Classroom Strategies

Session 6On-line

Classroom Classroom StrategiesStrategies

EDUC 601EDUC 601Week 6Week 6

D2LSession 6

In Session 6, you will:• Recognize the characteristics of collectivism vs.

individualism as they pertain to the classroom• Discuss the achievement of harmony between

different value systems• Apply principles of addressing diversity to specific

K-12 ELL settings• Examine written language vs. textual culture• Examine literacy event, prior text & points of view

2Benedictine University

Session 6On-line

Collectivism vs. Collectivism vs. Individualism & Individualism &

The The ClassroomClassroom

EDUC 601EDUC 601Session 6Session 6

Session 6On-line Cultural Value

Systems• A basic cultural value system transcends languages,

histories, and traditions

• This is due to the fact that many immigrant cultures are

grounded in collectivism

It is important to understand, interpret and apply the

concepts inherent in both individualism and collectivism

when interacting with children and parents of

diverse cultural backgrounds

Benedictine UniversityRothstein-Fisch, C. (2003). Readings for bridging cultures: teacher education module. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum ISBN 0-8058-4567-4

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Session 6On-line

Collectivism• Consists of interrelated values that emphasize the

interdependence of family members

• Central to collectivism are:

Children are taught to be helpful to others

Children are taught to contribute to the success of any

group they belong to – core to this belief is the “family”

Emphasizes the social context of learning and knowledge

for the greater good


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Session 6On-line

Individualism• Schools in the U.S. foster individualism

• Individualistic classrooms in the U.S.:

View the child as an individual who should be

developing independence and valuing individual

achievement (Greenfield, 1964)

Emphasize information disengaged from its social

context (Hofstede, 1980)

• If a child from a collectivistic value system

encounters an individualistic school, conflicts that are

based on hidden values and assumptions can occur


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Session 6On-line

Bridging Value Systems

Tips and Techniques:

• Valuing and encouraging helpfulness is important

in collectivistic cultures

Expand group learning situations

Recognize the relationship between scientific

information and social context

• Students with collectivistic backgrounds are likely to

first consider scientific information in the context of

“shared family experience”


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Session 6On-line Sess. 6: Large Group Sess. 6: Large Group

Threaded Discussion Threaded Discussion – Slide 17– Slide 17

Benedictine University 8

Large Group Activity:Refer to the articles presented on pp. 23 – 30 in “Readings for Bridging Cultures” prior to participating in this discussion session. Your discussion contributions should include:1.A description of two strategies for accommodating children from a collectivistic culture into an individualistic U.S. classroom2.The strategies you describe should include:• A title for each strategy• A description of how and when the strategy may be used in the classroom• Rationale to support the value of using the strategy3.Each student is to record 4 additional strategies provided by classmates that he/she would personally use in a classroom setting4.Due week 7

Access your Threaded DiscussionAccess your Threaded Discussion from the Table of Contents located on the left of the D2L main windowfrom the Table of Contents located on the left of the D2L main windowAccess your Threaded DiscussionAccess your Threaded Discussion from the Table of Contents located on the left of the D2L main windowfrom the Table of Contents located on the left of the D2L main window

Respond to the initial question/s and to a minimum of two other entries

D2L Activity

Session 6On-line

Bridging Value Systems

• Appreciating cultural value systems through targeted classroom strategies is a win/win for all children

• This framework:Alerts teachers to specific cultural differences from

both individualistic and collectivistic value systemsEncourages teachers to recognize that their own

practices are based on their own cultural origins rather

than as merely the “right way” to do things• Clashes in cultural value systems can be avoided by

openly acknowledging and actively making use of the strengths of both the individualistic and collectivistic value system characteristics


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Session 6On-line

The The Characteristics of Characteristics of

Individualism & Individualism & CollectivismCollectivism


Session 6On-line

Assessment DebriefAssessment Debrief• Individualistic societies tend to focus on the

individual and emphasize individual responsibility for learning, even when instruction is given to the whole group (Estrin & Nelson-Barber, 1998)

• Collectivistic societies tend to teach to the whole group and allow students to learn from each other [peer-oriented learning] (McAlphine & Taylor, 1993)


Session 6On-line

Printed Language, Printed Language, Literate CultureLiterate Culture


Session 6On-line

OverviewOverview•The technology of writing and print technology has changed the medium of language use over time

•It has irrevocably changed our way of thinking and talking about culture


Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. NY: Oxford University Press.

