Reading Journal

Reading/Response Journal

Mehmet COGAL

Reading 1: Culturally Responsive Teacher

This article focuses on how United States become a more diverse country, students coming from different backgrounds and speak another language other than English. In this changing demographics, the author claims that the teachers should have a better understanding of their students' background, culture, living environment in order them to achieve in school and be integrated to the community.

The article opens with an example of an immigrant child who needs to go to school, take care of her siblings and do some house work and work at the street fair on weekends. This student is taken as a model because it is very rare to see such students does all these things and also become a regular student and exhibit a regular way of acting in the classroom. 

  The problem starts right here. As long as the teachers do not realize her life, her challenges outside the school; it will be almost impossible for them to help her to become successful in her school life. They probably think her just being an immigrant who is struggling with some math and language skills.

  Demographics show that the number of minority schools has doubled in the last three decades (41 % of enrollment come from ethnic/racial groups). In some states, students of color are now the majority of the students and one in a five students speak another language at home. On the other hand, the majority of the teachers come from middle class, white and educated background. If the teachers do not realize the differences and daily challenges of these students, it will be even harder for them to establish a connection between each other.

The author further discusses that a teacher should not limit his/her relationships to the students within the school only. This is just because the students have a life other than the school and their outside life mostly defines their behaviors and performance. This leads to the idea of involving...