M5 U5 A2

Multicultural Content and Multiple Perspectives in Chinese Class


Why should teachers include multicultural content and multiple perspectives in the curriculum?
Ø  In order to engage all students in learning, and create differentiated classroom, teachers need to include multicultural content and multiple perspectives in the curriculum.
Ø  A differentiated classroom is an inclusive classroom that welcomes students from various abilities and backgrounds. Inclusive classrooms recognize that all students are unique in their own way and that their differences could consist of their ability, cultural background, personalities, and religions.
Ø  Good instruction as a basis for differentiated teaching plays a vital role in the differentiated classroom. To ensure effective teaching and learning, teachers need to link tightly the following three elements of curriculum.
Content
Content is what a student should come to know (facts), understand (concepts and principles), and be able to do (skills) as a result of a given segment of study. Content is “input”. It encompasses the means by students will acquainted with information.
Process
Process is the opportunity for students to make sense of the content. If we only tell students something and then ask them to tell it back to us, they are highly unlikely to incorporate it into their framework of understanding. Students must process the ideas to own them. In the classroom, process typically takes places in the form of activities. An activity is likely to be effective if it
·   Has a clearly defined instructional purpose.
·   Cause students to use a key skill to work with key ideas.
·   Ensure the students will have to understand the idea.
·   Help students relate new understandings and skills to previous ones.
Product
A product is a vehicle through which a student shows what he or she has come to understand and can do as a result of a considerable segment of learning.
Based on above three elements, if we want to have an effective class, we need to include multicultural content and multiple perspectives in the three elements, so that we can engage our students in learning, and empower them achieve the academic learning goals.
Ø  Goals of including multicultural content and multiple perspectives.
·   Create a safe, accepting, and successful learning environment for all.
·   Strengthen cultural consciousness.
·   Strengthen intercultural awareness.
·   Encourage students express multiple perspectives.
·   Foster students’ critical thinking skill.
Different strategies for incorporating multicultural content and multiple perspectives into Chinese lessons
1. Standard- based Chinese language class
The standards for foreign language learning are content standards: they describe what a student should know and be able to do at different levels of proficiency.   The standards are correlated with five broad goal areas, referred to as “The Five C’s.”
Ø  Communication: Communicate effectively in more than one language in order to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes.
Ø  Cultures: Interact with cultural competence and understanding.
Ø  Connections: Connect with other disciplines and acquire information and diverse perspectives in order to use the language to function in academic and career-related situations 
Ø  Comparisons: Develop insight into the nature of language and culture in order to interact with cultural competence.
Ø  Communities: Communicate and interact with cultural competence in order to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.
These goals focus on how language is used in real-life situations; students how to intercultural understand other cultures; students how to use the target language express their perspectives. To work within the standards framework, as a teacher, we need to include multicultural content and multiple perspectives in our lessons.
2. Strategies for incorporating multicultural content into Chinese lessons.
Ø  Create a differentiated and inclusive learning environment in Chinese class.
Ø  Establish a strong connection with parents.
Ø  Try to use a lot of visual materials to teach.
Ø  Let students’ discuss, translate key words, sentence/writing frames and so on to help students understand.
Ø  Apply PBL in Chinese class. PBL is student-centered, which connects with the authentic world, and engages students in learning.
Ø  Apply mobile-based learning and game-based learning into Chinese class.
Ø  Apply open-ended questions to ask students.
Ø  Comparisons are a useful tool to deepen students’ further understanding of Chinese culture and their cultures.
Ø  Field trip bridges the gap between the academic contents and the real world.
Ø  Offer opportunities for students to communicate with each other about their culture, origins and background as part of the learning program. Presentations, debates, writing and reading are very effective methods of demonstrating respect for cultural diversity as well as making the most of the richness of what it offers.
Ø  Ask students and their parents for their advice and input is valuable learning for me. Don't be afraid of asking about students' nationality and having them take the lead on embracing the multinational classroom.
Reference
1. Teacher Vision. "Strategies for Teaching Culturally Diverse Students". Retrieved from
https://www.teachervision.com/strategies-teaching-culturally-diverse-students
2. C. A. Tomlinson, 2005, The Differentiated Classroom, Pearson Education, Inc.
3. P. Rutherford, 2010, Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners, Just ASK Publicatons & Professional Development.
4. W. Powell, O. Kusuma-Powell, Making the Difference: Differentiation in International Schools, William Powell & Ochan Kusuma-Powell, 2012.


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