Copy of A Peek at Diversity in the Multicultural Classroom: The Art of Putting Students First

Welcome to what will be an exciting new series, which will focus on strategies, resources, and research on how to plan, develop, and execute engaging lessons in a multicultural classroom.

Contrary to popular belief, one does not feel a sense of dread or weariness when a lesson is successful. It doesn’t matter how much time was spent in putting it together. Teachers feel a sense of pride, of accomplishment and true joy when their students so well, even more so, when the lesson they worked hard on planning aids in a student’s ability to do well.

Why a Multicultural Classroom?

For all my new teachers, or those who are thinking of entering the profession, let’s talk a little about what a multicultural classroom looks like. “Multicultural classrooms are classrooms that embrace diversity and incorporate ideas, beliefs, or people from different countries and cultural backgrounds. Several cultural perspectives are put together to enable students to get a truly international education,” (The Advantages of a Multicultural Classroom, n.d.). In these engaging classrooms, students not only begin to chart their own experiences as well as learn through the vicarious experiences of others.

It is therefore important for students to be a part of an engaging multicultural diverse classroom because, “it exposes students to various cultural and social groups, preparing students to become better citizens in their communities and equips students with culturally responsive teaching strategies will help you to promote diversity in the classroom,” (Drexel University School of Education, 2023).

As a means of not just using my own experiences as data, I engaged 8 teachers in a short action research. As these teachers completed surveys which focused on strategies, they used in a multi-cultural classroom several details were revealed. The participants expressed through the survey that they did not possess enough knowledge of teaching strategies to involve multimodal ones in their lessons.

Furthermore, they mentioned that even with the limited knowledge they possess, that they had to spend a lot of time dealing with disciplinary issuer or fulfilling the requirements of their administrators as a means of compliance.

Some of these responses are shared by many of you reading this article. However, there is hope. Before you become boggled down with the politics of teaching and focusing on compliance rather that engagements, I would like you to look at some tips I have followed or have learnt lately:

Student-centered Instructional Methods

• Learn who your students are at the beginning of the school year.

• Draw on multiple subjects and disciplines to show students how problem-solving works — in the real world, grounding their learning in practical real-life scenarios.

• Allow students to teach or present frequently so that they are the focus.

• Ensure tasks focus on aligned content so students can make connections with what they have learned.

Diverse Learner Strategies

• Do not have all students doing the same thing at the same time.

• Create centers so that students can choose tasks they feel they will be most successful at.

• Group students periodically based on learning styles so that tasks can be reassigned.

• Procure resources that speaks to various learning styles, even these resources are just for leisure activities like independent reading time.

Teacher Perceptions

• Be adaptable and flexible so you can between different theories of learning and modes of teaching without becoming immobilized by stress or indecision.

• Practice empathy instead of making assumptions so that you can understand your students’ intentions and experiences.

• Exhibit patience so it becomes easier for you to work through each student’s unique struggles and challenges, which may be difficult or slow-going to overcome.

• Take care of yourself. Take a mental health day, relax. Don’t overdo it. Your well being is just as important as your students. A haggard teacher is of little use to their students.
  

Classroom Management Techniques

The CDC (2021), highlights that the best practices for classroom management include:

•    establishing rules, routines, and expectations

• reinforcing positive behavior through praise

• consistently enforcing consequences for misbehavior

• maximizing structure

• fostering student engagement by including opportunities for active student participation

Lesson Plan Development Strategies.

• Outline learning objectives that will match the benchmark/ standard of focus.

• Research resources that will be used to align student learning to assessment of the benchmark/standards.

• Consider the dynamics of your classroom and how your students would best learn that portion on content.

• Plan specific learning activities, preparing several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles, (Milkova, 2021).

• Plan checks for understanding and higher order thinking questions and seamlessly integrate them into the lesson.

• Create a realistic timeline, pacing the lesson so that students have enough tome to grasp the concepts but not too much time to diminish rigor.

• Be reflective after execution. Make notes of things that can be changed or concepts you may need to reteach.

Just so I do not leave you confused or wanting, I have added this overview of my action research with additional strategies and tips to help you really make your classroom the place to be.

Conclusion

Overwhelmed?

No, you aren’t. All this comes with practice. As a new teacher, the experiences will help you to become stronger and better. We teach different students every year and sometimes, even wit the same learning styles, our students will still learn differently. As I said, it comes with practice. The onus is on us to ensure that all our students have the same opportunities to learn. The strategies are many and so are the theories. I would encourage you to consider your teaching journey as a road where learning never ends, and failure is not an option. Keep finding new strategies and techniques, try them and assess how useful they are and if they work, keep using them, if they don’t, try new ones. Most importantly, don’t give up. The stronger the bonds between you and your students, the easier it will be to plan with them as your focus.

Finally, they may not tell you, but, your students love you…its always good to let them know you love them too. And as the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, just keep trying.

Until next time, happy teaching.

Yanique Williams.

References

‌Classroom Management | Adolescent and School Health | CDC. (2021, August 18). Www.cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/safe-supportive-environments/classroom-management.html

Drexel University School of Education. (2023, February 6). The Importance of Multicultural Education. School of Education. https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/importance-of-cultural-diversity-in-classroom/#:~:text=Naturally%2C%20by%20exposing%20students%20to

‌ Milkova, S. (2021). Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning. Crlt.umich.edu; University of Michigan. https://crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5

National University. (2022, October 26). Qualities of a Good Teacher: The 14 Qualities That Top Our List. National University. https://www.nu.edu/blog/qualities-of-a-good-teacher/

The Advantages of a Multicultural Classroom. (n.d.). Www.canadianinternationalschool.com. https://www.canadianinternationalschool.com/blogs/the-advantages-of-a-multicultural-classroom#:~:text=Multicultural%20classrooms%20are%20classrooms%20that

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