Culturally responsive teaching is a topic that has been hammered into pre-service teachers’ heads for quite some time. It wasn’t until after I created my “Where I am From” photo story that I realized how essential culturally responsive teaching truly is for learning. After making my digital photo story, I understand that it is vital to dig deep into each student’s culture so curriculum can be planned and executed to fit each student’s conditions. I feel that all teachers need to tap into students funds of knowledge to make classrooms more wide-range and to help gather instructional strategies, just as Luis Moll discovered.
By having students complete a digital story, the teacher will be able to adjust curriculum based on community resources learned throughout the each student’s photo story. Additionally, subsequent to learning about each student’s cultural background, I would be able to eliminate some of the cultural deficits I might have formed in my head because I will know how to work around those assumptions and stereotypes. I then won’t have an excuse to stereotype that students aren’t learning due to their family, community, and culture; I will know how to help my students learn best after getting specifics on these. According to Jason Irizarry, the blame for cultural deficit model should not just be on families and communities but also schools. It is schools and teachers responsibility to give all students the best opportunity for educational success.
This project is an open-ended assignment that can accommodate many learning styles. All students are diverse learners; the photo story accommodates reading and writing, aural, and kinesthetic learners. Writing the poem, entering text on the video, and writing comments to other students are all ways to help reading and writing learners. Aural learners could have spoken throughout their digital story instead of typing the poem. This project is wonderful for kinesthetic learners because the students are making the video using the computer, which is hands-on learning. Being culturally responsive also means catering to each student’s individual needs and learning styles throughout the learning process. I personally loved completing this culturally responsive activity because of the various learning styles it touched upon. I learn well using all three of the learning styles used.
Another positive aspect for students after they complete a digital story on where they are from is that they will be examining their background, community, family, heritage, customs, stereotypes, etc. This will promote an understanding of their language, literacy, and power. Personally, I was gleaming with cultural pride after I created my digital story. I was proud to be from the country, proud to be from West Virginia, proud to be from Valley Furnace, proud of my background, and proud of my family. This would also help the students feel a sense of cultural pride, and that it is okay to be different from others. Students will then get a sense of a cultural capital from where they are from and how they got there. After viewing my peer’s digital stories, I realized that many of us have similar backgrounds, while some of us were very different. However, we all had one thing in common; we were proud!
Providing students with culturally responsive activities is vital in today’s education system. Out of all the culturally responsive activities I have completed throughout my life, this was the most beneficial, as well as my favorite. Creating an open-ended assignment, such as this digital story about where I am from, really helped me learn about “where I am from.” I was reopened to my past, as well as my present. Being culturally responsive to my life will also lead me into my future. Furthermore, I became aware of my classmates and feel that we now are more like a community of learners bonded together instead of just peers. My classmates and I have different experiences. This helped me become conscious about what Victoria Purcell-Gates discussed in her article. All students have different experiences or even a lack of experiences. Knowing about my students experiences will help me base my instructional strategies to benefit them. This photo story assignment is something that I look forward to using in my classroom someday as a culturally responsive teaching method.
References:
Irizarry, J. (2006). Cultural deficit model. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/cultural-deficit-model/
Moll, L. Amanti, C. Neff, D. & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: using a
qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, XXXI (2), 132-144.
Purcell-Gates, V. As soon as she opened her mouth!: issues of language, literacy, and power.
(pp. 122-139).
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