Chapter 5 Turning on Learning Before-After Lesson Plan Analysis Paper

Multicultural education approach rests on two ideals: equal opportunity and cultural pluralism. Turning on Learning explains equal opportunity to be a belief that every student should be given equal opportunity to learn, succeed, and become what he or she would like, with full affirmation of his or her sex, race, social class background, sexual orientation, and disability. Cultural pluralism further clarifies that there is no one best way to be a U.S. resident. There is no all-American mold, one can continue to develop their own sense of group solidarity, cultural beliefs, and traditions and still be accepted as an American. It is important to remember that when teaching students in the multicultural approach that there is no one right way to view an issue. Teachers must help students appreciate multiple perspectives or interpretations, in doing so students develop fairness, flexible thinking, an expectation that other viewpoints exist, and an appreciation of the similarities and differences among people. Furthermore, teachers need to build a partnership with the home, school, and community; building communication with other institutions in the community to maximize the effectiveness of each one. I choose the first before lesson plan of John Steinbeck and the after lesson plan of Literature on Migrant Workers and Exploitation. The main differences between the before and after lesson plans of this lesson was that in the before lesson plain Steinbeck is being researched. The students are focusing on his life and his short stories. For the after lesson plan it is still is about Steinbecks work, but it is coming at it from the experiences of other California migrant workers. The students are engaged learning about plight of these workers first hand while studying about Steinbeck. The second lesson plan I choose was that of Clothing in Spanish as the before plan and Clothing in the Spanish-Speaking World as the after plan. The difference between the two lesson plans was that in the

first the teacher is focused merely on the vocabulary and grammar, with no attempt to relate it to the culture. The after lesson plan also focused on vocabulary and grammar, but the teacher has taken it a step further and related it to the cultural diversity of what Spanish speakers wear. In this way not only are students learning about vocabulary and grammar, but they are learning more about cultural diversity among Spanish speakers. I believe that both lesson plans were appropriate in the changes that were made. In the first lesson plan about migrant workers and exploitation, I believe that the changes that the lesson plan was culturally enriched by including the working and living conditions of migrant workers in rural California. It was able to teach the students about John Steinbeck from the perspective of the California migrant workers. In the second lesson plan that I picked on Clothing in Spanish and Clothing in the Spanish-speaking world students in both lessons learn vocabulary and grammar, but in the second lesson plan the teacher is having students explore the diversity of clothing in the Spanish-speaking world. It was shocking to me to find that world language classes often do not teach enough about the culture of the people who speak the target language. After thinking back to my time in Spanish class I have to say that I feel that is probably an accurate statement. My experience in Spanish classes was that there was a heavy focus on vocabulary and grammar and little to no focus on the culture of the language itself. My last Spanish class was at Manchester Community College, where the focus was totally on the language and the only time the culture was even mentioned it was when we were listening to native speakers and deciphering what they were saying. When they were talking about a specific food or type of party, then the teacher would give us a bit of information in order to understand the context of the conversation, but that was as far as the explanation or talk of their diverse culture went. As a future teacher I believe it is important in such a subject to find out about the culture of the language you are learning. Some of the many reasons that this is important is that you are bringing

multicultural learning into the classroom and learning from a perspective that is unique to you. This type of learning also has other benefits, such as; it helps you put the vocabulary and grammar into context and it helps you scaffold the information you are learning to possible experiences you may have had that are similar. Science is an area where I can apply some of these changes and topics to. When discussing specific plate tectonic features like divergent boundaries, one can discuss the people that live at this type of boundary and how this has affected them as a people. I also believe that when discussing issues like climate change that you can speak of who this will change the culture of the people and animals that live near the disappearing glaciers and ice sheets and how this will affect them as a whole.