The Effect of Culture, Socialization & Culture Shock on Education
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-effect-of-culture-socializat...
Differentiated Instruction: Adapting the Learning Environment for Students
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/differentiated-instruction-adapt...
Bilingual Education, Immersion & Multicultural Education
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/bilingual-education-immersion-mu...

There are students from four different ethnic groups in the middle school “pod” you are working with this year. Also, there is a student with pretty severe emotional and behavioural problems and a student with cerebral palsy in the group. The boy with cerebral palsy is in a wheelchair and has some difficulties with language and hearing. Students from each of the four ethnic groups seem to stick together, never making friends with students from the “outside.” When you ask people to work together on projects, the divisions are strictly along ethnic lines. Many of the subgroups communicate in their first language - one you don’t understand - and you assume the joke is on you because of the looks and laughs directed you way. Clarise, the emotionally disturbed student, is making matters worse by telling ethnic jokes to anyone who will listen in a voice loud enough to be overheard by half the class. There are rumours of an ambush after school to “teach Clarise a lesson.” You agree that she - and the whole class for that matter - needs a lesson, but not of that kind.

Critical Thinking
1. How would you handle the situation?
2. How would you teach the class to help the students feel more comfortable together?
3. What are your first goals in working on the problem?
4. How will these issues affect the grade that you want to teach?
With four or five members of your class, brainstorm as many reasonable ways as you can of addressing this situation. Try to come to consensus on the two best ways and present them to the class, with your rationale for why these are good choices.