Sensitivity to linguistic differences

The culturally competent teacher communicates in ways that demonstrate sensitivity to socio-cultural and linguistic differences, using a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that encourage positive social interaction and support learning in their classroom. 



One of the things that I like about working with math is that it is pretty universal, there are not too many language barriers, however, there can still be problems with language barriers. There are a lot of verbal communication techniques that the school uses to help students. A few of them I have already talked about in previous posts, like reading out loud directions to small groups and having ESL teachers  in some classrooms. One exercise that 3rd graders do is looking at a 6 digit number and read what it is, which helps with places, but also with the actual numbers. And because there is a good deal of direct instruction, most of the other communication techniques are non-verbal.
One of the most prominent non-verbal techniques used is the use of posters on the walls. In the math office, there are graphics and posters with information, like the three averages and their definitions. There are large number-lines and calendars for everyone to see and use. There are lots of graphs and most assignments are written on the whiteboard on a place set aside for them. Last Friday I helped with a really successful using non-verbal methods to create an advance organizer for algebra, which was going to be taught next week. The idea was to introduce algebra as literally balancing two sides of an equation, where a fulcrum was the place where the equal sign was placed. There were three different stations, each for a group of 6 students. The first had a lever on a fulcrum in the middle, with hooks along increments and a set of weights of equal mass. The weights were placed at various places on one side, and the students had to balance it using certain constraints. From the  distance fulcrum and the number of weights on a hook, the students formed equations from the balanced lever. The second station was very similar, it had a balance with a set of two different weights, where the students had  to level the balance and form an equation. The students had a little trouble at first, but after a little guidance, were doing very well. The third station had laptops, where the students "played" at sumdog.com, practicing their basic math operations and getting instant feedback from the computer.