Key Facets of a Platform for Best Practices with CLD Students
In order to be the most effective and efficient teacher possible, the first order of business needs to be relationship building with your students. If you don’t have a clear understanding of their home life, behavioral needs, educational concerns and culture, you can’t move them forward in a classroom setting. Leaving out even one component can lead to deficiencies that are hard to overcome later in their education. In addition, we need to use the four key facets of a platform of best practice with CLD students:
(1) language development and learning dynamics-Basic interpersonal communication skills give you the basis to build vocabulary and understanding. A recent article on www.education.com cites research that finds children without adequate vocabulary and social skills are at risk, “for difficulties including peer rejection, behavior problems, and poor academic achievement”. When we see these children in middle and high school who have not had adequate language development, they do not work well in groups, they are unable to cooperate or share and they have little respect for peers. Good classroom management in all grades will help promote these skills.
(2) sociopolitical and sociocultural realities-I find this piece is where many teachers fall short. We don’t mean to leave out culture and its importance in the learning process, we are just unclear as to how it fits into the puzzle. A website called “Teaching Tolerance” is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. It touches upon the possibility that educators who are concerned about gaps in education need to look to see if large chunks of their lessons are not applicable to all races, “Most of us in the education profession are white, middle-class, monolingual-English speakers. Increasingly, the same profile does not hold true for our students. Often, when we stand before our classrooms, the faces looking back at us do not look like our own. Many of us try to bridge this difference with an embrace of color-blindness or the Golden Rule, treating others the way we would want to be treated”. It finds culture is not just noticing a holiday or language, it is a lived experience that needs to be incorporated into a lesson.
(3) planning, implementation, and managing instruction-Too often National Standards for CLD students are glossed over as important but not fully implemented. Teachers must know their student’s academic abilities as individuals in order to be effective planners.
(4) professionalism, reflection, and evaluation of practice- to self-assess your professional practices-I believe taking full advantage of a districts professional development courses, peer reviews and continuous self evaluation and assessment go a long way in continuing to improve in all aspects of teaching. Too often, teachers get to the point where they believe they have such great classroom skills, there is no more to learn. I believe we can always grow in this profession and those who don’t move forward are left behind.
Resources:
McClelland, M. (2009). Processes That Support Development of Social Skills. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/social-skills1/
Unknown. (2012). Culture in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/culture-classroom
Professional Standards
The National Board for Professional Teaching (NBPTS)
Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE)
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Resources for Integrated Differentiated Strategies for Special Needs:
In order to be the most effective and efficient teacher possible, the first order of business needs to be relationship building with your students. If you don’t have a clear understanding of their home life, behavioral needs, educational concerns and culture, you can’t move them forward in a classroom setting. Leaving out even one component can lead to deficiencies that are hard to overcome later in their education. In addition, we need to use the four key facets of a platform of best practice with CLD students:
(1) language development and learning dynamics-Basic interpersonal communication skills give you the basis to build vocabulary and understanding. A recent article on www.education.com cites research that finds children without adequate vocabulary and social skills are at risk, “for difficulties including peer rejection, behavior problems, and poor academic achievement”. When we see these children in middle and high school who have not had adequate language development, they do not work well in groups, they are unable to cooperate or share and they have little respect for peers. Good classroom management in all grades will help promote these skills.
(2) sociopolitical and sociocultural realities-I find this piece is where many teachers fall short. We don’t mean to leave out culture and its importance in the learning process, we are just unclear as to how it fits into the puzzle. A website called “Teaching Tolerance” is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. It touches upon the possibility that educators who are concerned about gaps in education need to look to see if large chunks of their lessons are not applicable to all races, “Most of us in the education profession are white, middle-class, monolingual-English speakers. Increasingly, the same profile does not hold true for our students. Often, when we stand before our classrooms, the faces looking back at us do not look like our own. Many of us try to bridge this difference with an embrace of color-blindness or the Golden Rule, treating others the way we would want to be treated”. It finds culture is not just noticing a holiday or language, it is a lived experience that needs to be incorporated into a lesson.
(3) planning, implementation, and managing instruction-Too often National Standards for CLD students are glossed over as important but not fully implemented. Teachers must know their student’s academic abilities as individuals in order to be effective planners.
(4) professionalism, reflection, and evaluation of practice- to self-assess your professional practices-I believe taking full advantage of a districts professional development courses, peer reviews and continuous self evaluation and assessment go a long way in continuing to improve in all aspects of teaching. Too often, teachers get to the point where they believe they have such great classroom skills, there is no more to learn. I believe we can always grow in this profession and those who don’t move forward are left behind.
Resources:
McClelland, M. (2009). Processes That Support Development of Social Skills. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/social-skills1/
Unknown. (2012). Culture in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/culture-classroom
Professional Standards
The National Board for Professional Teaching (NBPTS)
Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE)
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Resources for Integrated Differentiated Strategies for Special Needs:
- Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004
- Council for Exceptional Children
- National Association for Gifted Children
- National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities
- National Center for Learning Disabilities
- AHEAD: Association on Higher Education and Disability