Standard 9 Cultural Sensitivity: Establishes a culturally inclusive learning climate that facilitates academic engagement and success for all students.
The artifact for this standard is an integration and exercise paper written for the Culturally Responsive Teaching course. I included lectures, essays from a textbook and views of Schlesinger on cultural integration in the United States to formalize my beliefs on multicultural education and how I planned on including those in my classroom. I considered a variety of views and cultural figures from both sides of the argument. I concluded that there is no denying the multicultural aspect of most schools today and this phenomenon should be celebrated, not ignored. I condensed my opinions into three points: be aware of culture in your own life and the lives of your students, remember all cultures share common goals, and value and include everyone’s culture when the opportunity arises. I planned on including cultures into my curriculum throughout the entire year and not during special holidays or months.
Artifact: Integration and Action Paper
The second artifact which reflects my completion of this standard is a response paper I wrote to an article by Arthur Schlesinger. Schlesinger was a against multicultural education and believed strongly that a common American culture would make this country strong. I analyzed his views while offering my criticisms as well as some points of agreement. This paper showed why I thought multicultural education in an inclusive learning environment would facilitate the academic engagement of all students and encourage academic success.
Artifact: Schlesinger Response Paper
The evolution unit is designed using the Understanding by Design (UbD) format includes a variety of ways to assess study learning. Throughout the course of the unit, various formative assessments will gather data on how quickly the student is learning the material and what gaps exist. Information on the student’s learning style can also be gathered from the performance on these assessments. At the end of the unit,sSome students may be more comfortable and successful with a verbal assessment which is what the Socratic Seminar assesses at the end of the unit. Others may rather show their knowledge by writing it which is what the unit tests assesses. Learners of all cultures and abilities are able to demonstrate their mastery of these standards with a variety of assessments.
Artifact: UbD Evolution Unit
