Full Description

Why do we honor some students’ background knowledge and ignore that of others? How can we build on the "gifts of diversity" in our classrooms? Classroom Diversity offers examples of teachers wrestling with these issues. It presents a new way to look at curriculum design and the learning that can result when we put students’ funds of knowledge first.

Classroom Diversity takes a "sociocultural" approach to curriculum design, which provides minority and working-class students with the same privileges that middle-class students have always had: instruction that puts their knowledge and experiences at the heart of their learning. It presents both the theoretical framework for linking students’ lives with curriculum and specific strategies from teachers who have done so successfully. Their stories show African American, Haitian American, Latino, Native American, and rural white students of Appalachian descent engaged in contextualized learning as they read and write and do mathematics and science across the grades. All of the classrooms described share one important characteristic: they use students’ household-based funds of knowledge as resources for school-based funds of knowledge, building bridges in nontraditional ways.

Additional Resource Information

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Contents

Contents:
1. Connecting Students' Cultures to Instruction, A. Rosebery, E. McIntyre & N. González
2. Connecting Cultural Traditions: Making Comparisons, S. Maher, G. Epaloose & R. Tharp
3. Ring My Bell: Contextualizing Home and School in an African American Community, M. Foster & T. Peele
4. Unearthing the Mathematics of a Classroom Garden, L. Kahn & M. Civil
5. The Sound of Drums, F. Conant, A. Rosebery, B. Warren & J. Hudicourt-Barnes
6. Preschool Science: Contextualizing Curriculum with Children's Questions and Family Stories, M. Callanan,, P. Coto, L. Miranda, A. Striffler, J. Allen, C. Crandall, & C. Murphy
7. Agricultural Field Day: Linking Rural Cultures to School Lessons, E. McIntyre, R. Sweazy & S. Greer
8. Teaching History: A Cultural Approach for Primary-Grade Children, E. McIntyre & J. Archie
9. Creating Learning Communities: The "Build Your Dream House" Unit, M. Ayers, J. Fonseca, R. Andrade & M. Civil
10. Creating Links Between Home and School Mathematics Practices, R. Andrade, C. Carson & N. Gonzalez
11. Seeing, Believing, and Taking Action, N. González, E. McIntyre & A. Rosebery

Samples

• Discover how to connect students' cultures with instruction (PDF, 238KB, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).