Being knowledgeable about your students’ backgrounds and cultures
How could being knowledgeable about your students’ backgrounds and cultures inform your instructional planning? (1 page) How can demonstrating compassion, care, and empathy to the family build healthy relationships? What effect will this have on student well-being and success?
Sample Solution
Being knowledgeable about your student` backgrounds and cultures
As you teach content areas to English Language Learners (ELLs) of diverse backgrounds, you may find that they struggle to grasp the content, and that they approach the content from very different perspectives. Drawing on your students` background knowledge and experience, (such as cultures, educational systems, historical figures, musical and artistic traditions) can be an effective way to bridge those gaps and to make the content more accessible. Students need to connect with literature on three basic levels: text to text, text to self, and self to the world. All students bring something to the classroom. Becoming familiar with the backgrounds and/or prior knowledge of ELL students allows a teacher to engage students in literacy experiences that connect with their diverse backgrounds, thereby building on this knowledge.
