Discussing the Diversity Pedagogy Theory - Sarah Lawrence, Gretchen Sutto, Dong Feng

Bio: Gretchen Sutto - I am currently in the Master’s of Education program at Michigan State University concentrating on Literacy Education and Special Education. I teach middle school Spanish in Fenton, Michigan.
Bio: Sarah Lawrence - I am also currently in the Master’s of Education program via online concentrating on Literacy Education and Post Secondary Leadership. I teach fifth grade at an American International school in Shenzhen, China.

Sarah: The main reason this article spoke to me immediately is because is was written in such a straight forward, teacher friendly matter. I don’t know about the rest of you, but as a person who is teaching full time and grappling with the “theory of the month” that my school district sends our way, I really enjoy the vignettes because they bring the theory to life and help me see how I can actually apply it to my classroom practice.
I agree with Sheets that culture and cognition are inseparable and I am pleased to see that this is being dealt with finally in academic practices. I have taught in very different, diverse settings and each time I find that the “good teaching” that worked in one setting doesn’t necessarily perfectly fit in another. When I taught in an urban setting in Phoenix, I used a lot of collaborative group work and brought music and art into the classroom as much as possible. Also, the classroom was lively and filled with debate and movement. I now use much of the same in my classroom in China, but when I started the year off with the expectation that my students would be talkative and ready to immediately share their ideas, I was wrong. It was something we had to work up to and my natural approach to teaching was not necessarily the best fit for my students. I was wondering if any of you have ever noticed this in your own teaching careers?
One part of the article that as of late has been an ongoing theme at my school is the misconceived idea that quiet classrooms equal places of learning. My students always seem to be in the midst of “organized chaos”. I tend to switch things up often so we don’t always follow the exact same schedule from day to day. Also, where assignments are concerned, I encourage a lot of discussion and movement around the room. I want students to use the bulletin boards they’ve helped to create and to use each other as collaborators in their learning.
The ongoing debate at our school is that if there is so much movement and discussion, are the kids necessarily learning. My students’ projects are reflections of fifth grade work, but it is their work. They were part of the process from the beginning to the end. However, the bulletin boards and displayed projects around the school often are teacher created and teacher directed. They look nicer and based on appearance, look as though the students have learned more but if the students had very little control in their learning and simply followed directions, how much did they actually learn? I see my students grow so much through the process of building something to demonstrate their learning. They learn to communicate with one another, especially by working through their disagreements. Sure, I could interrupt them and put them back on track immediately but how will they ever learn to effectively overcome disputes? Sometimes the end project isn’t what they or I envisioned, but usually, when the students are given more time to reflect on the process, they create something amazing with a second opportunity.
My administrator often visits my classroom and points out the “extra” discussion that takes place during lessons. It reminded me of the vignette from this piece, “Helping with Seatwork”. I know he sees this as a distraction from his perspective and that I am unable to control my class. However, I often wonder that if I do it his way- stand up and deliver a lesson with very little input from my students, if they would develop as much in their character and effective communication. I try to encourage them to practice their English as much as possible, but why should Amy suffer the inability to comprehend a math problem when a bit of translation will make it clear for her?
I feel like I’m rambling a bit. What vignettes spoke to you the most? In what ways do you feel like you are practicing the diversity theory in your own classrooms? I think what this piece best exemplifies is the idea that, to be a culturally responsive teacher, having diverse literature or posters on the walls reflecting diversity is not enough. You must incorporate this theory into every aspect of your teaching. That idea in itself is very powerful.

Gretchen - Diversity Theory is the one that “spoke” to me the most while I was reading. Culture plays such an important role in education, and the teacher needs to understand his/her audience. I did not present information in the same way when I taught high school in a mixed-culture setting as I do now in a predominantly white middle school setting. Sheets states that Diversity pedagogy “clearly recognizes the powerful, active role students play in their learning.” I remember when I was earning my teaching certificate, we had to read “The First Days of School” by Harry Wong. In the book, Wong talked about the teachers going home refreshed and the students going home tired. I thought this was backwards when I first read it. I don’t remember ever going home exhausted when I was a student. But I did remember teaching my first class for my mid-tier that I needed to take a nap after because I was so tired! Then I realized that I, the teacher, was doing all of the work. I was trying to force the information into the brains of my students. Have you ever felt like this? Like you were the ones doing all of the work while the students just took a backseat to their learning? Wong understood that this thought-process was backwards. The students should be the ones doing the work. They should not be passive in their studies, just killing time in school before it was time to go home. Instead, the should be actively learning. I have been a big fan of this ever since I really understood what it meant. Now, my classroom is full of partner work, projects to prove their understanding, and lots of conversation in the target language (for a Spanish class). Students are constantly talking in the language, writing and reading stories, and just plain communicating - all of which take a lot more work on their part than just completing a worksheet! A lot of other teachers hear that my class is louder than the others, and they think that is a bad thing. But how can I teach a language without all of the communication? I call my classroom “Controlled Chaos,” and it works well. What kinds of activities do you use in your classroom to have the students be active as opposed to passive in their education? The example of the non-Spanish speaking teacher and Pedro really struck a chord with me. This year, I have a seventh grade student from Iran who speaks Farces. She is struggling to learn English and Spanish at the same time, which is no easy task. While the other students understand what a “cat” is, they have a visual in their heads and can easily understand that in Spanish, a cat is “gato.” Well, this student does not know what the word “cat” is, so “gato” has no meaning to her. The other students in my class have really taken this student under their wings by looking through magazines and on the Internet to make picture cards for her. So now she can visually see what a cat looks like, and the word “gato” has meaning to her. The students understand that there is a Language Learning Barrier, and they have taken it upon themselves to make sure that she feels safe and important in the classroom. Do you have any experiences like this? Did any of the examples or vignettes strike a similar chord with you? Diversity Theory is so important to teachers. We must remember our audience and teach to it. Each age and culture group has its own identity. If we don’t recognize this, we will be doing all the work while students take a backseat to their education.

