Friday, October 18, 2013

Welcoming Families Around the World


•The name of “your” family’s country of origin

The country that I chose is Korea since I do not know a great deal about it.

•At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

1.       Find out any traditions or habits the culture has to ensure that I do not offend them.  If they do not make eye contact, I will make sure I follow their country’s traditions.

2.       Include various stories in the classroom library about the Korean culture and one’s that were written by people from there.

3.       Place a world map up in the classroom with emphasis on the countries of where the children are from.  Include pictures of the country along with brief information about what is shown.

4.       Research the country and become familiar with their holidays to incorporate them into lessons about diversity and culture.

5.       Find ways to invite the parent’s into the classroom and discuss their home lives.

6.       Learn key phrases such as wash your hands and do you need to use the bathroom in their native language to help them understand and feel comfortable.

•A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family

In preparing for the family, I hope that the steps listed above will help make the family more comfortable in the new setting.  The child will walk in and see that they are respected as well as their heritage in school and should not be ashamed or embarrassed.  The family will feel more at ease knowing the steps were taken to ensure that both them and their child understood what was occurring and that someone cared enough to research their home land.  Hopefully the family would be willing to work with me and come in to share some of their traditions with the other students once they felt more comfortable speaking English.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing Jacqueline. This assignment does allow us to focus on meeting their cultural needs by increasing our cultural awareness. Children from other cultures educational system is very different from ours. With that in mind, we must modify our teaching methods in order to support their learning styles.

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  2. Hello Jacqueline: Is very important that our children feel respected as they arrive to our schools, no doubt. I also thought about placing a world map in the class. I think is a teachable moment for every child as well. Also inviting their families to share their traditions is also very rewarding for the all but most important is for the child.

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  3. Jacqueline,

    Thank you for sharing with us. It is important for us to know how to communicate with the student and his/her family. The communication can make transition a little easier for the student.

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