When I first read this blog prompt, I immediately thought of the Maples article we read, Opening Quality Lines of Communication: Seeing My Students through the Eyes of Their Parents, and the "In a million words or less, tell me about your child" assignment. I really think that this is a great idea and found it amazing that this particular teacher received such wonderful feedback from it. I realize that not every attempt at this "assignment" may get the same amount of response, but I do think that any response would offer a much deeper and more thorough evaluation of students and their cultures or personalities than could be gained right away by the teacher alone.
Another good way to gain multiple perspectives on diversity in the classroom is to just listen to the students. Discussions, and not just recitations, could possibly allow for a teacher to obtain a lot of information about the students' cultures, beliefs and personalities. We read in the articles about discussions that if the teacher is not just asking questions that require yes/no answers and instead asks questions that require the students to think before responding, that the answers will often include information that can aid the teacher in learning more about her students personalities and cultures. These types of answers will also be more abundant if the teacher is not monopolizing the bulk of the conversation and allowing the students to take the roles of facilitating and evaluating the conversations.
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