Prompt 5 - Kliewer

To be brutally honest, being in this classroom over the course of a few months, I haven’t seen the teacher demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to sociocultural and linguistic differences. Every child in my classroom comes from a different background, whether they are Puerto Rican, Mexican, African-American, Portuguese, or any other ethnicity. Most of the stories being read to the children are about young white kids that do something such as solve a problem, go on adventures, and make friends. There is no diversity in the stories. Considering that this is a reading classroom that is a big statement to make. No diversity in the literature means no diversity in the curriculum. When there is no diversity in the curriculum then there is no appreciation for the diversity in the classroom.


Each child has a different reading level. They also have different ways of learning. Some were taught to sound out words, while others were taught to memorize them. They all get into this reading class and have to learn how to read the same way as everyone else. This is what the curriculum states. The only sensitivity in the classroom to the linguistic differences is that the children who are “above average” in their reading level go into a different classroom with the helper and read the more difficult stories and do workbooks on it. There is no teaching of each ethnic background, or even a specialized way of teaching to these backgrounds.

By the time that I become a teacher, I will make sure to have days that show the different backgrounds of each child. For example, I am half Greek and half Portuguese, and I am very proud of my heritage. The teacher in my classroom doesn’t do anything like this. There are so many ways to incorporate this into the curriculum. Have a day that talks about how the Mexicans came to be, the Native Americans, the African-Americans, the Europeans. Play games, Have each of the children observe and get involved in the activities. It isn’t a difficult thing to do.

Kliewer touched on a subject that I thought was vital. Instead of taking the children with the biggest problems out of the classroom, they took out the children who excelled out and worked with them outside of the classroom. Although Kliewer talks of taking the children with the disabilities outside of the classroom, this is the same concept. The other children see these kids go out of the classroom and see that they are getting specialized attention. Whether it is good or bad, they see that they are being treated differently. And worse, the teacher says to the children when they aren’t paying attention or aren’t doing well on their reading, “Let’s go you guys, don’t you want to be as good as So-And-So and Billy Boy and Suzie Q? What good comes out of this? I asked myself this question every time I was there. Hopefully she will change these teaching habits before it makes a big difference on these children.