Making Meaning

As I read the article "Reading and Responding" by Tchudi & Tchudi, one idea about various cultural meanings in the classroom really struck me. The Tchudis have an in-depth discussion about the challenges we face in the classroom regarding students of various cultures. They write, "Much of the canonical literature taught in English classrooms creates difficulty for students who come from diverse cultures and language backgrounds." This is, of course, not a new concept to myself or probably any of my other fellow education students. However, I really appreciated the ideas that Tchudi & Tchudi give about how to address these challenges.


One of the biggest conclusions I made from this  section of the article was this:

Reader + Text + Culture/Community = MEANING

 This simple little equation is anything but simple, and it's absolutely crucial. It explains, in simple terms, the complexity that goes into making meaning out of reading. In order to address this idea with students from various cultures and backgrounds, the authors suggest a few strategies:

• Find literature that reflects the culture and experience of the students in your class
• Teachers must know their students in order to do this!
• Use classical or traditional texts, but pay attention to the way they construct minority groups and the majority
• This is especially interesting to me, as I'm a huge fan of the classical literature. It's exciting to know I can use these in unique ways and find a way to address different cultures and minorities.
• Explore difference.
• Be careful, this can cause tension -- "Help students find a way into the discussion without making them spokespeople for their culture."
• "Help students recognize stereotypes"
• This one seems obvious, but it can be done in new ways by finding literature that represents the views of minorities. This allows them to construct themselves, rather than being constructed by views of the majority.
• Learn more about the cultures and values which are represented by your students
• Make sure to recognize your own biases so that you can help your students construct and articulate their own understandings.

I found these suggestions to be incredibly helpful because often we fail to think about challenges like this. It's difficult to address issues that are important to various cultures which we're not a part of. However, understanding cultures of our students can help us engage them in learning, as well as letting them know that we care.
The essential message to our students -- As teachers, we want to expand our own understandings past the boundaries of what we know and what we're comfortable with. We want to dig deeper into what you understand based on what you know.