Community Profile and Analysis

Community Profile: Pick a school that serves ethnic minority and ESL students and describe it and the resources in the community that you could use to help your students be more successful. Sample community profiles can be found in the BB Learn as well as the assignment description and grading rubric.

Use observations, interviews, documents and online research to create a portrait of your school community. Begin by giving the geographical and historical background of the school. Where is it located? When was it established? How many students attend? How many grades are there? Typically, how many students are there is each classroom? How many teachers are there? What is the educational level of the teachers? How is the school administered? Does the school have a mission? How has the ethos of the school been established? Are there any extra-curricular activities? What about parental involvement? What cultural trends affect your school? How are students assessed and promoted? Who are the school’s primary stakeholders?

Respond to the following questions:

How is ethnicity reflected in the immigrant or in the indigenous status of community members?
To what degree does the community represent a stable or a mobile population?
What is happening to community members in terms of maintenance of ethnicity and acculturation or assimilation?
Who are the community leaders and how are they perceived by other community members?
What are the perceived socioeconomic rewards for literacy and school achievement?
What are the languages spoken in the community, who speaks which language, and when are the various languages spoken?
What values do community members place on speaking, reading and writing the various languages in the community?
How might the home culture of students affect their language learning?

Analysis of the Community Portrait

Analyze what you have learned about the socio-cultural context of the school community and its connections to students’ acquisition of English. How would you apply these findings to teach in culturally responsive ways?

Some questions to think about:

How does your understanding of the major concepts, theories and research related to the nature of culture in language development and academic achievement help you apply these findings?
How does your understanding of the effects of racism, stereotyping and discrimination promote an inclusive classroom climate?
How does your knowledge of how cultural groups and students’ cultural identities affect language and learning and school achievement?
How do you create meaningful language learning experiences in your classroom, which develop students’ cross-cultural competence?
How do you plan to continually learn about the various factors of your students’ background and add to the repertoire of teaching techniques in order to meet the diverse needs of all of your students