Denise Vernstrom
EDUC 2025 Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms
Andrea Coffey
April 5, 2013
The Teacher—A Powerful Influence
The attributes of a good teacher are said to be knowledgeable, articulate,
innovative, patient, committed, ability to find joy in teaching, and that they are
“alive” meaning engaged in the needs of their students.” Every child needs and
deserves dedicated outstanding teachers who know their subject matter, are
effectively trained, and know how to teach to high standards and to make learning
come alive for students”. (Koch 2012) It is said that the influence and impact of a
teacher often outweighs the influence of the student’s parental support. With that in
mind, it is crucial that every student be encouraged, motivated, and given the same
opportunity to succeed. The teacher can become the driving force that may cause
the student to either give up and quit or sour with their strengths and succeed in
life.
The characteristics of highly effective teachers in a culturally responsive
classroom today are similar to the attributes of a good teacher, but a teacher in
these classrooms needs to be open to learn, think outside the box, and be totally
impartial. These teachers need to be able to embrace ALL students in their
classroom regardless of race, creed, sex, economic status, and country of origin.
Vernstrom 1
Respect and equality are at the center core of these classrooms. The words “highly
effective” are usually associated with results, productivity standards and test
scores. One of the most important roles of a teacher in an inclusive culturally
diverse classroom is to create oneness and community. In order for a teacher to be
an effective educator in a culturally diverse classroom, they will need to get to
know and understand the culture backgrounds, communication styles, family
structures and learning styles of the students in their classrooms.
A highly effective teacher in a culturally diverse classroom would look for
and include activities that would embraced the cultures of the students in that
classroom. When reading assignments are selected and geared towards the interests
and cultures of the students in the classroom the assignments will help to build
community while broadening the knowledge of the learners. Sentence structure,
grammar, language arts, and reading comprehension can be taught from any story,
but will be more effective when a student is given a story to read that they can
relate to. Geography and history lessons can be expanded to include more in depth
information about some of the countries that the students in these classrooms
immigrated and originate from. Students could be given the opportunity to bring in
artifacts and family heirlooms when their country of origin is being studied. By
including this activity into the classroom curriculum the teacher would be able to
help to build community while building the communication skills of each student.
Vernstrom 2
At the end of the each unit or at the end of the year the students could celebrate
their cultural heritage on a day established as “Celebrating Classroom Culture
Day”. The Celebrating Classroom Cultural Day would give the teacher an
opportunity to include the parents and grandparents in this celebration of diversity
and community. Building a relationship with the parents of the students in a
culturally diverse classroom is a huge factor in the success of each student as well.
In addition, a highly effective teacher in a culturally diverse classroom has to
open to more than one right answer, sometimes. It is important to understand the
frame of reference and perceptions that the students have when teaching particular
subjects. A story that I came across in education textbook is one that I may never
forget and it explains this philosophy better than I can.” A teacher asked a class
what color apples are. Most of the children said, ‘Red’… a few answered, ‘Green’,
and one child raised his hand with another answer: ‘White.’ The teacher patiently
explained that apples were red or green or yellow but they were never white. The
student persisted. Finally he said, ‘Look inside’.” ( Koch 2012) If students in these
classrooms are coming from all different cultural backgrounds it stands to reason
that they would understand the meanings and concepts of things to be different. A
highly effective teacher would need to understand and adapt their teaching with
this philosophy if they want to effective teaches every student in their classroom..
Vernstrom 3
African American students will communicate and learn differently than
Asian and American Indian students. African American students may respond
verbally to each question asked in the classroom without even raising their hands
before responding. Asian and Indian students may not respond at all and if they do
they will respond with their face down with few words and little any eye contact. It
is important to realize that these students are communicating and responding to the
teacher according to the way that they were culturally taught to respond. A highly
effective teacher will understand that these students are not being disrespectful to
the teacher when responding to questions in the classroom. The teacher in a
culturally diverse classroom should use all of the above knowledge to format
classroom guidelines that will effectively help to manage the classroom while
taking the cultural backgrounds into consideration when making them.
In conclusion, an effective teacher is a fair and consistent educator that takes
the cultural background of each student into consideration when planning and
formatting teaching assignments. ” A teacher’ purpose is not to create students in
his or hers own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.”
Vernstrom 4
Bibliography
KOCH, JANICE. "TEACH." KOCH, JANICE. TEACH. Wadsworth, 2012.
Vernstrom 5