It has long been my belief that the primary role of any citizenship teacher is to create an environment wherein students can feel empowered and safe to take ownership of their learning. A teacher who assumes the dual role of facilitator and guide is one who serves, encourages, motivates, counsels and empowers. This can be achieved through careful observation and with appropriate, well-timed stimulation. Not only should the instructor strive to maintain student-attentiveness, but he or she should strive to create a nurturing environment.

I believe that the classroom environment should be student-centered, allowing learners to participate in a variety of communicative activities. When a student is cast in the leading role, she is more inclined to make a greater investment in the class. Because she has a strong personal stake in what happens, she learns more than she would in a traditional classroom setting.

Whenever possible, the Citizenship teacher should consider researching the students’ backgrounds in the form of a needs analysis questionnaire prior to the first day of instruction. The feedback contained therein can allow one to focus on specific cultural and linguistic struggles that might hinder the students’ ability to learn. The teacher can then research and prepare appropriate materials and communicative assignments tailored to meet the specific needs of the students based on their cultural and social values, as well as their background knowledge. During class meetings, I explain to students that I prefer that they speak only English in the classroom. However, I do encourage them to purchase bilingual dictionaries.

Using different compensatory teaching strategies, such as speaking slowly, practicing redundancy, repeating words and sentences, writing and drawing on the chalkboard, distributing various written materials, and utilizing visual aids such as pictures, video tapes, and software programs, Citizenship teachers may diversify learning in a multicultural/multilingual class.

Learning that can promise a long-term usefulness for students is an effective tool to facilitate success in overall comprehension. Teachers can achieve this result by empowering students with learning that can be applied both in and outside the classroom. For instance, when designing lesson plans, the incorporation of field trips, guest speakers, and task-oriented assignments can enable students to negotiate meaning by having a choice as to how they respond in a variety of interactions. In addition, this type of immediate feedback places the emphasis on communication as a process; not as a mastery of language.

One final dimension of diversity in teaching is the use of questions. Not only do questions assist the teacher in discerning whether students have comprehended the subject matter, but they help to maintain a challenging and stimulating classroom environment. Open-ended, display and referential questions tend to keep learners motivated, versus Yes or No and short answer type of questions, which typically require less concentration.

Finally, I believe it is absolutely essential for us, as educators to continuously improve our interpersonal talents, such as treating students with respect, admitting our own shortcomings, remembering to be patient and understanding as we do our best to teach Citizenship.

Robin Josephs-Anyanwu is an English Literacy/Civics Education Teacher at Atlanta Technical College.