CaseStudy380
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
A culturally relevant pedagogy encompasses a learning ecology that is responsive to culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, as well as being culturally relevant. It requires thoughtful planning, continuous learning, and critical reflection on one's most deeply held beliefs and assumptions (Communities of Cultural Wealth or CCW). The educator uses the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as a conduit for teaching more effectively. To do this, there is an agreed need for the following:
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Hold high expectations
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Value families' and students' way of thinking
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Create contexts where all voices are provided an opportunity to be heard
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Create classroom ecologies that care and respect the student, regardless of background
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Use what is learned about students' biographies to plan lessons that are meaningful to the learner
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In my project, I worked with four 4th grade students from Elk Creek Elementary in New Castle, Colorado. We would regularly meet (at least once a week) for differentiated lessons, important announcements, or just to talk. The purpose was to support my students' comprehension and storage of new content and language input by building on their funds of knowledge. Throughout the semester, I encouraged, supported, and motivated my students by placing them at the center of my teaching and their learning. It was how I developed my community of learners on their educational journey (Herrera, Biography-Driven Culturally Responsive Teaching (2nd ed.), 2016).
Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Major Theories & Instructional Approaches
Behaviorist
Cognitivist
Major SLA Theories
Constructivist
Learning is the result and response to a stimulus. It is the grammar-based approach Get it right from the beginning like I Do, You Do, We Do (G.R.R.).
Learning is an inner mental activity. It is the comprehension-based (immersion) approach Just listen...and read like a lecture with Krashen's input+1.
Learning to create their own representations of objective reality. This is the task-based approach Let's talk like the cognitive (CALLA) and social (communicative) aspects.
Humanism
Learning is student centered and personal for self-actualization. It is a self-realization approach to supply our needs as human beings.
Connectivist
Social learning that is networked. It is the technology-theory of instruction.
Accommodation Readiness Spiral
Looking Through the Cultural Lens
The Accommodation Readiness Spiral was developed to better prepare educators to accommodate culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students to improve both their academic and cognitive development in the classroom. The goal of this model is to nurture the mutual accommodation between the teacher and the CLD student. This means, that there is a reciprocal relationship between the two. Therefore, this spiral bridges and maximizes the connection between school and family. The spiral is made up of six different levels:
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Readiness for Critical Reflection
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Readiness for CLD Students & Families
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Environmental Readiness
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Curricular Readiness
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Programming & Instructional readiness
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Readiness for Application & Advocacy
Cummin's Quadrant
BICS & CALP
Cummin’s framework for the range of contextual support and degree of cognitive development in communicative activities is based on two intersecting continua. The first continuum considers context-embedded vs. context-reduced communicative situations. Context-embedded situations allow CLD students to use paralingual cues, such as body language, visual tools, and gestures to actively construct meaning. The second continuum considers situations that are cognitively undemanding (BICS) vs. cognitively demanding (CALP). Cognitively demanding situations require cognitive engagement, abstract thinking, and use of cognitive skills such as identifying, analyzing, and discussing. This results in four quadrants - Quadrant A, Quadrant B, Quadrant C, and Quadrant D. Cummin’s three critical processes influencing second language acquisition are as follows:
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Development of communicative competence in the target language
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Different cognitive and contextual demands on language competence
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The correlations between first and second language development
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Biography-Driven Instruction (BDI)
Prism Model
Biography-Driven Instruction (BDI) views the many facets that define the individuality of each student in a classroom as assets for teaching and learning. This instruction depends on the four interrelated dimensions of the CLD student biography (Prism Model):
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Sociocultural Dimension
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Linguistic Dimension
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Cognitive Dimension
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Academic Dimension
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The four dimensions together are the foundation for understanding linguistic and academic growth for CLD students. These dimensions form the basis for all teaching and learning, as well as the challenges and processes that go along with them.
