Andrea Simone
Cultural Diversity
1. Why is it important for teachers to reflect on cultural and linguistic diversity?
It is important for teachers to recognize the many similarities between cultures as
well as differences. The culture someone belongs to and the values they have
affect the way they learn. Teachers should also reflect on their own culture,
values, and behaviors, to gain a better understanding of themselves. Reflecting on
culture is important because teachers then can plan instruction accordingly. It is
important for teachers to reflect on linguistic diversity because it affects how the
students communicate with the teacher. A cultural diverse student may take the
body gestures of the teacher as rude or vice versa. Also teachers have to be
prepared to work with ESL students so that they are receiving the same fair
education that the English students are.
2. Explain the difference between BICS and CALP. Why is it necessary for teachers to
understand the distinction between these two types of language proficiency?
BICS is the basic interpersonal communicative skills. This is the skill that explains
that a student can understand the basic english conversations. The student would be
able to appropriate social interactions with others. CALP is the cognitive academics
language proficiency. It is often referred to as the academic language because it
implies that the student can apply and comprehend complex language for their
academics. It is necessary for teachers to understand and distinguish the two because
a student could be strong in social language but struggle with academic language
making it harder for them to learn. If the teacher works with the students they can
improve their academic language.
3. In the Challenge, Mr. Bennett wrote notes home to Maria's family. Why might this have
proved problematic? What other options might you recommend to Mr. Bennett for
communicating with Maria's parents?
Writing notes to Maria’s family may have been problematic because they just
moved from Mexico and may not know how to read the English language. He
also noted in the video that he tried to call them and left a message. There is a
great chance that they do not know how to speak English or understand his
message. I think that Mr. Bennett should have tried another approach to contact
the family. I think he should have attempted to find a translator. He could have
tried talking to the school social worker to help him contact and work with the
family. I think that it would have been a good idea to sit down with the social
worker and a translator to figure out a plan for reaching the family.
4. Mr. Stone, a teacher from a rural community where all the students share similar cultural
backgrounds, relocates to a large city where the students come from a wide variety of
cultural groups. He notices that many of his students are not performing well in class.
Upon self-reflection, he realizes that because of cultural differences these students may
not relate to his style of teaching or to the stories and examples he uses in class. What can
5. Mr.Stone do to become more culturally responsive and meet the diverse needs of these
students?
I think that Mr. Stone needs to come up with a plan to get to know his students
and their cultural backgrounds. I think he should have them do a “getting to know
me” project. I also think that Mr. Stone himself should complete the project so
that the students could understand a little more about his background. I also think
that Mr. Stone has to figure out how each of his students learn best this way he
could alter his instructions to meet the different needs of his students. Mr. Stone
could also talk to other teachers in the building to find out what they do to get the
students motivated and to get ideas for better instruction.