Session 6On-line Historical Historical

PerspectivePerspective• The invention of writing around 3000 BC transformed

oral tradition… That was transmitted through storytelling, bardic epics,

mythical re-enactment and performances Into…textual tradition, handed down by scribes

• The culture of the text [i.e., in Chinese scribal culture] passed on its

wisdom, not through reading, but through the faithful copying of

texts

• It was the manual process of re-writing that the truths of the

ancestors were embodied anew for new generations

• Copying text was the… Major way of getting at the texts’ meaning and of… Obtaining the social prestige that came with a

literate education

Benedictine University 14Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. NY: Oxford University Press.

Session 6On-line

Print & PowerPrint & Power• Institutional power has traditionally ensured cultural continuity

by providing safeguards against the unbounded interpretation

of texts

• With the advent of print culture, the need to hand copy texts

disappeared…and so did the cast of scribes

• The combination of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing

press (in approximately 1440) and the translation of the Bible

into vernacular German by Martin Luther in 1522 made the

sacred truths accessible to all

• This opened up the door to unlimited and uncontrolled

proliferation of the meaning of traditional truths


Session 6On-line

Print & PowerPrint & Power• Soon, the church monopoly on meaning was replaced by the

interpretive authority and censorship of secular powers

• Whereas the written medium has been viewed as potentially

more subversive than the spoken medium,

In reality it has also been constrained by institutions like the

academy, the law, the publishing industry, that have always been

in control of new technologies

The advent of the Internet has the potential of interjecting into

our culture many interesting possibilities for the transmission

and interpretive authority of the masses


Session 6On-line

Social Construction Social Construction of Literacy of Literacy• Recent years have witnessed a rejection of what is now

perceived to be an elitist and colonialist kind of literacy

• The ‘primitive’ vs. the ‘civilized’ dichotomy implied by the

theory of the “Great Divide” between oral cultures and literate

cultures is now put into question

• Besides the traditional belletristic literacy (elegant writing style not

always aligned with human interest/moral/instructive content), scholars now

recognize other sorts of illiteracies linked to various genres

For example: literary literacy, press literacy, instructional manuals

literacy, scientific literacy

• This traditional literacy framework has focused on the mastery

of, or fluent control over, social uses of print language


Session 6On-line

Social Construction Social Construction of Literacy of Literacy• Literacy, because it is not acquired naturally like orality and

is usually learned in schools, has long been confused with

schooling and societal standing

• Children from diverse cultures bring to school different

types of literacies, not all of which are validated by school

literacy practices

• If the acquisition of literacy is more than a matter of learning

a new technology, and if the technology is not in alignment

with the values, social practices, and ways of knowing

promoted in educational institutions…then…

It may become a source of cultural conflict when the

values of school do not match those of the home


Session 6On-line

Social Construction Social Construction of Literacy of Literacy• Two perspectives on literacy:

Literacy as mastery of the written medium or

Literacy as social practice

• These reflect two different ways of thinking of literacy as a stretch of written language: as text or as discourse

• Each has a different relation to the cultural context in which it is produced and received


Session 6On-line

Text and DiscourseText and Discourse• Discourse encompasses:

Features of language that extend beyond sentences

Exploration of the associations evoked by the text

Use to retrieve the author’s intended meaning

• Cohesion [the joining of, with the purpose to, form a united whole]:

Brings cultural meaning into play within the text itself

Is established by the discourse it elicits between printed words and

their readers

Is constructed by the reader who puts the signs on the page in relation

to a variety of factors that can be found in the cultural context

• Coherence: To make text coherent, the reader must draw on:

Contextual factors

The text’s purpose and its conditions of production


Session 6On-line Literacy Events, Literacy Events,

Prior Text, Point Prior Text, Point of Viewof View• The interaction of a reader, or community of

readers, with texts of any kind has been called a literacy event

• Literacy events are defined by their members’ common social practices with writers’ language and common ways of interpreting these practices

• The knowledge that goes into literacy events draws on the larger cultural and historical context of production and reception of texts in a particular discourse community

• A situational context exists for literacy events just as with conversational contexts


Session 6On-line

Situational Contexts Situational Contexts

Benedictine University 22Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. NY: Oxford University Press. (pp. 60 – 61)

The Situational Context Includes:

1.The events captured in the propositional content

2. The intended audience

3. The text’s purpose

4. The text’s register or functional language variation according to the audience

5. Its key: every text bears the mark of the narrator’s stance – for example, ironic, humorous, or factual vis-à-vis the facts related

6. Prior texts

7. Point of view

Session 6On-line

GenreGenre• Whereas a literacy event is defined as any interaction

between reader and written texts within a social context

• A genre is a socially sanctioned type of communicative event, either:

Spoken, like a sermon, a joke, or a lectureOr printed, like a press report, a novel, or a political

manifesto• Although sometimes viewed as a universal type

fixed by literary and other conventions, a genre in a social-cultural perspective is always dependent on being perceived within a specific context of situation or culture


Documents

Classroom Strategies