Cultural Diversity
Lisa Baker
ELL 240: Linguistically 7 Culturally Diverse Learners
Instructor: Erin Marsano
September 08, 2014

Cultural Diversity So this week we were asked to write a paper on how to encourage parents of all cultures to be involved with their child and the teacher to more effective in the classroom. To explain the activities and the purpose of each. What group we are addressing and the material and resources needed to complete the activities. In my area we had a culture night where each child would do a poster board of their family and culture and also would cook a dish from their culture. So the first thing that I would do is to type up a letter for each parent stating we are having an international night. Years ago, the schools use to be segregated now people embrace the others cultural differences and parents are getting more involved with their children’s education. There are different ways to expose children to diverse cultures, having different activities like what people wear or how they live help them to understand better. Our textbook says that “ involving parents who speak limited English, are intimidated by their child’s school, or work multiple jobs is a significant challenge” (Syrja,2011). There are three activities in which I will display is based on belief that parents participation with their child’s schooling will help that child learning. Throughout this presentation families will discover and open up to students from all social factors and cultural groups and will persuade and encourage their children as they go through school classes whether that is in Elementary ,Middle or high school. The goal is to have parents participate or to improve that relationship. I. Improve teachers understanding of cultural interaction with families: 2. Improve the families understanding and advantages of parental participation in their child’s education. 3. Present families with the correct information about cultural diversity and the importance of their child’s involvement.

The first activity would be a have an international culture feast. The purpose for this activity is to allow students to get to know each other better. This also helps for parents to come to the school and learn about the students and their parents that are in the same class as their own child. Parents can share what their culture is and gain a network support from other parents. This activity would start off with having each student go home and fill out a paper with questions on it like what kids of foods they eat in their home country, who does the main cooking for the family, how did their family move here? This is where the teacher would also participate so that the parents and the students get to know the teacher as well. The type of audience would be those with children that attend elementary middle and high school. The next group would be the educators with students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Selecting strategies and activities form all cultures African and Latino families
Activity 1 Building Bridges: Understanding and Addressing Parents’ Concerns
Goals of the activity: To identify perceived barriers faced by parents and to find potential solutions to address the
Identified barriers.
Procedure: Introduction and warm-up activity (15 minutes). Describe the main purpose of the session. Whole group lecture (25 minutes). Explain to audience that the school district is trying to encourage parents to become more involved in their children’s education. One of the main goals of this effort is to increase the number of linguistically and culturally diverse students that participate in Advanced Placement courses. Mention that in order to reach this goal, the school district needs to know if there would be any barriers and/or obstacles that would make it difficult for parents