What instructional models/strategies from reading seem effective to you and why? 

  “Teachers need to learn about themselves and their students.” (Nieto, Edutopia 2014) 

By learning about the diverse cultural backgrounds of my students as well as my own upbringing as a teacher, I am in a better position to appeal to students’ interests and strengths as learners.

While companies value diversity, many organizations (whether academic or business-related) still engage in biases in terms of hiring decisions, most of which are either unintentional or unconscious. (Purdie-Vaughns, Edutopia 2014) 

By engaging in critical race theory in the course of my graduate training and professional life, I have become aware of unconscious biases related to my upbringing. Knowing how discrimination can adversely affect one’s performance, I will try to create classrooms of equality where all students feel their contributions are valued. 

Teachers need to learn about the culture and linguistics of each individual student. (Strickland, Edutopia 2014)

I will weave the unique contributions of students of diverse cultures into lesson plans. Studies show that students thrive when their narratives are incorporated into the curriculum. 

Visual Literacy Strategies are an important instructional model for interpreting, recognizing, appreciating, and understanding information through visible actions and objects. (Finley, Edutopia, 2014) 

An effective method for engaging in visual literacy strategies would be through Think-A-Louds with teachers asking the four Ws: “What do you see? What does it remind you of? What’s the purpose? So What?” in order to activate students' critical thinking and information gathering abilities. 

“Culturally responsive teaching brings in different ways of knowing into the classroom.” (Gray, Equity Matters, 2000)

In many classrooms, not following rules has consequences that create avoidance and resistance. As a teacher, I must create an instructional model that rewards students for good judgment versus policing. Extending positive messages to the student community must be included in this effort. This means engaging students in reflective thinking and writing, exploring their personal and family histories. This is effective because students “share ownership of the classroom.” 

  An effective culturally responsive teaching application is having students read texts that relate to their own identity and struggles. (Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 2017) 

The additive approach is effective because it focuses on students studying thematic units based on multicultural concepts and issues that are relevant to the lives of students and their peers.

The transformative approach provides opportunities for learners to engage in activities and projects related to cultural concepts and issues of social action. This instructional model gives students an opportunity to address issues of fairness and societal equity and the legal basis for governance in action oriented projects. (Vacca and Vacca, Content Area Reading, 2017)

How will these ideas influence your planning when scaffolding reading and writing instruction? 

I’ll have students create an electronic portfolio in order for both the teacher and students to track their progress and growth. During scaffolding reading instruction, students would be required to enter examples of their work online in order to demonstrate how their work progressed over time based on before-during-after input. The portfolio would showcase students’ best work as well as breaking down the lesson into smaller units so that students understand how writing is constructed and analyzed in sequential steps. 

Scaffolding reading instruction makes self and teacher assessment fairer as the evaluation is based on a variety of smaller units comprising mechanics, reflections, collaboration, and formal language during before, during, and after reading plans.