D020 Task 3

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Western Governors University *

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D020

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Sociology

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Apr 3, 2024

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Isaac R. MacKenzie Course D020: Cultural Competency & SEL Task 3 Instructor: Dean Janitzki June 29, 2023
A1.) The subgroup I will be focusing on is the Hispanic students at Fruitland High School. Fruitland High School is located in the small rural town of Fruitland Idaho. I am choosing to focus on this group to help our faculty bridge the language barrier gap between teachers and Hispanic parents and parents with ELL students. The racial composition of the student body is 68% of Fruitland High School students are White, 27% of students are Hispanic, 3% of students are Two or more races, 1% of students are American Indian, and 1% of students are Asian (Fruitland High School (2023 Ranking)- Fruitland Idaho 2023) . A2a.) A communication practice in my plan that would promote cultural awareness for the Hispanic group that I decided to focus on is to recognize and celebrate the culture of the Hispanic community. I want to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. “Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America (Bureau, n.d.). Celebrating this month within our classrooms at Fruitland High school, will promote a culturally inclusive environment. This is a great place to start with our plan, it is an approach that highlights Hispanic culture. A2b.) There are multiple ways to promote a culturally inclusive educational environment for Hispanic students. A portion of the Hispanic students at Fruitland High School are English Language Learners. One of the easiest ways to promote a culturally inclusive educational environment for the ELL students is to make sure that school information and classroom information are being sent home. Information being sent
home should be in the native language for your parents of ELL students. Any documents should be translated into native languages. I use google classroom for all my assignments and for communicating with parents. Google classroom allows information to be translated into other languages. With this feature, ELL parents are able to translate lessons, newsletters, and private messages to their native language. This helps ELL parents feel included and gives them a sense of empowerment. “Empowered families are defined by their self-confidence and demand for respect and fair treatment from others. As a teacher, you can count on empowered families’ advocating for their children’s best interests. In contrast, disempowered families lack the confidence needed to take part in family involvement activities and to make decisions about their children's education. (Coleman, 2013). Including the ELL parents in the educational process of their children gives them the opportunity to hold their children accountable and to elevate their expectations at home. This active involvement will only help these students in the classroom. A2c.) An implementation practice I could use that would promote student success is to have Spanish speaking bilingual college professors come to the school on a professional development day to educate staff on the culturally different beliefs, practices, and thought processes behind Hispanic heritage. This would help educate our faculty on how to approach and relate to Hispanic students and families, this will promote student success. “The notion that all children are culturally the same is detrimental to the learning process. In order to be effective, educators must subscribe to a philosophy that recognizes the vital role that culture plays in our society and the significance of the need to become culturally competent in all education settings ( Bruce
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Anthony Jones & Nichols, 2013). If teachers better understand the diverse cultures of their students they are able to approach students, be approachable themselves, and relate to students on a more personal level. A2d.) A strategy that our school district has used in the past, to get cultural perspective, is to survey families and external stakeholders. The surveys have been used in various ways, such as to get a perspective on various events and ideas for a diversified curriculum. It would be beneficial to implement a survey for the parents of our ELL students. This survey would be part of the online registration process at the beginning of the school year. This would be given to ELL parents as a google form to fill out. We would have instant information to help guide how we approach parents with ELL students. This survey could be accessed in English or Spanish. It would ask various questions. Questions like, what is the primary language spoken at home ? The survey would ask questions to gather information. Questions that include, do you feel welcome at the school? Do you feel like the school includes you in your child's education? Are you comfortable approaching teachers, emailing teachers, or talking to administrators? How can the school be more inclusive and open to your child's education process? As a high school we are seeking this type of information and wanting the involvement of our parents and community. Too often, school administrators take on the leadership position within the school without giving much consideration to community needs (Mccray et al., 2021). Parent and community involvement within the school is a vital component to a successful school. Parent involvement is essential for our ELL students to be successful. By conducting the start
of the year surveys with the parents of ELL students, we get a better understanding of their needs and how we can better support them throughout the school year. A3.) Communication strategies that would be used to communicate with our HIspanic families would be the use of social media, using google classroom, email (if available for each parent), google form surveys, and family nights. Our hope is to reduce the language barrier between our faculty and our Hispanic parents including our parents with ELL students. To reduce the language barrier between our school and Hispanic parents, we want to provide translators, hire more ELL para educators, and hire more staff that are bilingual. We are invested in using appropriate technology that allows Hispanic families to translate assignments and information to their native language. For example, technologies being used are google classroom and Remind messages. As a school district we want to empower the parents of our ELL students. I think having family nights for these families to cover important information, answering questions, and to address any issues will help with the language barrier. During parent nights we can cover college entrance information, help parents with the college application process, FAFSA help, and ACT/ SAT test guidance. In the past our school struggled with the communication process through email and over the phone. We now can use google classroom and apps like Remind to have conversations, information, and assignments translated to Spanish and other languages. This will help in bridging the gap for our teacher to parent communication. Hiring more bilingual teachers and paraeducators at the high school will help parents of ELL students feel comfortable to come to parent teacher conferences in person. A3a.) Artifacts:
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A4.) The purpose behind this communication plan is to build better relationships between our HIspanic families and Fruitland High School. We want to improve communication between ELL students, parents, ELL teachers, classroom teachers, and administrators. With open lines of communication we can implement changes that will benefit our Hispanic population, and our ELL students. This plan will help build strong relationships with Hispanic parents and families. It will make our ELL students and parents feel more comfortable with the Educational environment at Fruitland High School. We want our Hispanic and ELL students and parents to feel comfortable in approaching and communicating with our faculty and administrators at FHS. This will also help our ELL students in the classroom as our teachers implement the strategies that are discussed and changed through the process of the communication plan.
References Fruitland High School (2023 Ranking) - Fruitland, ID . (2023, June 26). Public School Review. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/fruitland-high-school-profile#:~:text=Wh at%20is%20the%20racial%20composition Bureau, U. C. (n.d.). National Hispanic Heritage Month: Sept. 15-Oct. 15, 2022 . Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/hispanic-heritage-month.html#:~:t ext=%E2%80%9CAbout%20National%20Hispanic%20Heritage%20Month Mick Coleman. (2013). Empowering Family-Teacher Partnerships: Building Connections Within Diverse Communities. SAGE Publications, Inc. Bruce Anthony Jones, & Nichols, E. J. (2013). Cultural Competence in America’s Schools . IAP. Mccray, C. R., Beachum, F. D., & Reggio, P. F. (2021). School leadership in a diverse society : helping schools prepare all students for success . Information Age Publishing, Inc.
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