Developing Cultural Contexts: Individual actions to improve the climate for all

Gary Weissmann and Roberto Ibarra -- University of New Mexico

Related Links

Private workspace (for workshop participants only)

Program

Day 1: Monday: 8:30-11:30am: Focus: Who am I? And does that matter for teaching?

Day 1 Slides (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 557kB Jul13 15)

8:30-8:45: Introductions -- Who we are, what we'll be doing.

8:45-9:00: Introduction to Cultural Autobiographies -- Where am "I" coming from?

9:00-10:00: Activity 1: Identification of culturally derived value, origins, assumptions, and current reinforcers.

10:00-10:15: Break

10:15-11:00: Activity 2: Evaluation of how these values influence your behavior and expectations in the classroom.

11:00-11:15: Discussion: How do you identify yourself outside your normal environmental conditions?

11:15-11:30: Activity 3: LC/MC One Page Worksheet. Please turn in this worksheet with your name on it (all responses will be held confidentially).

Background Information for Day 1:

Readings (Homework) for Day 2:

Day 2: Tuesday: 8:30-11:30am: Focus: Who are my students? Where are they coming from?

8:30-8:45: Recap - Regroup. Where have we come?

8:45-9:30: Activity 4: Group work brainstorming session: Classroom behaviors that are beneficial and those that are not beneficial for students. Record these on the workpage.

9:30-10:00: Context Framework theory - History and concepts. Context Diversity Slides (Acrobat (PDF) 705kB Jun27 16)

Resources on the Context model:

10:00-10:15: Break

10:15-11:00: Activity 5: Breakout groups -- evaluate behavior list based on context theory. How might context play a role in forming these behaviors? Record results on your workpage and be prepared to discuss with the full group.

11:00-11:30: Full group discussion and identification of where some of these behaviors may come from in a cultural context.

Reading Homework for Day 3: NM Accelerate Math Program article (Acrobat (PDF) 521kB Jul12 15)

Day 3: Wednesday: 8:30-11:30am: Focus: My classroom mode: How can I enhance full participation from a diverse group of students?

8:30-9:00: Discussion: Revealing the hidden dimensions of context diversity (Discussion will be recorded on the workpage).

9:00-9:30: Activity 6A: Take one of your classroom activities and analyze it relative to the context framework. Evaluate who this activity may be aimed for (low context, high context, or multicontextual individuals). How can you make small changes to bring the activity to a multicontextual mode? How does this activity fit with your personal value system in teaching? Does it stretch you or is it natural? How does that feel? OR Unpack observations from past 2 days.

9:30-10:00: Activity 6B: Share your activity and evaluation with one or two others. Work through a critique of this evaluation and work on ways the activity could be improved. OR Share - call out on unpacking results.

10:00-10:15: Break

10:15-10:45 Review OR Multicontextual teaching example: NM Accelerate Math Program

10:45-11:15: Activity 7: DISCUSSION: Where do we go from here -- Context Diversity Practice. Building a Community of Contextual Diversity Practitioners. Record on private workpage.

11:15-11:20: Endings -- last thoughts.

11:20-11:30: Evaluation of workshop.

Selected Bibliography (Acrobat (PDF) 111kB Jul9 15)