One of the things that this article brought to my attention is that students have trouble picking answers on standardized tests because of what their dialect features. These students are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to taking these types of tests. This is where the second topic I have learned comes into play. "Code switching" is something I think highly of. We've had this discussion in class about "proper English"; if it's a legitimate thing and if it should be taught in our classrooms. By teaching code-switching students are able to stay within their dialect but are also able to understand how language works in other variations. I also learned that keeping students' dialects in the classroom makes them more willing to share their ideas in class through speaking, reading, and writing. The fear of saying or writing something on a piece of paper the wrong way should not hold anyone back from success.
This article portrays culturally responsive teaching by building bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experiences and acknowledges the legitimacy of the cultural heritages as worthy content to be taught in the formal curriculum. The teachers in this article kept their students dialect in their classroom and didn't force them to speak "proper English" at school. They acknowledged the students' background and used it to their advantage. What students bring from home is vital to how they learn. By keeping these two things in mind, their students were able to learn with full advantages.
An experience I've had in school relating to culturally responsive teaching happened in third grade. My teacher used to tell us "Ain't fell into a bucket of paint and was never heard of again". "Ain't" clearly isn't a part of Standard English, but in our dialect people use it all the time. Students were constantly corrected for they way they spoke. I'm sure this teacher meant no harm by correcting all the time. She thought she was doing her job. Little did she know that she was hindering students learning experiences by making them shy away from sharing in the classroom.
The link below is a blog posting from a teacher who made being culturally responsive a big part of her instruction. What I like about this post is how she reflects that she wasn't allowing the students to bring their culture into her room as much as she thought. It made me realize how fine the line is between being culturally responsive and teaching "our culture".
Early Years Blog
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