Week 13

Assessment

As Kuma states in chapter 12, Culture cannot be confined to a single definition or description.  So, how is then that we, as teachers, bring a concept so varied as culture into the classroom? It seems that Culture, as in The Arts, would be a lot easier to convey to the classroom. You can do this in a multitude of ways, mainly by integrating The Arts into different lesson plans with misc, art, and theater.  However, integrating culture, referring to individual values and beliefs is more difficult. I think the best way to introduce culture is to allow the students to feel comfortable enough to show their own cultures within their work and the classroom settings. Let them know that all though everyone might believe differently, that ultimately we are working toward the same goals as a class. As a student I saw a lot of cultural break down between students, and between students and teachers. Cultural misinterpretations led to a certain disconnect that in turn made student believe that they were being graded unfairly and made teachers believe that students were not trying hard enough.You have to allow culture to contribute to your classroom without dividing your classroom.

The movie we watched in class talked about about cultural differences in writing.  Writing s so subjective that it seems an almost impossible task to grade another persons' work, but it seems even harder when cultural differences are in-bedded within the writing. How do you tell a student that their writing style is incorrect, when that is how they have been taught to write.

As a person who has been a part of the American school system I definitely have acquired some writing habits that might I might prefer as a teacher.  I think in order to overcome the assumed preferences within writing, you have to be open to other ways of thinking.  If another culture's values are different then of course they are gonna think differently and write differently as well.  It is important to have your students input on these topics.  I think it would be a good idea to have you class do a writing assignment that you do not grade, just to see what kind of writing the students are use to and then from their discuss what you want as a class to be you rubric for each writing assignment.  When it come to surface mistakes, maybe you can split up the grading of the paper between content and grammar.  That way the students can still feel confident in their writing even if their grammar is not the best. Again, I think that it important to talk to your class as a whole and agree on what you are looking for in a "great" paper and what you will be grading this paper on.