Plethora of Teaching Strategies - Essay Example

Education Number There exist various African-American cultural traits that can go a long way in helping us understand the behavior of African-American students in the classrooms. These include things such as responsibilities of siblings and adults (family roles), gender roles, degree of urbanization, generations in the United States, expectations of schools, language, and ways of learning, and so on. But perhaps the most important trait that explains these tendencies is religion. In as much as America is generally a religious nation, it is African-Americans who rank highest in matters such as religious levels of affiliation, attendance in services of religion, prayer frequencies and the esteemed importance of religion in life. According to recent survey (2007), approximately 90% of African-Americans are fully committed to a particular religious group – the highest statistic compared to other groups in the United States. Religion has played a great role in the marked improvement in academic performances of most African-Americans and has been one of the reasons for the reduced dropout rates of African-Americans over the years (Dewey, 1938). Ethics and morals are often associated with religion. Religion champions for virtues such as respect for one another, tolerance to varied views, active listening, engagement in constructive dialogue, hard work, honesty, and so on – all of which are attributes that promote success in the classroom set up and aids in keeping students in schools. It also promotes the ethos of opening up freely about concerns or problems with teaching, content, coverage, and so on. Religion has effectively inculcated in most of these students personal values outside school/ class rules that encourage proper academic results and achievements. An example in mind is when I conducted a brief interview/ survey of sampled students in class about what would prompt one to steer clear of what we termed ‘academic threats’ such as apathy in class, indiscipline, intolerance, drug abuse, unplanned pregnancies, and so on. 2% of my interviewees cited their childhood upbringing as the reasons to stay focused and on track, 3% cited the fear of repercussion (by school authorities, police, and so on), 5% cited example they have been laid for by their peers and family members while a whopping 90% of those I question cited religion. Pedagogy There are a plethora of teaching strategies that educators have proposed for use in the elementary grades that might engage African-American students with social studies content. The first strategy entails the upholding of high standards and eliciting high expectations for the students. According to thorough surveys and studies, these students can learn better when they have teachers who stir and challenge them into identifying their concerns, engaging them in activities that are collaborative and speeding up their learning. From teachers who show high expectations of their students, the learners inevitably get the notion that they are good enough to handle some lofty standards (Dewey, 1938). In this strategy, instead of learning of repetitive rote, teachers seek to involve their learners in sound problem solving undertakings such as by employing questions that are open ended to elicit and enhance learner judgment and opinion. In this mode of teaching, students are required to do and complete their research, homework and handle their time properly as the tutors select undertakings that help learners develop on their analytic, evaluations and connections skills. The second strategy involves demonstrating care to students by endeavoring to understand their personal needs and strengths while also sharing in their dreams, hopes and concerns. This approach is beneficial since students have been shown since time immemorial to want to do their level best when the tutors are caring and nurturing. Students barely realize academic success unless they feel cared for as they themselves are equally nurtured into caring for the wellbeing of others. In this mode, it is often more effective when the teacher spends more time and years with a particular group of students simply in attempts to, with time, understand their needs and strengths more. Because of this, trust grows between the teacher and the student and equally amongst the students themselves. This staying together of the tutor and a particular group of learners has come to be termed looping and is important in enabling the teacher the rare chance of offering more differentiated instructions while modifying lessons to individual needs (Haugen & Musser, 2009). Another suggested and viable strategy is that of encouraging active participation of parents and guardians in the learning process of students (Haugen & Musser, 2009). A teacher can do this by sharing knowledge about the importance of communication/ prodding in homes and the learning of students. This strategy embraces the fact that parents/ guardians are inevitably the first teachers of the child. However, more often than not, parents/ guardians remain oblivious of their important roles hence and because of the scarce/ inexistent interaction and communication in homes the learning of students is greatly retarded. In this case, teachers serve as culture brokers by stressing to parents their roles in the development of the learner as teachers also help the parents comprehend the expectations at school. In this very vein also, teachers can offer effective means of parent-child communication in order to groom the child for classroom communication. In addition, the tutors can further suggest educational activities for families such as visiting museums, and the likes (Haugen & Musser, 2009). The fourth strategy entails tapping into the students’ backgrounds with the view of improving learning (Haugen & Musser, 2009). This is more so as the motivation and esteem of students are usually improved on when tutors evoke their experiences and back what they say in classrooms. Students are more concerned and participatory in classrooms when they are initiated into discussions and asked what their knowledge on the issue is or what they desire to know on the same. This is important especially when student questions are noted down and employed as a kind of a lead in topic coverage. In this situation, students elicit more interest in even performing extra research on a topic at hand than if the questions simply arose from a random text. Moreover, the tutor also gets to know better the comprehension of the students concerning the content under discourse and can help in planning the next lesson. Lastly, a strategy could entail the identification and dispelling of stereotypes (Dewey, 1938). If a tutor permits biased language and stereotypes to go uncorrected in the classroom set up, students are hurt in a number of ways. For one, under-estimating the depiction of their group can damage self-esteems and concept. Also, they may end up feeling limited and unable to live and work harmoniously with others in the society and in the classroom. In this strategy, teachers are to choose extracts and materials that delve on the matter of stereotyping and such materials ought to be authored by various persons to include a myriad of views on the matter in question which balances things up and offers reprieve. It is important for teachers to point out demeaning and biased stereotypes during deliberations and in classroom texts/ materials in order to make students feel as one and ready to learn and contribute. References Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan. Haugen, D. M., & Musser, S. (2009). Education. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Read More