"What strategies or resources do you use to help your class/program be responsive to cultural diversity and English Language Learners?"
The FFA and agriculture education have had a consistent struggle with achieving cultural diversity in their classrooms and chapters. Ultimately your program should reflect the community which you live in, and my awesome virtual mentorship team provided some feedback for me to look into when achieving cultural diversity in my classroom and accommodating ELL students.
Big Take Aways:
- Providing Spanish FFA Documents such as the manual and other resources to Spanish speaking students often makes them feel included.
- Attending Professional Development events regarding ELL and Cultural Diversity is valuable.
- The "We Are FFA" and "Somos FFA" movements were apart of a large launch for National FFA to create more diverse resources for students.
- Cultural Diversity and Acceptance of ELL students is ultimately up to the leadership, membership, advisors, chapters, and supporters.
After the conversations I had with my mentorship team, I am excited to start including culturally diverse members into my program!
PS: MY MENTORSHIP TEAM IS AWESOME!
Lisa, so glad you had a great conversation with your mentoring team and you are finding value in the virtual mentoring process! Your team gave you some great take-aways and ideas for how to accommodate ELL students and make them feel welcome and a part of the ag classroom and FFA. Would you be able to share what questions or themes guided your discussion and led to your take-aways?
ReplyDeleteThe perspective of having a Chapter make-up that resembles your school make-up is an excellent guideline. Cultural diversity differs in every school and that should also be reflected in the FFA Chapter.
ReplyDeleteAs you prepare for Dover, the school and FFA were not very diverse looking for a number of years. Over time, the community and school have shifted...the FFA Chapter is working on catching up. Accepting racial diversity is something we are still working on across the board.
I would echo Alex's comments exactly. This past week we had a county event where we took a few classes and a friend group of 2-3 African American students asked why they were the only students there they were not Caucasian? This was insightful of them as well as me because the students are noticing diversity, or lack there of in this case, as well as educators. Take away: how would you have responded?
ReplyDeleteLisa, I really like that you included to attend PD sessions on cultural diversity. One of my graduate classes focused on understanding various cultural values and norms. Each week we talked about a different ethnic or religious culture. This class was so valuable to me as an educator in an urban area. It allowed me to understand what was expected at home and how that transitioned into my classroom. Also here is a little more food for thought as you prepare to lead your own chapter, while your chapter/classroom will be a representation of your community, your students will be interacting with other FFA members at a state and national level. FFA is becoming more diverse and your students should have the opportunity to gain a better understanding of other cultures.
ReplyDeleteLisa, our schools and in turn our agricultural programs/FFA will only become more diverse with time. As you mentioned it is vital not only from an instructional standpoint, but I truly believe that the sustainability of Ag/FFA programs is dependent on diversifying the culture of both.
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