SL Blog 3 Prompt 2

From what I have observed, Edmund W. Flynn consists of students who speak both English and Spanish. In my classroom, English is the only language spoken by the teacher and it is also the language predominately spoken by the students. According to www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu , 62 % of students at Edmund W. Flynn report that English is the language that they most often speak at home. 28 % of students report that they speak Spanish at home. These results were reported from the 2007- 2008 Salt Survey which was taken by 212 students.

Within my classroom, all of the student's ethnicity is African American. However, results from the 2007-2008 Salt Survey reported that of the many ethnicity's found at Edmund W. Flynn Elementary, 7% of students are White, 22% of students are Black/ African American, and 51% of students are Hispanic or Latino. (This survey is found at www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu). Therefore, I can conclude that compared to my classroom, there are many more Hispanic or Latino children that attend Edmund W. Flynn.

There are many sociocultural characteristics that affect the education of these students. From what I have observed, these children's culture values hard work and survival. As we read in Delpit's, "The Silenced Dialogue", working- class children expect their teacher to act as an authority figure because they have earned this title. On my first day at Edmund W. Flynn I learned very quickly that I would have to earn my label as an authority figure and the children will not look at me as such until then. Other sociocultural factors that effect these student's education is their families income level. As mentioned in an earlier post, the elementary school is set in an environment that houses poverty-level families. In fact, according to www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu , 85% of students receive free school lunches and 7% receive reduced-price lunches.

Cultural Capital is a way of explaining what students achieve in their education due to their culture. The cultural capital that the children at Edmund W. Flynn bring into the classroom is wide in diversity. This is a result of their race (predominately Hispanic/Latino), gender (53% of students at Edmund Flynn are female) * www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu *, and family standing in society (working class). Due to these student's race they learn through experience because their race values skills that can help them survive in the culture of power. Therefore, these students bring their stories into the classroom and thrive on learning that can be connected with these experiences. Due to these students living in a poor environment, these children value hard work and understand that learning requires determination. The children always bring smiles into the classroom and are eager to learn something new.

According to the colleges who are developing the Rhode Island Teacher Education Renewal project, The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of her and his students, families, and communities when planning for and delivering instruction.
I think that there are many assets that can be developed in order to strengthen this goal. According to Delpit, teachers need to know how to give instruction without making it sound like a suggestion. This is because students who are from a culture where directions are given as commands, misunderstand the teacher and do not do as they ask If the teacher was aware of the sociocultural distinctiveness between his/her students, then he/she would be able to give instructions in a way that is non-confusing to these students. Another asset that can be developed is the creation of lesson-plans and curriculum's that benefit students with sociocultural distinctiveness. Delpit argues that these children of color cannot learn from a curriculum made by white upper class individuals. Lake in "An Indian Father's Plea" also argues this theory by writing, "If you don't have the knowledge, preparation, experience, or training to effectively deal with culturally different children, I am willing to help you with the few resources I have available or direct you to such resources." I see this developing asset in my service learning classroom. The teacher knows each one of her student's personally so that when she makes lesson plans, she creates lessons and instructions that are specialized to the needs of her students.

Lastly, another asset that could be developed to not only strengthen the culturally competent teacher, but also society, is to educate individuals on the culture of poor or children of color. If people understood the different characteristics and values within this culture, they will become more culturally competent. As Delpit argued, if teachers were culturally competent, they may recognize that each student comes into the classroom with different background information. White, middle-class children come into school knowing the alphabet, while poor-Black children know the skills of survival.