Incorporate diversity into your classroom - IUPUI

20 W AYS T O . . .
Incorporate Diversity Into
Your Classroom
TYI-SANNA JONES
ries of Holy Days/holidays, arts, dress, food,
music, history—what defines the people of the
country. Let us briefly use this approach to
study India across the curriculum.
Diversity is more easily incorporated into the classroom
through careful planning. The 20 examples provided
here are intended to serve as a springboard for ideas you
can implement in your classroom. In our increasingly diverse
world, a global perspective will reinforce to children
and young adults that we cannot afford to function
in the comfort of our communities without acknowledging
other religions, philosophies, traditions, and languages.
Thus, using a worldly perspective facilitates and models
tolerance. The examples here are provided for both primary
and secondary educators.
1.
Use countries as thematic units. Individual
countries may serve as monthly themes.
While studying the country, you can focus on
the religions, language, monetary system, se-
• Art: Glass/colorful beads:
Primary level: String or sew beads onto
colorful material to make a wall hanging.
Secondary level: Make and decorate a silk
pillow. Use plastic mirrors, glass beads, and
colorful embroidery to decorate.
• History/Government:
- India’s government in the last 60 years
- The caste system
• Religion:
- Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist
- Striving toward democracy
• Science: Use the Internet to explore vegetation
and crops that are native to India.
• Reading/English: Read a book/novel
about an Indian child/young adult.
• Music: Listen to traditional ghazals and
tabla music and compare it to the more
modern styles listened to by Indian youth
today.
• Physical education: Learn basic belly
dancing techniques and learn to play
cricket.
• Math: Learn about the monetary system.
Compare it to the system we use in United
States; also, study exchange rates and the
Indian stock market.
INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC VOL. 41, NO. 1,SEPTEMBER 2005 (PP. 9–12) 9

2.
3.
During the various seasons and U.S.
holidays share information about
Holy Days and holidays around the
world. When several Holy Days/holidays
occur approximately at the same time, use
compare and contrast activities to show similarities
and differences (i.e., the Kinara and
the Menorah, from Kwanzaa and Hanukkah,
respectively).
Study world explorers. During lessons
involving world explorers, include a project
researching African, Mexican, Indian, and
Norwegian explorers in addition to the typical
lessons on Spanish, English, and Portuguese
world explorers.
7.
8.
Assign art projects using traditional
art around the world as examples.
For example, if the activity is studying patterns
and use of color, the teacher may use examples
from Sioux, Celtic, Burmese, and Massa
peoples.
Have students interview their families
to explore their lineage, native
language, and family history. Students
can present their findings using a project
display that may include family tree, information
about the native language, interesting
family facts, pictures, and written family
history.
4.
Use a variety
of coloring
books/movies/
materials
that reflect
the population
of your
school and
community.
If there is no diversity
within
your school, still
use a variety of materials for exposure. Be
careful your selections are not offensive to
the groups that you are representing. See
http://www.justlikemebooks .com, Happily
Ever After series by HBO (http://www
.hbofamily.com/programs/jam/happily_
ever_after.htm), African Bookstore (http://
www.africanbookstore.com), and http://www
.kstrom.net/isk/books/children.html.
9.
10.
Use music to stimulate the interest
of your students. Select a certain day of
the week where a student brings in a selection
of music for the class to hear. The student is
asked to discuss the style and history of the
musician, singer, or rapper. Be very clear
about your expectations and the appropriateness
of the selection. Challenge young people
to go beyond artists found on MTV, BET, and
VH-1.
During the sharing of music, chart
music by genre (e.g., gospel, pop, hiphop,
reggae, ska, souka, country, opera, salsa,
classical, rock and roll). Use charts to compare
instruments, beats, tempo, falsetto, concerto,
and so on. Using music like this encourages
students to learn the musical concepts you
want them to learn through what they already
know. Introduce other genres that may be new
to you and the students.
5.
6.
Select textbooks and supplemental
books that reflect culture, gender,
and diversity within the world. Books
should include children of different cultures,
religions, disabilities, socioeconomic levels,
gender preferences, and race.
Subscribe to magazines, comic
books, and journals that reflect the
population of your students (e.g.,
Black Enterprise, Latina, Teen Beat, Spawn).
11.
Study the history of written
language. As part of a handwriting activity,
explore different mediums of paper, pens, and
writing styles
throughout the
world and
across time:
calligraphy
(Western and
Eastern), hieroglyphics,
and Braille.
10 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC

