When I first considered this topic my reaction was that I had not experienced biases, point of view, or different perspectives in history. How could I experience these when my history teacher usually focused on American History and gave the point of view of those presented in the textbooks? Hold on, so that means that have experienced all of these!
I recall high school history classes and the teacher rarely included different points of views on wars, slavery, elections, or any other historical events when presenting material. As a result, I was taught little about other cultures or ethnic groups in high school. My first encounter with different perspectives was in college in an African American Literature class. After taking the class, I felt somewhat slighted that I did not have the opportunity to learn about other ethnicities and cultures before then. The information that I learned about my own culture was usually a result of my parents having me read book or teaching me what they knew.
As a teacher of Social Studies, I will expose my students to different perspectives and point of views so that they will not have the same experiences that I had. I would like for students to have all of the possible information about a topic so that they can make their own informed judgments.
Since I will teach about different perspectives, cultures, and points of view, all students, including ESLs will benefit. I will differentiate instruction as usual by scaffolding, heterogeneous grouping when appropriate, and giving visual representations of events and objects when necessary. Differentiation within the classroom will be beneficial for all students in all areas. I will do interest surveys for students to create relevance around class activities and assignments. I would like for all students, including ESL students to have an opportunity to share a part of the lives and culture with the entire class. Everyone and every culture is special and I want my students to understand that.
Funny how those personal experiences come back to haunt us just when we thought it was all good :) I am glad to see that you won't be repeating mistakes of the past and will make a purposeful effort to expose your students to various cultures, perspectives, and POV's.
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