Own Ending

Write Your Own Ending

ESE548 : The Class : IEP She Wrote : Pensive Pat : Own Ending

It is unlikely, based on the story, that the personnel at the school intended to discriminate against Jason.

How does someone overlook different cultures, different languages?

In many cases, a student may come from a culture other than a dominant middle class North American upbringing. By assuming that all people have the same background, mores, standards, basic religions, a teacher could easily overlook important pieces of the learning picture for a child.

There are many considerations in honoring different cultures. The following sites give ideas about being more aware of students' feelings.

Methods for Helping Students

Tolerance

Assignment: Based on the prologue, write an ending to the story that shows the faculty of the school becoming more alert to cultural differences and putting safeguards in place so this is less likely to occur in the future.

" What was troubling Julia right now was how Jason's bilingual background had slipped past the school and the teachers. Jason was a bright young man. Had teachers been less attentive because of his slight accent? Was there prejudice going on? Wasn't there any way to find out the first language of a youngster before developing an IEP? Why didn't Jason tell someone that he was proficient in Spanish but had never read in English? These were puzzling. She had uncovered one mystery, only to find herself surrounded by more questions!"

Steps to enhance awareness of different cultures for the faculty and staff	Checklist: Recognizing that a student is Bilingual	Checklist: Parent language proficiency spoken and written

E-mail J'Anne Ellsworth at Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu
Course developed by J'Anne & Martha Ellsworth