12.
13.
Reinforce the
culture being
studied. Start
simple. A special
Friday activity
could be to make
cookies or follow
a simple recipe
from the culture
being studied.
The obvious
goal is to taste
different snacks
from around the
world, but this
will intertwine with math concepts of measuring,
social and functionally based skills such as
following directions, sharing, setting the
table, table etiquette, and manners.
Study and compare world fashion.
Use magazines and printouts from the Internet
to check out the trendiest fashions around
the world. Through your study of cultures,
find the roots of these new fashions. The
runways each season are full of cultural
blending.
16.
17.
Research the most popular pets
around the world. Each student identifies
five countries using an atlas. Through the use
of Web sites, pen pals, or e-pals, students explore
popular pets in respective countries.
After conducting research on a country, the
student makes a hypothesis about what kind
of animals he or she believes will be popular.
The student will design a 5 + questionnaire
to collect data. Questions included will determine
whether the person lives in an urban or
rural area, if he or she has a pet, how many,
what kind, and his or her dream pet. Students
will complete the study using the entire scientific
method and provide graphs and present
project to class. Class members may combine
findings and make class graphs.
Study marriage customs. Looking at
arranged marriages, dowry, bride price, and
the dating systems, have students compare
and contrast traditions, discuss what they
think they would prefer, and how these systems
affect relationships between genders
and the families involved. A variety of videos,
books, short stories, poems, magazines, and
novels may be used to collect information.
14.
15.
Use the Internet, books, and
magazines like National Geographic,
to get an international perspective.
Have students identify a kind of home they
would like to research. Students will discuss
the materials used, where homes like this
would be made, how many people would live
in it, the heating/cooling system, its mobility,
and its upkeep.
Study family units. What makes a
family? While reading stories/novels about
various cultures, record the members of the
families and their function within the family
unit and use them to make family trees.
Compare and contrast nuclear families and
extended families. Recognize how the family
name is carried from either the paternal or
maternal side. Have students make a family
tree of their own families. Encourage the inclusion
of family friends and godparents who
may be considered family.
18.
19.
Study hair styles and discuss
the scientific reasons people of
different ethnicities have different
textures of hair. Look at the regions
to which people have migrated, the climates,
and the function of hair. Look at traditions
and styles developed in many cultures around
hair, today’s styles, and daily and weekly
maintenance
for hair of
different
textures.
Study
games
across the
world.
What do kids
do for fun?
Have students
explore
games that
are popular
VOL. 41, NO. 1,SEPTEMBER 2005 11

20.
around the world, such as cricket, soccer,
rugby, red rover, double Dutch, and foursquare.
While reading novels and books, you
and your students will come across names of
games that you may never have heard of.
If they sound like fun, check the Internet for
rules; if you are lucky, the rules may be explained
right in the book.
Go on field trips!! Take advantage of cultural
activities in your town or nearby cities.
Get your kids out! Organize trips to larger
cities where ballets, theatre troupes, and symphonies
visit. Expose your students to mainstream
culture within the United States, as
well as subcultures of the Unites States and
the world. Create a sister school within the
state, with an urban and a rural school as partners.
This allows kids who are growing up in
different cultures or regions to learn more
about each other. Extension ideas may include
taking field trips together, overnight camping,
and team-building activities. Sister schools
that are farther away may begin the relationship
with pen pal and exchange student programs.
Remember that when working with
your sister school that you are equal partners.
Do not approach a school or teacher in a different
area as if they need you or that your
ideas are superior.
Options for these kinds of activities are only limited
by the walls of your own mind. Set the standards high for
your students’ success; prepare them to respond to new
ideas, sights, and values. Be open and expect your students
to embrace diversity. Remember: If you don’t believe
in it, they won’t either!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tyi-Sanna Jones, MS, is enrolled in a doctoral program in special
education with an emphasis on autism and gifted education
at the University Nevada, Las Vegas. Her research interests include
the overrepresentation of African Americans and Hispanic
children in special education and the effectiveness of current
programs for children with autism. E-mail: Jonest22@unlv
.nevada.edu
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12 INTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC