Reflection

I believe the “Where I Am From” digital story assignment reflected the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching in many ways. This assignment opened up many new concepts and discussions that can take place within the classroom and be used as learning tools. It allows you as the professor to go against the Cultural Deficit Theory and really get to know us as people. I think by doing this assignment in my classroom as a “Getting to know your Students” activity this will allow both me and my students to understand each other more and come together as a group of unique individuals. By getting to know your students it helps you not judge and place your students in preconceived categories. It helps create a learning community that respects individual’s differences. The digital stories allow you to understand not only your students but the community in which you are teaching.  In the essay “Cultural Deficit Model” it states that,” This growing body of research urges schools to acknowledge the social and cultural capital present in communities of color and poor communities (Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Gonzalez, 2005; Yosso, 2005).” (Irizzarry, Jason, 2003-2009) By watching these movies teachers can better understand where their students come from and the issues they face outside of school day to day. By doing this they are able to also incorporate activities to help students better understand their community and cope with the things in which they are dealing with throughout their day. This goes along with the Funds of Knowledge, connecting the classroom with the student’s homes.
 The digital story assignment also helps you identify with students interests and work in an untraditional manner. If you are able to know what gets your students thinking and motivated you will be more likely to have a classroom full of students engaged and interacting. In the article “Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching” it states, "In our multicultural society, culturally responsive teaching reflects democracy at its highest level. [It] means doing whatever it takes to ensure that every child is achieving and ever moving toward realizing her or his potential." ("Principles for culturally," 2006)   Student-centered instruction creates a cooperative, collaborative, and community-oriented learning environment. By knowing what your students are interested in you can create more assignments and projects that will allow students to direct their own learning and work with each other. This goes along with cultural capital, and how people engage with each other and their resources. By allowing students to work on assignments that they chose the topic it is allowing your students to connect their values, beliefs, and languages to create cultural capital within your classroom.
 I believe this assignment also allowed me to learn how to accommodate different learning skills and needs. In the article “Funds of Knowledge: A Look at Luis Moll’s Research Into Hidden Family Resources” they talk about connecting the students home lives to school and learning how to accommodate all the students different needs. It states,” Moll described the potential of these networks as “truly formidable”. He noted that once they are uncovered and mobilized (the different styles of learning), they can become a social and intellectual resources for a school.” (Mull, Luis)  It allows students to be creative, practice new ways of writing by making their own poem, and help auditory learners.
Resources:
Irizzarry, Jason. (2003-2009). Cutural deficit model. The Gale Group , Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/cultural-deficit-model/
(2006). Principles for culturally responsive teaching. Brown University , Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml
Mull, Luis. (n.d.). Funds of knowledge. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6DFAmexYq7vYWVlOGM3MmUtM2RhNy00MmE4LWFhNzMtZmMwMjQ2NTlkNDA0&hl=en_US