Reading Blog - Week 1 Post

The common theme this week between both the Flint chapters and the Jiminez, Smith, & Teague reading was that of the need for teachers to recognize and embrace the cultural backgrounds and experiences that students bring with them to the classrooms from their outside lives. This is an important notion for teachers to recognize and it is becoming more and more vital everyday as the number of diverse students in the school system grows immensely. I absolutely agree that the literacy experiences that a student has at home or in their community can be very differential based on culture and without a doubt will affect their learning and literacy abilities within the classroom. I think that the knowledge and inclusion of the students backgrounds not only allows the teacher to better connect with and engage the students but it also serves to boost students attitudes and their own feelings about diversity and culture. If we as teachers can embrace the diversity of our students, then our students will also learn to embrace the diversity of one another and to be comfortable in their own skin to be proud of their own cultures. This in turn makes the students better able to approach many topics from many perspectives and to value the differential perspectives during classroom instruction so to gain a more complete and well-rounded knowledge base.