Culturally Responsive Project Ed 639 Deidre Jenson April 3, 2013 Subject of my study: Joe McVeigh: Began his career

as an English teacher in China, and then upon returning to the states began working in the schools as the LEP/ESL teacher. He then became an instructor and later a curriculum developer for TESOL. McVeigh has instructed at many universities and is presently an independent consultant and writer. He also now works for the US Department of State as an English Language Specialist. (Interestingly enough, he has also taught courses through Middlebury College in Juneau about 13 years ago.) McVeigh uses a number of the materials and ideas that align with TESOLs philosophy. (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages: a professional organization whose mission is to advance professional expertise in English language teaching and learning for speakers of other languages worldwide.) TESOL is a highly recognized organization that assists people in preparation to take the TOEFL which measures English proficiency of non-English speakers. I learned about this exam through our exchange student, who is needing to take the TOEFL exam in order to gain entrance into certain universities and private schools in the U.S. McVeigh consults and trains for many different types of organizations and businesses as large as General Electric. He takes a special interest in the educational field, since that is where he has spent a majority of his career. McVeigh co-authored with Ann C. Wintergest a book called Tips for Teaching Culture: Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication. Why I chose this study: Having an exchange student living with us this year has developed an interest in teaching our exchange student about our culture, and how to adapt and assimilate to function in our culture without losing her identity. Similarly, it has also been a great challenge to watch my children interact and grow with their new sister. It has been difficult foster acceptance in my own children, without taking away from their own identity and without devaluing what their norm is. It has challenged me as a teacher, parent, and just as a person, in how I view our culture and others cultures. Through this process of working through the language barriers and trying to understand and be understood, I have discovered anew that communication is much more than simply decoding meaning of each others words. When I went online to find information about Joe McVeigh, I found a number of power points. I am very visual in the way I instruct and learn, so this caught my attention and caused me to delve into his curriculums further. Along with our family, there were 9 other families in our district that hosted exchange students. These consisted of students from Brazil, Denmark, Belgium, Mexico, Germany and several from China. Two years prior to this, a family adopted two children from Haiti, after the earthquake. These have all posed new challenges for our teachers in reaching these students unique learning needs. The two students from Haiti has required extensive study for our teachers (including me), as they were ours for the long

haul rather than just here for a cultural experience, not academic progress. There is a possibility that families here will continue to host exchange students and if this is the case, as a school we need to be prepared for them or other students that may come our way, including the native population we serve. McVeighs approach to teaching students of another language is quite broad, yet focusing on culture as a language in and of itself, even if they speak English. Communication doesnt just consist of meanings of words and sentence structure. It appears that he feels that in understanding a culture, your communication will improve and thus learning will increase both for the student of another language as well as the host students. (I use the word host for lack of a better word, but I am referring to the majority population that resides in the classroom.) Most professionals understand that non-verbal communication is key when teaching students of another culture. For example, in the Inupiat culture, looking down from an authority figure is a sign of respect versus looking them in the eye. McVeigh seemed to take this to a deeper level, which interested me. How I plan to study this curriculum: 1. Downloaded and read several power point presentations from the internet. 2. Peruse his website and links on his website. 3. Print off all the materials that correspond to his power point presentations. 4. Purchase and read his book; Tips for Teaching Culture: Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication. 5. Conduct online research on his successes, accomplishments, and peoples review regarding his curriculums and presentations. My findings: Tips for Teaching Culture; Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication has 8 chapters in it: Exploring Culture, Culture and Language, Culture and Nonverbal Communication, Culture and Identity, Culture Shock and Cross-Culture Adjustment, Traditional Ways of Teaching Culture, Culture and Education, and finally, Culture and Social Responsibility. Under each chapter, there is a list of tips for each heading. When I began reading these tips, which are listed at the beginning of the book, it seemed like they had a high correlation to the state standards, so I looked those up to see if that was true. There are 52 different tips and 29 standards. The tips appear to be more specific in content nature, but at the same time more general. The standards appear to be more specifically targeting Alaska culture and the tips are targeting a variety of cultures. Here are some samples of tips that correlate to standards: Tips * Explore personal identity and build awareness of social identify and roles. * Understand the relationship between culture, language, and thought. State Cultural Standards * identify and appreciate who they are and their place in the world. * reflect through their own actions the critical role that the local heritage language plays in fostering a sense of who they are and how they understand the world around them.

* Explore the differences between spoken and written language.

