Reaching and Teaching Diverse Populations:
Strategies for Moving Beyond Stereotypes<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAuthor:<\/strong><\/td>\nMary Bellucci Buckelew & Andrea Fishman (2011)<\/td>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/tesl-ej.org\/ej59\/rpix\/reaching.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nPublisher:<\/strong><\/td>\nSage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nPages<\/th>\n ISBN<\/th>\n Price<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n156 pages<\/td>\n 978-1-4129-7736-4<\/td>\n $34.95 USD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/h3>\n
Adapting the scientific term \u201cecosystems\u201d to an educational environment, Buckelew and Fishman design <\/em><\/strong>Reading and Teaching Diverse Populations: Strategies for Moving Beyond Stereotypes <\/strong><\/em>as a guide for and about students and teachers as individuals.\u00a0 The handbook is structured into 40 strategies categorized either as Individual Identity and Self-Awareness; Multicultural Awareness and Intercultural Interaction; Introduction to Classroom Inquiry; or Analyzing Pedagogy for the Classroom Ecosystem.<\/p>\nThe text allows you to apply general knowledge and beliefs of your own culture and contexts to enable you to see a multidimensional realm.\u00a0 It introduces and expands cultural awareness not just within the classroom setting but attempts to sustain community, workplace, home, and global perspectives.\u00a0 The strategies are comprised from entail at every educational level ranging from kindergarten to graduate and professional development.\u00a0 The strategies include rationale, step-by-step instructions, reflections, content-area extensions, and additional applications for varied use.\u00a0 It goes as far as to provide a quick strategy, reference source for users who may want to focus on specific topics within their classroom, rather ecosystem, such as age, gender, professional identity, class, even geography.<\/p>\n
In the Individual Identity and Self-Awareness portion of the guide, Buckelew and Fishman began with individual influences, both cultural and social, in effort to expose and explore the complex identities of individuals.\u00a0 This is considered a necessary step in building a successful and sustainable ecosystem classroom.\u00a0 One particular strategy required participants to brainstorm and categorize variables such as people, places, experiences, and things that are meaningful to them.\u00a0 These same variables were used to generate a poem entitled, \u201cI Come From\u201d.\u00a0 The rationale for such an activity expands the notion of diversity by acknowledging that everyone comes from somewhere specific, particular, different, and special.\u00a0 This strategy was also explained to heighten and build upon individual awareness and what they bring into the classroom, workplace, community, and\/or professional development.\u00a0 This strategy would be ideal for introductory settings.\u00a0 It could also extend into the Language Arts curriculum strand by incorporating poetry elements.\u00a0 Another strategy within this section that focused on Individual Identity and Self-Awareness was entitled \u201cWilling to Be Disturbed\u201d.\u00a0 I highlight this strategy because it challenges individual perceptions and beliefs regarding racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, classism, socialism, and any other \u201cism\u201d.\u00a0 It acknowledges the discomfort and suggests such disturbance is crucial to learning.\u00a0 Buckelew writes, \u201cYou need to know how these ideologies shape the sociopolitical landscape of American education.\u00a0 Equity, democracy, and anti-racist education are hallmarks of successful 21st<\/sup>-century teachers, classrooms, and schools.\u201d\u00a0 In review of our history\u2019s curriculum development, there is much merit and relevance in such perceptions and beliefs for they have shaped education and much more.\u00a0 Undoubtedly, this strategy intertwines and extends into the content-area of Social Studies.\u00a0 It can easily be incorporated into a unit on the Holocaust, the Civil War, or even the Civil Rights Movement, to name a few.\u00a0 The concepts in this strategy can make the disturbances explicit and legitimate using students\u2019 own reactions as a basis for understanding history\u2019s relevance to their lives.<\/p>\nThe strategies noted in the second part of the book emphasize awareness in Multicultural Awareness and Intercultural Interaction. By making multicultural issues local and relevant, current and future teachers begin to see themselves as agents of change, creators of curriculum and pedagogy, and exciting learning environment. As the book advances, this portion of the guide requires student growth from individual awareness to the connection of others as individuals.\u00a0 Through transactions involving the home, classroom environment, and the community, the individual has experiences that react to each other.\u00a0 These transactions deal with both input and output and can be items such as race, religion, nationality, class, occupation, family status, ethnicity, and education.<\/p>\n
