.
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Part 3: Benefits of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
Students who come from diverse backgrounds bring valuable assets and cultural
information that can help support their and other student’s learning. Schools can no longer see
these differences as deficits if they are expecting all students to achieve success. Educators can
start by changing their perceptions of these differences and learn how to use them as strengths to
promote accelerated learning. In my wiki, I can share what I have learned about the benefits of
student diversity and using those difference to inform and enhance instruction (Appendix B).
There are many benefits of culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. I have created a Prezi
presentation of how valuable one of my student’s prior experiences and culture are in her
learning. It can be located at: https://prezi.com/f7z98rp_tpjz/benefits-of-culturally-andlinguistically-diverse-classrooms/. Knowing this information, I can then plan to support this
specific learner in reaching the expectations of the Common Core State Standards and become
college and career ready.
Having culturally and linguistically diverse learners in my classroom has many benefits
to the way I teach and to the other students in class. Becoming more aware of the cultural and
linguistic differences in our classrooms helps teachers to recognize the impact these factors have
on student learning and then helps us to adjust our instruction accordingly (Mazur & Doran,
2010). Having diverse learners pushes me to use the research based best practices that I know
support ELL students. These strategies are beneficial to all students and should be used regularly.
Students learning a new language benefit from group work, discussions, visuals and graphic
organizers. Having diverse learners also provides more opportunity to be reflective about how I
am teaching and making education equitable for all students.
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The students themselves also benefit from having diverse experiences in their learning
environment. The student I chose to focus on brings a great deal of knowledge about a part of the
world nobody else has experience with. Her family comes from Somalia and she is able to speak
about her experiences there. Other students become interested and see her knowledge as a
valuable contribution to their own learning experience.
Knowing students’ cultural and linguistic diversity helps teachers to be able to address
the challenges that students face related to the high expectations in the Common Core State
Standards. The current mainstream way of teaching literacy does not support students who come
from bilingual backgrounds. When ELL students are immersed into English only instruction,
their language and academic growth is held back (Murillo, 2012). The Common Core State
Standards expects all students to be able to speak and write clearly about the information they are
learning. This is most challenging when students know the content but are unable to express their
knowledge due to language skills. They are then perceived to be underachieving. Switching to
rigorous standards means that students who are already at a disadvantage will need to work in
catch up mode to their English-speaking peers (Haycock & Policy Innovators in Education,
2012).
To address this challenge, states need to be actively developing systems for school
districts to help students without English as a first language to accelerate their language growth
and bridge the gap between what they know and what they can express. In the schools, teachers
needs to work closely with their administrators, academic coaches and colleagues to develop best
practices for supporting language and academic growth. Shanahan (2013) suggests that a way to
support critical thinking in students also learning the language is to use the challenging material
but provide the right scaffolds to help student understand the text and think critically. The text
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may be very challenging but teachers can use what they know about a student’s background
knowledge and language development to ask questions to highlight important information. This
can be done by close reading, asking text dependent questions and modeling thinking about the
reading.
Another challenge that diverse learners face is a deficit in early childhood literacy
exposure. Students who come from a low socioeconomic background tend to have less literacy
exposure and vocabulary than their more affluent peers. These students arrive at school with
fewer reading skills than their classmates yet are expected to read complex text at increasingly
earlier grades (Aspen Institute, 2012). All levels of learners are require to be able to read
challenging text and think critically. For students without previous literacy experiences, the
schools have to work to close that achievement gap. This can be done through early
identification and intervention for students who need support. Teachers can support students by
providing experiences that build their background knowledge and intentionally develop literacy
skills needed to read and decode text. The end goal is to scaffold instruction to help move all
students towards being able to reading at increasingly challenging level of text.
Choosing to view a student’s diversity in a positive light will add great value to any
educator’s classroom. When the school system embraces these differences, they can start to see
them as assets that can be used to help all students reach college and career readiness.
Recognizing the challenges that face culturally and linguistically diverse learners is important in
finding a way to support accelerated language, social and academic growth.
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Appendix A
Screenshot of wiki homepage
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Appendix B
Discussion board about how teachers can value the cultural and linguistic differences in their
students.
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References
Aspen Institute, (2012). Text Complexity and the CCSS. Aspen Institute.
Federal Way Public School, (n.d.). The Family & Community Partnership Office: Be Informed,
Be Prepared, Be Involved. Retrieved from http://www.fwps.org/districtresources/family/
Federal Way Public School, (n.d.). Additional Support Programs for ELLs and Families
Retrieved from http://www.fwps.org/districtresources/ell/additional-support-programsells-families/
Hawley, W. D., & Nieto, S. (2010). Another inconvenient truth: Race and ethnicity
matter. Educational Leadership, 68(3), 66–71.
