[LIT] diversity

[Krista Marvin]

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!)
>
>
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