Cultural Community Outreach Event

1. Cultural Community Outreach Event Promoting Global Citizenship

2. Our Mission • The ABC Middle School strives to offer the best comprehensive education through culturally responsive teaching. • It also provides the most nurturing and supportive learning community involving students, parents, faculty, and administration • It actively teaches the principles of multicultural education that promote global citizenship

3. Our Vision and Goals • The ABC Middle School prepares students intellectually, socially, and emotionally, so that they can assume the important role of a responsible member of society in all its diversity. • To provide students with various activities for participation and personal development by creating and providing opportunities to explore and to appreciate the differences in others • To foster communication between home and school that upholds the principles of family involvement in the education of our students • To encourage respect for diversity by recognizing, sharing and celebrating the gifts which each person brings in our school community

4. Strategies for Involving School-wide Stakeholders Research suggests that incorporating the following five dimensions can help students to better develop a global awareness : Perspective consciousness: Recognizing that all individuals have an opinion. State of the planet dimension: Understanding current events and world issues. Cross-cultural awareness: Realizing the diversity of ideas in people around the world. Knowledge of global dynamics: How does the world work, change, and grow? Awareness of human choices: Identifying human problems and consequences. (Bousalis-Aliak, 2010, p. 8)

5. Local Community Members and Businesses • Students will work together to create posters and brochures that advertise the event. • They will communicate with local community and business members: • Distribute student-created brochures to local business • Publish posters and advertisement on and in storefronts • Invite members of the local community to attend the event

6. Cultural Community Outreach Event-at a glimpse—Event Title: America’s Got Diversity Prior to the event night, students partner or create small groups that include a mix of native English speakers and English language learners The event begins with a round of auditions and culminates with an evening of performance with acts that embrace “an equitable coverage of countries” “accurate, rather than stereotypical information” “embrace student decision-making processes and role-playing activities” (Bousalis-Aliak, 2010, p. 9)

7. Community Empowerment • The language learner’s goals and a feeling of empowerment are essential in the process of second language acquisition (Chartock, 2010, p. 150). • ELL students will collaborate with diverse community members cultural groups by sharing research findings and at the event giving greeting in their native language. • Students will be taking teachings from the classroom and applying them to the real world.

8. Parental Involvement • In this event we will bring together to collaborate the school, students, parents and community. • Where there is parental involvement, English language learners are more successful (Chartock, 2010, p. 153). • As teachers we see daily the need for parental involvement and the difference that it makes in the education of our students. It makes a greater difference in the life of a ELL student, because we can prevent the alienation that sometimes learning two languages brings among the two cultures. • We will be minimizing the level of insecurity that may be among family members to get involved in school activities by providing information in different languages and by being culturally responsive to the specific need of each cultural group.

9. Learning from Each Other • Language provides a window through which we can learn about other cultures (Chartock, 2010, p. 156). • Students will have the opportunity to share their native language with their peers and teachers. • By sharing their language and culture we are promoting appreciation and respect for each other’s differences. • Students will form a list of the different languages spoken in the ABC Middle School and research them and present the information in literacy nights. This information will also be apply to the performances in the main event. • By promoting involvement and awareness we are developing understanding which will make our community and surrounding communities a better place to live.

10. Comparisons • Students and all participants will have the opportunity to compare cultures, languages, behaviors, and this will give them the opportunity to analyze differences and similarities which will help them get a global perspective. • Students will have the opportunity to learn or add to their knowledge geography of the world, because by their research they will learn where each country is located in a global map. • In our main event we will display a world map that will have a mark for each of our ABC school students cultural group represented., which will be created by students and parents.

11. Connected • Sometimes we can see better our connection to each other by learning that there are issues in our worlds that make us interconnected. • The things that make us different such as our individuality, our culture, our beliefs, perspectives, ideas can help us if we learn to bring them together and value them. It will make us a better nation, better community, better teachers, better students, better family member, better individuals to create a better world.

12. References Bousalis-Aliak, R. (2010). Elementary multicultural and global education: A celebration of countries and culture, or just celebration? Ohio Social Studies Review, 46(1), 7-10. Chartock, R. K. (2010) Strategies and lessons for culturally responsive teaching: A primer for K–12 teachers. Boston, MA: Pearson