Haycock, K., & Policy Innovators in Education, N. (2012). Implementation of Common Core
State Standards: Roles for Advocates. Policy Innovators In Education Network,
Maxwell, L. A. (2013a). Consortia struggle with ELL provisions. Education Week, 32(27), 1–
17.
Mazur, A., & Doran, P. (2010). Teaching diverse learners: Principles for best practice.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Murillo, L. (2012). Learning from bilingual family literacies. Language Arts, 90(1), 18–29.
Shanahan, T. (2013). Letting the Text Take Center Stage: How the Common Core State
Standards Will Transform English Language Arts Instruction. American Educator, 37(3),
4-11.
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Walden University MS in Education Program
Formative Evaluative Criteria for Applications and Reflective Essays
Quality of Work
Submitted
A: Exemplary Work B: Graduate Level
Work
Work reflects
graduate-level
critical, analytical
thinking.
A= 4.00; A- = 3.75
Adherence to
Assignment
Expectations
The extent to which
work meets the
assigned criteria.
B+ = 3.50; B =
3.00; B- = 2.75
All of the previous,
plus the following: All of the
previous, plus the
following:
Assignment exceeds All parts of the
expectations,
assignment are
Integrating additional completed, with
material and/or
fully developed
information.
topics.
Assignment
demonstrates
exceptional breadth
and depth.
The work is
presented in a
thorough and
detailed manner.
C: Minimal Work
F: Work
Submitted but
Unacceptable
C+ = 2.50; C = 2.00;
C- = 1.75
F = 1.00
Most parts of
assignment are
completed.
The assignment
does not fulfill the
expectations of
the assignment.
Topics are not fully
developed.
Key components
are not included.
Assignment
demonstrates minimal Assignment lacks
depth and breadth.
breadth and
depth.
Assignment
demonstrates
appropriate breadth
and depth.
Assimilation and Assignment
Synthesis of Ideas demonstrates the
The extent to which
the work reflects the
student’s ability to:
Assignment
Assignment shows
demonstrates a
some degree of
ability intellectually to clear understanding understanding of the
explore and/or
of the assignment’s assignment’s purpose.
implement key
purpose.
instructional
concepts.
Assignment generally
Understand the
Assignment
applies theories,
assignment’s
Assignment
includes specific
concepts, and/or
purpose;
demonstrates
information from
strategies correctly,
Understand and exceptional inclusion course videos or
with ideas unclear
analyze material of major points, using required readings to and/or
in videos,
creditable sources**, support major
underdeveloped.
readings, and
in addition to course points.
discussions;
videos or required
Apply presented readings.
strategies
Assignment
shows a lack of
understanding of
the assignment’s
purpose.
Assignment does
not apply
theories,
concepts, and/or
strategies.
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CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSITY
**May include, but are
not limited to, scholarly
articles, collegial
discussions;
information from
conferences, in
service, faculty
development, and/or
meetings.
Assignment
demonstrates
insightful reflection
and/or critical
thinking.
Assignment
minimally includes
specific information
from course videos
Assignment
Assignment does not
or required
provides careful
include specific
readings.
consideration of key
information from
instructional
course videos or
concepts.
required readings.
Work is well
Written Expression Work represents
scholarly writing in a organized with
and Formatting
correct APA format. correct APA
formatting
The extent to which
throughout.
Work
is
unified
scholarly, critical,
around a central
analytical writing is
purpose with wellIdeas are clearly
presented in APA
developed ideas,
and concisely
format;
logically organized in expressed.
paragraph structure
Standard Edited
with clear transitions. Elements of
English (i.e. correct
effective
grammar, mechanics).
Effective sentence communication
such as an
variety; clear,
introduction and
concise, and
powerful expression conclusion are
included.
are evident.
Work is written in
Standard Edited
English. No
prominent errors
interfere with
reading.
Final Assignment
Grade
A: Exemplary
Work
Work somewhat
represents mature,
scholarly, graduatelevel writing, with
APA generally
followed.
The quality of writing
and/or APA
formatting are not
acceptable for
graduate-level work.
Major points do not
Ideas are not clearly reflect appropriate
and concisely
elements of
expressed.
communication.
Elements of
effective
communication
such as an
introduction and
conclusion are not
included.
No effort to express
ideas clearly and
concisely.
Work is not written in
Standard Edited
English. Contains
Work is written in
many grammatical or
Standard Edited
Work contains more mechanical errors.
English with few, if than a few
any, grammatical or grammatical, or
mechanical errors. mechanical errors.
B: Graduate
Level Work
C: Minimal Work
F: Work
Submitted but
Unacceptable
A = 4.00;
A- = 3.75
B+ = 3.50;
B = 3.00;
B- = 2.75
C+ = 2.50;
C = 2.00;
C- = 1.75
F = 1.00
It is expected that all applications and reflective essays will be submitted according to
the assignment due dates indicated. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the
faculty member if contacted by the student prior to the due date describing extenuating
circumstances.