Ms. Davitt

Please respond to Michele’s questions/comments after reading her summary on blackboard.

The most important question is what would you change, if anything, about Ms. Wright’s approach?
I think that these LEP students need another option in learning English. Ms. Wright should make the LEP students have a fun activity that helps them improve their English instead of just the drills on the computer. For example, she could pair up an LEP student with a non-LEP student at the computers. They could work together on the course content plus it could help the LEP student work on his or her English language by being with the non-LEP student.

I think Ms. Wright should talk to Juan and Vicki separately since they pointed out that her drills were boring and explain to them her next plan to pair them up as mentioned above. She could then reevaluate as to whether or not this plan was more effective than the last one. If the LEP students do not succeed in keeping up with the course content then, I would think that her idea of incorporating the computer culture with culture was again not efficient and she should therefore find other ways of teaching the course.

Other options I would possibly do include switching the computer programs up to make it more stimulating for the LEP students or offering additional help before or after school to these LEP students so that they won’t fall behind and then they could maybe join the non-LEP students in enrichment computer programs.

After reading the summary via Blackboard respond to the following:

Questions for Reflection:
The most important question is what steps could Ms. Rice have taken in order to prevent such parent misunderstanding?

I think this case study can be used as a discussion point for the larger issue of parents and students misunderstanding the intentions of the teacher. The best solution to this problem is clear, consistent communication with the parents. My son’s religion teacher emails the parents every Friday with an outline of topics that will be covered the following week. This allows the parents the opportunity to express any concerns before the lesson is taught.

The second alternative is to clearly state the intention of the lesson to the students to minimize any misunderstanding. I think that if Ms. Rice had mentioned several different cultures in addition to the Eskimos it might have made the lesson more effective. For example, many Chinese parents move in with their children and help raise their grandchildren. Their children are then available to help take care of them if and when it is necessary and it is not viewed as burden. If the lesson highlighted the respect many cultures have for their elders there would not have been a misunderstanding with the students or the parents.

After reading the accommodations checklist, please discuss how you would accommodate or adapt curriculum for all of these students in one classroom.

Read the case and answer the following:

How could the classroom be better prepared to prevent this situation? How could the teachers have prepared Thao for the changes in his schedule? How could they have prepared the other students?

After reading case 13, respond to the following:

Discuss different ideas of how you would have or could have handled this situation differently.

Discuss ways of having a follow up lesson (or mini lesson) with your students about cultural diversity in the classroom.

Answer the following response questions.  Make at least 1 comment or idea to enhance another person’s answer to number 3.

1.  What does Ms. McMullen know about the importance of diversity?

2.  What is the educational value in incorporating two subjects into one lesson?

3.  How might you design a lesson in your subject matter area in which you connect your subject to another content area?