A far too familiar rule or policy introduced when discussing classroom culture is respect.\u00a0 Therefore, it is not startling that Buckelew first multicultural and intercultural strategy in this area incorporated creating respect.\u00a0 Coming to a shared understanding of classroom guidelines and shared language of respect will benefit any environment by making visible what respect looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom community.\u00a0 In this simple but pair-share and whole class discussion activity, students connect with examples among their community, school, and home that demonstrate respect.\u00a0 These same examples are expanded are used to discuss commonalities and differences and finally derive at what guidelines will be established for their classroom environment.\u00a0 For example, students routinely recognize talking while another is talking is disrespectful.\u00a0 Yet, how can the disrespect be addressed without offending?\u00a0 Students then established strategies and consequences to use with students who forget the guidelines of respect.\u00a0 In one classroom, the students agreed that the phrase, \u201cpoise, dignity, and grace\u201d would be directed at any students who were disrupting the learning environment.\u00a0 For example, if a student interrupted another student, the interrupted student might say, \u201cPlease have poise, dignity, and grace, John\u201d This phrase becomes second nature for everyone and it\u2019s not direct but a gentle way of reminding students.\u00a0 This strategy employs student value and is ideal for classroom management.<\/p>\n
The book continues its strategies with high profile topics such as bullying and a term called \u201ccode switching\u201d that involves knowledge of the appropriate language, behavior, or dress in particular contexts or cultures\u2014a strategy that is rather significant in the mindset of many adolescents who care more about their peers\u2019 perspective than their very own.<\/p>\n
Once in the section on Classroom Inquiry and Implications for Practice, the book shifts to introducing students\/participants to inquiry strategies and processes essential for building inclusive, beyond-stereotypes classroom communities.\u00a0 These two sections are catered more to soon-to-be professionals (educators) because it suggests utilizing various data collection and assessments to maintain that ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Buckelew and Fishman\u2019s Reaching and Teaching Diverse Populations<\/em> is as diverse in audience appeal as its content.\u00a0 It provides rich, thought-provoking discussion to learn more about yourself and others around you–teacher, student, administrator, and family member, to community advocate.\u00a0 The book offers structured experiences that some, especially students do not think of, realize, plan, or extend to the magnitude of how it relates to someone who they are not related.\u00a0 Furthermore, it allows you to rethink your own perspectives as an educator to make your classroom an educational ecosystem that embraces and recognizes diversity for its splendors.<\/p>\nReviewed by<\/h3>\n
Estella Williams
\nCumberland County Schools, North Carolina
\n<ewill108![\"atmark\"](\"http:\/\/www.tesl-ej.org\/atmark.png\")
uncc.edu><\/p>\n
\n\n\n\u00a9 Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.<\/p>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/h3>\n
Adapting the scientific term \u201cecosystems\u201d to an educational environment, Buckelew and Fishman design <\/em><\/strong>Reading and Teaching Diverse Populations: Strategies for Moving Beyond Stereotypes <\/strong><\/em>as a guide for and about students and teachers as individuals.\u00a0 The handbook is structured into 40 strategies categorized either as Individual Identity and Self-Awareness; Multicultural Awareness and Intercultural Interaction; Introduction to Classroom Inquiry; or Analyzing Pedagogy for the Classroom Ecosystem.<\/p>\n The text allows you to apply general knowledge and beliefs of your own culture and contexts to enable you to see a multidimensional realm.\u00a0 It introduces and expands cultural awareness not just within the classroom setting but attempts to sustain community, workplace, home, and global perspectives.\u00a0 The strategies are comprised from entail at every educational level ranging from kindergarten to graduate and professional development.\u00a0 The strategies include rationale, step-by-step instructions, reflections, content-area extensions, and additional applications for varied use.\u00a0 It goes as far as to provide a quick strategy, reference source for users who may want to focus on specific topics within their classroom, rather ecosystem, such as age, gender, professional identity, class, even geography.<\/p>\n In the Individual Identity and Self-Awareness portion of the guide, Buckelew and Fishman began with individual influences, both cultural and social, in effort to expose and explore the complex identities of individuals.\u00a0 This is considered a necessary step in building a successful and sustainable ecosystem classroom.\u00a0 One particular strategy required participants to brainstorm and categorize variables such as people, places, experiences, and things that are meaningful to them.\u00a0 These same variables were used to generate a poem entitled, \u201cI Come From\u201d.\u00a0 The rationale for such an activity expands the notion of diversity by acknowledging that everyone comes from somewhere specific, particular, different, and special.\u00a0 This strategy was also explained to heighten and build upon individual awareness and what they bring into the classroom, workplace, community, and\/or professional development.\u00a0 This strategy would be ideal for introductory settings.