* acquire and pass on the traditions of their community through oral and written history. * Create respect for diversity and ethnic differences * acquire insights from other cultures without in the classroom. diminishing the integrity of their own. Each tip in each chapter has the following sections in it: Introductory section giving general thoughts and guiding questions about the concept, What the research says about each concept, What the teacher can do, an Activity for each tip or concept and finally the conclusion. The Introduction simply expounds on the concepts to be addressed which I found helpful to clarify my understanding before I were to teach it and the guiding questions, acted as reflective questions which really is needed to get to the heart of teaching culture self-evaluation regarding a persons attitudes and perceptions. The What the research says really took the place of me going on line and attempting to find out if this curriculum would work. It is definitely research based and the research is explained probably more in depth than I have ever seen any curriculum. There are 6 pages of bibliography and each 4x6 page has about 3 to 5 citations on each page. The What the teacher can do section, briefly explains the rationale for the activity. The Activity section is basically a lesson plan. Each activity is used to teach the related tip or concept. Each activity is rated with a level, which reminds me of the continuum of Ascending Intellectual Demand in the Parallel Curriculum Model. These levels are Beginner, Higher Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, which are to be used to help guide the teacher in knowing when a student is ready for each activity. It gives you the steps, as well as any handouts or visuals needed for the activity. The activities are practical and easy to follow. On McVeighs website, he has posted a number of power points that can be downloaded and used with the activities. Those power points have more activities on the website that have outlines and handouts that can be printed off. The conclusion summarizes, but also give you a checklist that you can use as a summative assessment for both teachers and students. My conclusion and why it is important to me: As an educator and now moving into an administrative role, I see communication as key to learning and key to creating an environment conducive to learning. Joe McVeigh approaches the teaching of culture from the standpoint of teaching to students who use English as a Second Language. Therefore, he defines teaching culture as an integral part of communication and quotes a definition in his book; Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill tacked on, so to speak to the teaching of speaking listening reading and writing. It is always in the background, right from day one. (p.4) When I was studying and analyzing this, I was approaching it from teaching culture in the classroom to all students, not just the students that are coming in from another country. Because his approach is from teaching new students about the new culture they are assimilating into, there are many aspects that as educators I think we tend to overlook because the educational community in America comes from

generally a white European framework. This is our norm and they are coming into our world, however, especially in Alaska, we are the newcomers (relatively) and brought our culture into their world and expect them to assimilate into theirs instead of us assimilating into theirs. America is considered the great melting pot. Where there are aspects of the idea of a group of people melding together to create a new, unique culture that binds its people together, there are downfalls. Because of the independent nature of Americans and the value of strength and individualism, there is a slight arrogance that can go hand in hand with it. I grew up in Canada and didnt move into the states until after I had graduated. I watched many relatives that were from the states and when I moved to the states, I saw and experienced this culture shock, even though Canada and the US are considered almost sisters, or at least cousins. There can be a tendency to think that the way we do things is the right way. I saw it others and now in myself as I have moved from Minnesota and then to different places in Alaska. There are many cultures within our melting pot culture and I think we need to teach this more explicitly in order to improve how we treat each other. Communication is a large part of learning to get along with each other and understanding each other. The book itself explains this best; For many years linguists and anthropologists have studied the relationship between language and culture and have found the two to be closely connected. This connection raises a number of questions. Is our view of the world dependent on what language we speak, or does language depend on culture? How closely are language and culture related? Is it possible for us to understand a culture fully without knowing the language? There are serious implications here for teachers. If language and culture are indeed closely intertwined, then the teaching of culture and the teaching of language must go hand in hand. How then can teachers help students become more successful learner of both language and culture? How can teachers equip themselves to help student improve their language and culture skills? These questions challenge me, even for our students that speak English. If they understand their language, how much more will they be able to learn. I see the impact of this in our native students who live with maybe two languages spoken in their home, our special education students, who simply have challenges with language, or our average students that lack interaction and conversation at home. I wonder how each of their culture at home affects their learning and more so, would this curriculum reach those students. Another challenge that we discussed in our cohort last summer was the challenge of Native high school students attempting to attend college and shortly after returning home. Reading through this book I saw great implications and strategies that could address this problem. Tip 1.6 is this: Build awareness about stress caused by cultural adjustment. I dont think that anyone of us really saw this correlation in these students challenge. These students are experiencing culture shock, which to me, was a new perspective. I see great possibilities using this curriculum for professional development. Teachers love to experience ideas that they could use in the classroom. There are also activities in this curriculum that addresses specific challenges experienced in the classroom. I went online to see research the success of Joe McVeigh. Nothing stood out, except the positions he has held and his followers on twitter. He has 1025 followers

and there were a few reviews on Amazon. This review summarizes my finding as well, with the exception that they have used it and I will use it. This is an excellent go-to book for teachers looking for concrete ways to teach culture in the language classroom. I often use this book as I am looking for ways to design lessons that will demonstrate the effect that culture has on communication. Insights and anecdotes throughout the book will help teachers understand their role in teaching culture, and classroom activities are interactive.