Sarah - What kinds of activities do you use in your classroom to have the students be active as opposed to passive in their education? This is one of my favorite questions in education. This year I am “The Team” as the only fifth grade teacher, and I miss the collaboration that happens with learning teams. I have spent the last three years focusing on strategies that help second language learners comprehend academic content. First, I am constantly using the obvious: visuals, video clips, music, and acting out. I also use a lot of sentence starters to help students frame their responses. Often this tiny step makes a big difference for the kids who aren’t sure where to begin to demonstrate what they’ve learned. I’ve also started a study buddy group in the classroom. Everyone has a partner and their job after learning the material themselves is to ensure that their partner equally understands it. This has been such an asset in the classroom because the children have begun to be concerned not only with personal gain but gains within the whole classroom. Even though our classroom is English only, I still encourage interpreting because most of my students, like your student from Iran, are learning English as a third language. Student have collaborated on every science unit to create a Mandarin/English glossary that they will be adding to moodle for next year’s fifth graders. One other activity that has helped immensely with active learning is our “Great Walls of Learning”. Throughout the year a group of three students is assigned to a wall for each content area. They decorate the bulletin boards, choose the projects they want to display, create the word wall and create a concept map that demonstrates the “Big Ideas”. The kids have really taken this project in and have ownership for it. Also, it’s build community in the room because the kids see the classroom as their own. They love showing guests “Their Wall” and they do an excellent job because they are allowed to use the walls during all quizzes, projects, etc. What do you do to promote active learning?

Dong - Hi, Sarah, I totally understand your situation in China, because I am also experiencing the different culture/idea about education here in the States. In China, educators always think we need to give the students knowledge, just like filling up a container. The much you give them, the more they should get. However, in the States, it is the opposite way. Students are always encouraged to think and share their own idea about a topic/problem. At the beginning of my teaching here, I was always frustrated that the students were always talking during my teaching. I was unhappy, feeling being unexpected. Later on, I found that they were talking about something more or less related to the language points or cultural phenomena we were learning. Sometimes, through their discussion, they get a very good way to remember a Chinese character, like a funny story, etc. I want to say that don’t be frustrated, and keep doing what your are doing. I really like your example of the student learning math through English. It is like an immersion program. We also have this kind of Chinese program in my school districts here. I know how fantastic it is.

Hi, Gretchen, i love your example of the girl from Iran in your class learning the word “cat” in Spanish. I am also teaching a foreign language here in the U.S., and I had the same feeling as you. However, the difference between our teaching is that your target language has more context here in the States (a lot of people speak Spanish), but my target language does not. So, it is especially important, for me to create a Chinese speaking environment in my classroom. The culture plays a very important role here.

Dong Feng - This article really works for me as a Mandarin teacher in a different country. The Diversity Pedagogy Theory links culture, cognition and schooling together, which is especially important in my class. First, it is very important to know the diversity of your students, which was a big challenge for me since we usually do not do in China. In China teachers always teaching all the students using the same strategy, and follow the same national curriculum traditionally. Traditionally educators think there are certain amount of knowledge that the students need to know, so they always give the students the knowledge, just like filling a container. Although we are actually making changes in our education, I still got a big shock when I first arrived here and teach in an American school. The students are culturally much more diverse that students in China, since there are a huge amount of immigrants in the States. Also, students’ learning styles are very different. Above all, I was really struggling at the first year of my teaching, and gradually, I get used to it. Second, learning Chinese here is very difficult for the students, because it is totally different language and there is no such a context for them to use/practice the target language outside my classroom. In this way, the culture plays an very important part. For example, when I explain the character for GOOD in Chinese, which has two parts, a symbol for female, and a symbol for son, I need to explain the traditional culture in ancient China. At that time, people always do agriculture and males played a very important role since they are stronger than women. So in ancient time, people prefer to have a son than a daughter because they think the son can help doing agriculture more than a daughter. (Just in ancient China, not modern time) When our ancestors created the characters for GOOD, they put FEMALE and SON together, meaning when a lady has a son, it is very GOOD. Another aspect for culture diversity in Chinese language class is that there is no such a context that the students can practice their language, so cultural experience like field trip to a Chinese restaurant shows great importance. Also, activities like calligraphy writing helps a lot for them to practice Chinese characters. Above all, I think this article really helped me, and I enjoyed it.

Gretchen - Dong - Thanks for sharing a bit about Chinese symbols and how you go about teaching it. I love languages and have always been curious as to how you would go about introducing symbols to students who have not had previous experience with them. It makes perfect sense to me now that two (or more?) symbols ar put together to make one word. Very cool!