\u00a0 It could also extend into the Language Arts curriculum strand by incorporating poetry elements.\u00a0 Another strategy within this section that focused on Individual Identity and Self-Awareness was entitled \u201cWilling to Be Disturbed\u201d.\u00a0 I highlight this strategy because it challenges individual perceptions and beliefs regarding racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, classism, socialism, and any other \u201cism\u201d.\u00a0 It acknowledges the discomfort and suggests such disturbance is crucial to learning.\u00a0 Buckelew writes, \u201cYou need to know how these ideologies shape the sociopolitical landscape of American education.\u00a0 Equity, democracy, and anti-racist education are hallmarks of successful 21st<\/sup>-century teachers, classrooms, and schools.\u201d\u00a0 In review of our history\u2019s curriculum development, there is much merit and relevance in such perceptions and beliefs for they have shaped education and much more.\u00a0 Undoubtedly, this strategy intertwines and extends into the content-area of Social Studies.\u00a0 It can easily be incorporated into a unit on the Holocaust, the Civil War, or even the Civil Rights Movement, to name a few.\u00a0 The concepts in this strategy can make the disturbances explicit and legitimate using students\u2019 own reactions as a basis for understanding history\u2019s relevance to their lives.<\/p>\n The strategies noted in the second part of the book emphasize awareness in Multicultural Awareness and Intercultural Interaction. By making multicultural issues local and relevant, current and future teachers begin to see themselves as agents of change, creators of curriculum and pedagogy, and exciting learning environment. As the book advances, this portion of the guide requires student growth from individual awareness to the connection of others as individuals.\u00a0 Through transactions involving the home, classroom environment, and the community, the individual has experiences that react to each other.\u00a0 These transactions deal with both input and output and can be items such as race, religion, nationality, class, occupation, family status, ethnicity, and education.<\/p>\n A far too familiar rule or policy introduced when discussing classroom culture is respect.\u00a0 Therefore, it is not startling that Buckelew first multicultural and intercultural strategy in this area incorporated creating respect.\u00a0 Coming to a shared understanding of classroom guidelines and shared language of respect will benefit any environment by making visible what respect looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom community.\u00a0 In this simple but pair-share and whole class discussion activity, students connect with examples among their community, school, and home that demonstrate respect.\u00a0 These same examples are expanded are used to discuss commonalities and differences and finally derive at what guidelines will be established for their classroom environment.\u00a0 For example, students routinely recognize talking while another is talking is disrespectful.\u00a0 Yet, how can the disrespect be addressed without offending?\u00a0 Students then established strategies and consequences to use with students who forget the guidelines of respect.\u00a0 In one classroom, the students agreed that the phrase, \u201cpoise, dignity, and grace\u201d would be directed at any students who were disrupting the learning environment.\u00a0 For example, if a student interrupted another student, the interrupted student might say, \u201cPlease have poise, dignity, and grace, John\u201d This phrase becomes second nature for everyone and it\u2019s not direct but a gentle way of reminding students.\u00a0 This strategy employs student value and is ideal for classroom management.<\/p>\n The book continues its strategies with high profile topics such as bullying and a term called \u201ccode switching\u201d that involves knowledge of the appropriate language, behavior, or dress in particular contexts or cultures\u2014a strategy that is rather significant in the mindset of many adolescents who care more about their peers\u2019 perspective than their very own.<\/p>\n Once in the section on Classroom Inquiry and Implications for Practice, the book shifts to introducing students\/participants to inquiry strategies and processes essential for building inclusive, beyond-stereotypes classroom communities.\u00a0 These two sections are catered more to soon-to-be professionals (educators) because it suggests utilizing various data collection and assessments to maintain that ecosystem.<\/p>\n Buckelew and Fishman\u2019s Reaching and Teaching Diverse Populations<\/em> is as diverse in audience appeal as its content.\u00a0 It provides rich, thought-provoking discussion to learn more about yourself and others around you–teacher, student, administrator, and family member, to community advocate.\u00a0 The book offers structured experiences that some, especially students do not think of, realize, plan, or extend to the magnitude of how it relates to someone who they are not related.\u00a0 Furthermore, it allows you to rethink your own perspectives as an educator to make your classroom an educational ecosystem that embraces and recognizes diversity for its splendors.<\/p>\n Estella WilliamsReviewed by<\/h3>\n
\nCumberland County Schools, North Carolina
\n<ewill108uncc.edu><\/p>\n\n\n
\n \u00a9 Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.<\/p>\n