Teaching in a Multicultural Classroom

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Teaching in a Multicultural Classroom

• By Karen Murwin
• Saint Leo University
• Pasco, FL.
• September 2005

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• Education is not the filling of the pail, but
  the lighting of a fire.
• William Butler Yeats

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TESOL Goals

• Goal 1 To use English to communicate in social
  settings.
• Goal 2 To use English to achieve academically in
  all content areas.
• Goal 3 To use English in socially and culturally
  appropriate ways.

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Getting to know your ELL

• Find out basic facts.
• Obtain as much information about the students
  prior school experience.
• Become aware of the students home culture.
• 4. Think of it as a treasure hunt. The opening
  of a childs mind is the greatest treasure.

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Your ELLs Culture

• You should find out
• -The family structure and members
• -The roles of children and behavior
• -Discipline, Values
• -Religion, Politics
• -Food
• -History, Holidays, and Celebrations
• Now that you have this great information, you can
  be aware of how your student might act,
  incorporate the students culture into your
  lessons, and help the student to get adjusted
  into the new environment.

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Easing Newcomers

• The two basic needs of every child are safety
  and security and a sense of belonging.
• You can accomplish this by assigning your ELL to
  a Buddy, by following predictable routines, and
  by incorporating the native culture into the
  class activities, lessons, and discussions.

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Other Ways to Ease ELLs

• -Flashcards
• -Print-rich classroom label classroom items with
  English and native translation if possible
• -Place ELL in the center of the classroom to
  maximize new language acquisition
• -Tour of School
• -Copy of vocabulary words to see and hear
• -Concrete Examples

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The ABCs of Effective Strategies to Teach
Various Linguistic Cultural BackgroundsDevelope
d by EDU 341 class in Spring 2005

• Ask ELLs to introduce their own culture
• Buddy with an English speaker
• Cooperative Learning
• Develop relationships
• Enhance lessons with visuals
• Form a community within the classroom
• Graphic organizers
• Hands on experiences
• Include pictures with new vocabulary

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• Strategies Continued. . .
• Journals
• Keep it simple
• Label items around classroom
• Maximize use of synonyms and antonyms
• Notice strengths and weaknesses
• One-on-one instruction
• Provide hands-on experiences
• Quitting is not an effective strategy
• Repeat

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• Strategies Continued. . .
• Smile
• Teach celebrate ELLs traditions/holidays
• Use scaffolding techniques
• Vary instruction and assessment
• Wait time for ELLs responses
• Xerox worksheets to transparencies
• Yack slowly
• Zigzag through classroom to be accessible

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Terrells Four Stages of SLASecond Language
Acquisition

• Pre-Production Student beginning to learn
  language
• -90 teacher talk
• -Student should be able to answer yes/no
  questions, point, select, circle, choose, draw,
  listen, match
• Early Speech Production Student is able to
  produce few words
• -50-60 teacher talk
• - Student should be able to answer who, what,
  where questions, one-word answers, name, label,
  tell, answer, list, categorize

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Terrells Four Stages of SLA Continued. . .

• Speech Emergence Student is able to use simple
  sentences
• -40-50 teacher talk
• - Student should be able to describe, compare,
  predict, evaluate, list, graph, problem solve,
  and answer how and why questions
• Intermediate Fluency Student is nearing
  proficiency
• -10 teacher talk
• - Student should be able to debate, create,
  analyze, evaluate, support answers, write essays,
  and complete complex problem solving activities

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References

• http//www.tesol.org/assoc/k12standards/it/07.html
  
• Peregoy, S. F. Boyle, F. (2005). Reading,
  Writing, Learning in ESL, K-12, 4/E. Allyn
  Bacon.
• All art gathered from Clickart from Broderbund
• For Further Information
• www.ldonline.org
• Florida Department of Education Office of
  Multicultural Student Language Education
• http//www.firn.edu/doe/omsle/