My Diversity Plan-2

1
Running Head: My Diversity plan
My Diversity plan for the Classroom

Kayanne Christine Sinclair
Middle schools in a Diverse Society: EDCI 7020
Georgia State University
Diversity Plan
Multicultural is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as relating to or including

many cultures. Cultures are not characteristic of just someones nationality or race but can be a
subset of the general idea of a culture. For example, Georgia State is a culture because it has a
unique set of languages, beliefs, customs, art, and even times. Therefore, cultures can include
groups such as able bodied, disable bodied, cisgender, LGBTQ, heterosexual, people of a low
SES, people with a high SES, homeless people, military families, foster children, clubs, and
many other types. Multicultural education is the concept of equity and human dignity and for the
purpose of my diversity plan it will be applied to the classroom setting. I will explore several
ways to address diversity through discussions, games or activities, and cultural representation.
The classroom is an endless fleet of learning opportunities in regards to multicultural
education. The diversity plan cannot be the same for every classroom. The first step in having a
diversity plan is getting to know your students, which is a theme in many readings for diversity
in middle grades course. The diversity plan is a way to approach the issues that may arise
possibly with more general things that I may encounter such as racial issues, gender conflicts,
disabled bodied, and language barriers.
The diversity plan means research or thinking about things that would not necessarily
affect me because I may be part of a majority such as being able bodied. I generally do not
consider the privileges of being able bodied because I am more likely to be accommodated while
those that are disable bodied have to request certain accommodations. Dr. Judith Emerson
discusses the notion that if it works for one than it can work for all and in most cases this idea for
differentiation is true.
Diversity Plan
However, the diversity plan begins with research for the person that is disabled bodied.
Disable bodied does not pertain only to physically disabilities but also includes sensory
impairment, cognitive impairment, intellectual impairment mental illness, and various types of
chronic disease. Any person at any given moment joins this particular group for various different
reasons such as an accident that affects the physical or mental state of an individual or a
hereditary reason that a person suffers from chronic illness. Therefore, it is crucial to be
understanding, accommodating, and create a plan for the student that experiences the situations
of having a condition or even a family member that has a condition. The IEPS and 504s help to
best assist a child with needs that are unique to that particular individual.
Another culture that arises within the classroom will be gender related. As a teacher being
sensitive to pronouns can be helpful to let students know that you do not judge or assume what a
persons sexual orientation or gender preference just by being conscious of the terms. A student
going through the physical changes and trying to figure out who they are might depend on my
support. The students do not just need a support system but a teacher who believes in them and
can provide evidence that they are represented in the things that they learn.
For example, in the article extending the concept of stereotype threat to social class
examines a stereotype threat that can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The stereo type threat
referred to a young women not being good in math. An experiment was conducted to determine
if mentioning that a test was harder if the females with automatically assume defeat but when
told it was easy they would accomplish the goals. The females scored higher on math test that
they were told it was easier as opposed to the harder math tests. The female student took a survey
that questioned if they believed that women were not good in math. The correlation was closely
linked to the females that believed that men were better at math and those that failed because
Diversity Plan
they were told it was harder. As a novice mathematics and or science teacher I need to
demonstrate that there are people that representative of each student such as myself as a math
teacher and being a female or pulling statistics that show the amount of female mathematic
teachers, or digging to find the fine mathematicians or scientists in history other than those that
are often noted in history. I can also use games or experiment suggestions that are culturally
relevant to the students.
The students are faced with other issues within the classroom such as racial
microaggression or being addressed as one thing when the person prefers another way in which
to describe them. Racial microaggression as listed in racial microaggression in everyday life by
Wing states that it is a, commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or
unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults. For
example, a person states to a person of Asian descent that it is incredible that they low car
insurance due to no accidents. The micro aggressions can be conscious or unconscious but often
is unconscious these racial stereotypes, misconceptions, or assumptions can be offense to the
other person. Therefore, it is important to discuss these things and how they can be addressed
appropriately.
The Tim Wises talk on Beyond Diversity: Challenging racism in an age of backlash
address something that I believe most people like he said try to ignore which is racism. The
statements he made in comparison to other issues that we do not try to be silent about made sense
and at first I thought talking about racism in general would serve no purpose. However, after
watching the Tim Wises talk I think that you cannot fix a problem without discussing it and
possibly finding a resolution in all problem areas.
Diversity Plan
A great ice breaker activity that can help students get perspective on diversity is the
privilege walk exercise. The privilege walk exercise includes scenarios, conditions, or how you
identify in terms of gender, race, SES, or other factors that follows with a certain amount of steps
forward or backward. However, the steps do not correlate with your status as a person such as
stating to step forward if you have went to bed hungry before at home. The participants do not
have to move if they do not want anyone to know about their circumstance whether it is a
privilege or not. The purpose of the game is to physically demonstrate that people regardless of
skin color may share the same experiences and the game is designed so that at the end everyone
is in a line. The line signifies that regardless of where you start everyone can end up in the same
place.
My classroom would be on of engagement where there is cooperative work. Students are
intrigued by the activities that are unique to someones culture. Therefore, the students fill the
classroom with open ended discussion questions and broaden their thinking in terms of how and
in what ways it can be applied to their lives. The diversity plan is not a concrete map but can
gentle guide the way because each beginning school year has a distinctive group that alters or
introduces new concepts to my diversity plan.
Diversity Plan
References
Spencer,J.,Steele,M.,Quinn.M (1998). Stereotype Threat and Women

in Math. Journal of Experimental Psychology,35, 4-28.ID
jesp.1998.1373
Wing,S.,Capodilupo,C.,Torino,G.,Bucceri,J.,Holder,A.,Nadal,K.,Esq
uilin,M. (2007).Racial Microaggression in Everyday Life.American
Psychologist,62,271-286.DOI:10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271

My Diversity Plan-2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

My Diversity Plan-2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

My Diversity Plan-2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1

Running Head: My Diversity plan

My Diversity plan for the Classroom

Multicultural is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as relating to or including

Spencer,J.,Steele,M.,Quinn.M (1998). Stereotype Threat and Women

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.