Alderwood’s Multicultural Dream Night Bailey Stark ELL 433

questions PART A

How does district include families and communities? Alderwood Elementary School is part of the Bellingham School District and therefore abides by the Bellingham Promise. This promise statement is related to student family and community engagement: “ Authentic partnerships are essential in order to deliver upon our promise. We actively seek input from and work together with all stakeholders to cultivate both existing and new partnerships.” Alderwood makes sure that parents have access to things occurring within the school by providing handouts in the parent’s first language. The Bellingham School District as a whole includes families and communities by having the individual schools throughout the district provide parents with information about what is occurring on in the school and about any extracurricular programs, such as Club de Lectura at Alderwood Elementary.

Multicultural Dream Night Alderwood’s Multicultural Dream Night was a program that was a show case for the all the students at the school. This showcase involved songs from each grade that were in English and Spanish, a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech in English, Spanish, Russian, Punjabi and Vietnamese, Hispanic dances and finally artwork throughout the school that tied into the subject of culture. This program held a dual purpose for students and the audience. It spoke about Martin Luther King Jr.’s work for human rights, but also related this not only to African American rights, but every culture’s rights so that no man would be judged by the color of their skin. It was very unique to see this subject, which is so typically placed with African American rights, to be addressed in relation to Hispanic rights.

How were families home languages included? There were various ways that families home language were included during this program. Over half of the songs sung were in Spanish and all the danced that the children performed were traditional Hispanic dances, such as La Raspa Dance and Jesusita en Chihuahua Dance. Previously, during service learning, I saw fliers for parents about Multicultural Dream Night that were in both Spanish and English so that parents from both languages would be able to understand what the event was and choose to attend or not.

How was cultural diversity addressed? Cultural diversity was addressed in a very unique way during this program. Typically, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is associated with African American rights, rather than various other culture’s rights as well. Alderwood’s Multicultural Dream Night took this subject and applied it to how Martin Luther King Jr.’s work impacted other cultures as well. Sadly, I had always had the narrow mind set of relating King’s work with African American rights, when he was fighting for basic human rights for all cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed this new mindset and way of seeing Martin Luther King’s work.

Who was part of the program? The students were the stars of the program because it was a showcase all for them. Ms. Muncie told me that Mona Dahl, the music teacher, is the one who taught the children the songs, alongside Josie Estrada. Ms. Estrada taught the children the Spanish songs, which they were able to recall from memory with simple cue cards. Besides from those two parts, I was not able to learn more about who was a part of the program.

Who made up the majority of those who attended? Parents were those who made up the majority of those in attendance. Parents benefitted from attending this program, not only for watching their child perform, but to gain a new perspective of Dr. King’s work. This program gave no tangible benefits for parents, but may have prompted them to grow more in their understanding and appreciation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and what Dr. King truly fought for.

Recommendations PART B

Recommendations Some recommendations I have for the Multicultural Dream Night is to include other cultures within this program. It is great that they celebrated Hispanic and American culture, but I felt that did not pay enough tribute to African Americans and students who come from other parts of the world not from Spanish decent. Including more cultures would provide the students who are white or Spanish to learn more about a culture they have little exposure to. At Alderwood, students are very used to celebrating both American and Hispanic culture, so I feel that this program wasn’t teaching them much more than what they already knew.

How to get there In order for Alderwood’s Multicultural Dream Night to reach my recommendations, those involved in the program need to have a meeting. During this meeting, the committee can discuss how they can include other cultures and decide in what ways they can be included. I believe this will be easy for the committee to implement because they used so many facets of culture in the showcase. They can include other cultures through song, dance, art work and language. Once the committee has decided how to progress they can plan with the teachers and music/ dance coordinators how to begin teaching the students.

How to keep families involved

Resources

References Picture: Community Puzzle http://www.michiganallianceforfamilies.org/wp- content/uploads/2012/08/PTA-Standards.jpg Picture: What Happens Here… http://www.judsonisd.org/district/parents/images/PIGraphic.jpg Picture: PTA http://blog.edmentum.com/sites/blog.edmentum.com/files/styles/blo g_image/public/images/PTA.jpg?itok=afbjHN30 Allison Muncie. Alderwood Elementary School; Third Grade Teacher. Multicultural Dream Night. January 30, 2014.