So, you’re here. You’re thinking to yourself “I’m about to read a cliché blog post written by a Cricut owning, Pinterest fiend of a teacher going off about rainbows, getting along, and accepting all ideas.” Well, that’s sort of true. However, I can assure you that I won’t talk about rainbows, I don’t own a Cricut (yet), and I rarely go on Pinterest. However, I will touch base on being inclusive and accepting.

Here’s the weird part; I’m actually going to explain how I plan to do this in my classroom.

This philosophy on how to teach English is solely fueled by my desire to make it so the problems in our educational system are not just acknowledged but acted on.  Let’s face it, all of us have had some scarring experience when it comes to typing research papers or getting back a grammar test because we put a comma in the wrong place, forgot to put the date in the third citation on the works cited page, didn’t come up with the ‘correct’ interpretation of a text, and so on.  The sad truth of it is, Language Arts is often treated and taught as an objective practice, meaning a piece of writing or interpretation of literature is either right or wrong. If you look at the practice from a culturally relevant perspective, however, there is usually more than one way to look at a an interpretation.

The following philosophy’s purpose is to instill a belief not just in my fellow teachers but in all people the importance of treating English as a subjective subject and students as master’s of their own cultures and forgers of their own success.

1. Plan learning opportunities that allow for all students to make meaningful connections.

• Give students agency. Students need to feel like they have a say in their work for them to truly appreciate it and put effort into it. For this to happen, you need to be a facilitator rather than an instructor.

“Teachers are cultural translators, cultural bridge makers.”

-Dr. Jacqueline Jordan Irvine

2. Be open and honest with students about their knowledge of a topic.

• Teachers are in the classroom to assist students in digging deeper within themselves to find their voice for writing. This voice is directly linked to cultural backgrounds. So, if a student writes about something you genuinely don’t know about, don’t be afraid to ask. This will lead to more conversations and a better relationships with the student.

3. Understand the varying levels of English fluency in the classroom while still maintaining high expectations for all.

• Be aware of students’ 1st language and the language(s) they may speak at home.
• Understand that different cultures have different dialects. That does not mean that their grammar is incorrect, it simply means they speak different than you.
• Set expectations high for each and every student and do not lower them to make your job easier.

And please, please, PLEASE remember:

ENGLISH FLUENCY DOES NOT EQUAL INTELLIGENCE.

4. Evaluate through self-assessment, peer reviews, and personalized feedback.

• I’m going to let the following quote start me off on my discussion of self-assessment:

“Through self-assessment, students can identify their own skill gaps, where their knowledge is weak, see where to focus their attention in learning, set realistic goals, revise their work, track their own progress, and if online, decide when to move to the next level of the course.”

-Standford Teaching Commons

It basically speaks for itself by saying, “Hey, let students have a say in how they feel they have progressed with their writing because who knows a person better then their self?”

• Peer reviews. The seemingly meaningless activity that is done in almost every classroom that both teachers and students alike find themselves asking, “Why?” However, when done right, they provide students with the opportunity to feel motivated and engaged by giving/receiving constructive feedback to/from their peers.

Tip: There is actually a ‘better’ way to do peer reviews, here’s an article that goes into detail on how to do this in a classroom.

• Personalized feedback is an essential part of becoming a better writer. The key to it is focusing on the progress of a student and where you see them going next rather than just pointing out errors. Here’s a more in-depth article explaining some more ways to provide personalized feedback.

“Feedback is crucial to helping our students develop as learners.”

-Classkick Blog Post

The aim of this article was not necessarily to persuade any fellow teachers or readers to agree with every thing I believe in. My main hope was to open the floor to discussion of how we can educate everyone on the topic of being culturally inclusive of all. It’s time to turn the mere idea of treating every student from every background as an individual capable of producing, reviewing, and publishing good pieces of writing into a goal that will be reached.