Shannon+Blady

Profoundly Multicultural Questions by Sonia Nieto, Educational Leadership, Dec/Jan 2003
 * U.S. schools need multicultural programs that are equitable, not band-aid approaches. So what if we provide an assembly of ethnic music for our kids... it doesn't mean much if we don't guarantee that they all receive music instruction.
 * Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP ) : "rather than deficits, students' backgrounds are assets that students can and should use in the service of their learning and teachers of all backgrounds should develop the skills to teach diverse students effectively."
 * Funds of knowledge
 * Nieto defines multicultural education as an anti-racist education that is firmly related to student learning and permeates all areas of schooling.
 * Achievement gap b/w white students and students of color was reduced by about half b/w 1970 and 1988, but it's been growing since then. Multicultural ed. and CRP cannot solve the problem alone. What else affects education? Sociopolitical context and the school policies and practices.
 * But first, educators need to ask profound multicultural questions :

**Who's taking Calculus?** Connects to college attendance. Such research may need to be highlighted to get the attention of certain recruiters. Teacher connections can have a profound effect on students of color, opening doors to privilege and power.
 * Which Classes Meet in the Basement?** These decisions paint a picture of the school's priorities. U.S. schools are becoming more separate and unequal.
 * Who's Teaching the Children?** Under-qualified teachers in low SES schools; Number of students of color is increasing while teachers of color declining. One study shows that the higher number of teachers of color can have great impact on white students, too.
 * How Much Are Children Worth?** Schools with wealthier parents are fortunate enough to live in towns that spend more on their education; 2002 NY State case ruled that kids who drop out of school by 8th grade received a sound basic education. Judge Lerner's rationale was that our workforce needs all levels of employees.

That concludes the article, but Nieto states that these are not the only questions we can ask in this endeavor. What are some other questions we should ask? Let's brainstorm as a group.

//How do schools connect to families? How do teachers encourage the diversity in the classroom so that diverse learners feel affirmed? Do teachers need global and glocal exposure to make the class interesting?

**Chapter 5 Writing to Live** Language cannot be an isolated study. As children talk, write, listen, and read to make understandings in every content area, they are learning about language. Within a content area unit of study you will see: Tapping Existing Knowledge Acquiring New Knowledge Processing and Making Connections Applying Knowledge Evaluating Knowledge

-Wondering about the world p. 85 Teach kids to know current events and to imagine and pose alternatives to the way things are now.

-Social Narrative: "a genre where students create fictional worlds drawing on shared cultural resources and where they use the writing to both construct and analyze these social worlds" (p.88). Kids should occasionally choose own topics to write about.

-Integrate Children's Lives into the Classroom Find out Personal stories Find out interests/ inquiry for study

- How to get kids writing: diaries, class diary, letter diaries (like Alicia described, where teacher and student communicate in writing in a journal), letters (school postal system), yearbooks, literature sets to help students better understand concepts they hear about on radio or TV or internet (war).

//I just had an idea: I may ask my kids to complete Logs next year. One child is responsible to log our learning, our activities, our connections, etc. through snippets, photographs, drawings. Then he or she can present them Monday morning the same way we do. We can see 'school' through his or her lens and the editing can be done in class. We train a few experts, and then they train each other.// //