Every year the United States becomes more and more diverse,
and this is reflected in the increasing diversity in schools. Any teacher knows
now that a multicultural classroom learns differently. An urban school is often
very diverse and the “Critical Pedagogy” article had the perfect ways to teach
such a classroom.
I liked how it talked about instead of purposely using authors
and stories that was produced by a minority, as by doing such can have a
negative connotation, but that you use the classics that are already being used
in the curriculum and find what is in their content and apply it to pop culture
and issues that are happening today. Of course it is always good to update some
of the book selection, the classics should still not be thrown out altogether. Connecting
the old works to relevant times is one of the best ways to get students engaged
in the material as well, for students are far more likely to participate in an
assignment if they are interested in it.
The unit plan involving the use of rap songs was a great
idea on teaching poetry to students. Not only does it use the multi-cultural
pedagogy, but it also still uses poetry classics like Shakespeare. A problem
students tend to have with poetry is that they are often old, several hundred
years old. Letting students look at the music they listen to and compare it to
classic poetry lets them see that there are similar themes, and it can show
them the quality of what they are listening to, for better or for worse. Besides
rap songs, this compare and contrasting unit could also be used for any genre
of music, rock, rap, blues, etc.
Using a multi-cultural pedagogy is very beneficial for both
the student and the teacher.
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