The research points to the way a teacher with a negative attitude towards students ethnicity and language variation set these students up to fail. By a teacher having this negative attitude towards the student the student is less likely to try because they figure they are going to fail anyway so whats the point. What these teachers are doing is making these students hate school because they see school as a place were they are made to feel inferior. Once they have this mindset then they don't want to learn because again they don't see the point. Teachers like this are setting these students up for failure and sadly there are a lot of these type of teachers still out there and I'm sure we have all had one.
A assessment pit fall would be when a teacher first hears a student talk they instantly judge that student as being average, bright , or below average. they then categorize these students and put them into a group based on what they think is their ability just from hearing them talk. They then teach students based on this. Also they teach in one way and this may not address certain culture of certain students therefore basically ignoring them. the biggest thing that is a assessment pitfall is the teachers judging their students based on a limited amount of information.
The first approach used to transform student's dialectal diversity into a asset is the awareness approach. Basically in this approach you encourage students to use their dialect in some projects. Plus they also learn the history of certain dialects. The next approach is the critical pedagogy in which they have the students study critically analyze the ideology of the current language of power and it also gives the students a chance to flip flop which the social order. The final is called the critical awareness approach. this is basically using both of the first two.
As far as how prepared I feel to teach a culturally diverse classroom goes I fell like I am prepared to a certain degree. I feel by living not just in West Virginia but by living out West that I have been exposed to different cultures other than my own to a certain degree. I also feel that i am not very judgemental because of the way I was raised. I also feel that I do need more practice in this field because when you think you know everything there is to know you face things with a closed mind and this is some of the problems with teachers today. They might be willing to teach but are they still willing to learn?
Seeing yourself as a learner is the best strategy for staying fresh and innovated as a teacher!
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