Our diversity consists mainly of Yupik Eskimo and Inupiaqu Eskimo. Our teachers try to be as knowledgeable as they can about the ways of learning accepted in those cultures and use those methods as part of our instructional techniques to bridge the gap between the differences at home and at school. We also try to reflect that diversity in the reading selections available to students and we write about culturally relevant issues. We try to reinforce that there is an academic language acceptable for school that is not the same as the language structures they may use at home or with their friends. Often this means having the students rewrite assignments to reflect a more formal level of language, or the teacher paraphrasing what a student says to model the academic language. We reiterate that we use different forms of language for different purposes/ contexts. Hope that makes sense. Krista On Nov 11, 2007, at 7:35 AM, Bill IVEY wrote:
> Hi! > > I've been participating in a discussion on MiddleTalk about diversity, > prompted by a blog posted to the New York Times: > http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/understand/index.html? > ref=opinion > > This got me to wondering, how do each of you, in your individual > schools/towns/districts/states/countries, deal with issues of > diversity in > your classroom? I'll keep the question deliberately broad for now, > since > there are so many different ways to approach it. > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham School > (successfully procrastinating since 8:00 this morning!) > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http:// > literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
