Cultural Diversity of the United States of America Order Instructions: Cultural Diversity
How did the culture of the United States evolve? How has the history of immigration to the United States shaped American values?
In order to answer these questions we must consider this country’s unique history of collecting perspectives, skills, and cultures from around the world. Chapter 8, “Cultural Diversity,” looks at the history of immigration to the United States and the cultural contributions from various groups, then explores some of the affects of America’s cultural diversity on education. Read the chapter, respond to the following questions and upload your answers to your facilitator.
1. Explain the historically based distinctions between the metaphors “American Melting Pot” and “Salad Bowl.”
2. Describe some of the notable contributions of diverse cultural and ethnic groups that affected the historical landscape of the United States.
3. Explain some of the reasons for immigration to the United States.
4. Explain the impact that the “changing face of America” will have on classrooms across the country
2. Reflect upon your school’s ESOL Program based on the following areas of the META Consent Decree. The Consent Decree is available in its entirety at http://www.fldoe.org/academics/eng-language-learners/consent-decree.stml Identify the strengths and/or areas of concern of the program by completing the Strengths and Concerns form. This document is a writable PDF that you will be able to complete by typing directly into the form. Look at the attachment for the form and fill it out. I teach at Florida Public school.
Look at the attachment for the form and fill it out. I teach at Florida Public school.
3. Now that you have taken some time to understand some of the important legislation and educational shifts impacting instruction of ELLs, let’s take some time to understand some of the key players that have impacted the instructional approaches for ELLs.
Select one of the recognized researchers/authors who has profoundly impacted education for ELLs. You may use the links below and the textbook, but please feel free to broaden your research to other sources as well. Read about this expert’s influence on the education of ELLs and in a word processed document, write a summary of how this pedagogy or policy is reflected within the ESOL program at your school and in your classroom. Provide specific examples. Save
Jim Cummins
http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/bics_calp.php
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106048/chapters/How-Students-Acquire-Social-and-Academic-Language.aspx
Please write a summary on Jim Cummins.
Cultural Diversity of the United States of America Sample Answer
ESOL
Cultural diversity of the United States
The phrase American Melting Pot is basically a figure of speech for a heterogeneous and varied society becoming increasingly uniform and homogeneous; the many components melting together into a harmonized whole that has a single and common culture. The melting pot describes how immigrants to America assimilate or become assimilated (Jacoby, 2011). On the other hand, the term Salad Bowl is used in suggesting that the integration of the many dissimilar and diverse cultures of the people of America come together and merges just like a salad, which is essentially a combination of many different components.
There are a number of noteworthy contributions of diverse ethnic and cultural groups which affected America’s historical landscape. The different ethnic and cultural groups have resulted in multiculturalism is a fact of life in America which has to be acknowledged as such, especially by the institutions that prepare educators to satisfy the needs of English Language Learners (ELL) in schools across America (Terry, 2010). The main reasons that make people from other nations to immigrate to the United States include family reunification, religious tolerance, and religious freedom, slavery/forced immigration, political freedom, seek economic opportunity, escape persecution and political refugees who come to America because of fear for their lives.
The impact which the changing face of America would have on classrooms throughout the United States is that as the nation continues to become a more ethnically and culturally diverse country, schools and classrooms would also become increasingly diverse. Learners would have to learn how to interact with other students in an environment that is diverse. Students in a diverse classroom would be able to develop an understanding of the viewpoints and outlooks of students from various backgrounds and learn to effectively function within a multiethnic, multicultural environment (Terry, 2010).
Reflection on the school’s ESOL Program
The Strengths and Concerns form is filled out and attached.
Recognized researcher/author
One of the recognized researchers who have impacted education for English Language Learners very much is Jim Cummins who developed the concepts of BICS and CALP. He differentiated between academic and social language acquisition. Social language is by and large the playground’s language (Haynes, 2016). Cummins, who is a researcher, refers to this language as Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, commonly shortened to BICS. This pedagogy/policy is reflected in the ESOL program at my school and in my classroom in that BICS is used by newcomers to function socially not just in playgrounds, but also in school buses, classrooms, and even hallways. The works of Cummins illustrate that it takes 1-3 years for ELL learners to attain their peer’s social language level (Haynes, 2016). Conversely, Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) is the foundation for the capacity of a child to cope with the academic demands that have been put on him/her in the different subjects in my school/classroom. According to Cummins, whilst a typical child develops native speaker fluency – that is Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills – in just 2 years of immersion in the target language, as far as academic language is concerned in my school, it will take about five to seven years for children to be working on a level with native speakers (Haynes, 2016).
Cultural Diversity of the United States of America References
Haynes, J. (2016). Explaining BICS and CALP. Retrieved from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/bics_calp.php
Jacoby, T. (2011). Reinventing the melting pot: The new immigrants and what it means to be American. Becoming American, 21(7): 112-124
Terry, N.P. (2010). Cultural and linguistic diversity: Issues in education. Ethnic and racial studies, 16(2): 80-98
