Cultural Differences and Comprehension (Entry #5, LT#2)

When I think about a reading component that is easily impeded by cultural differences it's comprehension.  Even more so---its background knowledge!  The different cultures in which students are raised provide them with different experiences and different knowledge.  However, many children's books rely on previous knowledge or prior experiences for students to make predictions or understand the language or plot in a story.

 The story Olivia (Ian Falconer) is an engaging and humorous story that children love.   
Here are four components that may cause confusion for students due to their cultural differences:

1. The story uses a lot of sarcasm as a means indirect humor.  Students may not understand this type of humor due to literal interpretations of our language.

2.  There are many ideas and phrases that are stated abstractly (i.e. She just doesn't get it).

3.  The story goes through a day of typical activities for Olivia, but other cultures may have different routines for their day!

4.  There is also some dialogue between characters without explanation of which character is talking.

To scaffold instruction for students use questioning and cues for indirect humor (i.e. What is Olivia doing?  Do we do that often?  Is that silly?  We can say Olivia is being silly here.)  It's also a good idea to use that same strategy for abstract phrases and even practice using them!  To help with the cultural routines have students discuss what they do during their day using visuals for morning, day, evening, and night, then compare and contrast!  Finally, students could act out the dialogue to gain meaning from the indirect conversations.  Often when I think of these strategies- it is not just second language students who could or would benefit from these activities anyway because they help guide meaning and they are fun and engaging.

Another story that my students always enjoy is a Halloween story we just read called Where's My Mummy (Carolyn Crimi).  More components that may include meaning in this story are:

1.  Not all cultures celebrate Halloween.  They may not be familiar with its customs or traditions or there vocabulary associated with it.

2.  The story includes several onomatopeias.

3.  Again there is an element of humor that is not direct (i.e. mummy is afraid of a little mouse).

4.  There is also a lot of descriptive language which is a wonderful, but complicated teaching tool.

Teaching the students about Halloween to frontload their background knowledge is a great idea!  Use videos (there is one I love on brain pop jr)!  Show them a lot of visuals and discuss what happens or dress up as all of the scary characters and give out candy---very engaging! To monitor comprehension with onomatopeias have the students act them out or uses instruments and objects to make the noises!  Cueing and questioning is always a great strategy for monitoring indirect humor or unclear concepts.  Use visualizing activities for the descriptive langauge!

Helping students comprehend text using these strategies is engaging for all students.  I also believe that it is necessary throughout all activities and content areas.  Furthermore, the students seem to apply and retain what they've learned because authenticity increases when you add in engaging activities that tie in checks for understanding!