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Supporting the Whole Student

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Date

Introduction
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The ultimate goal of an educational system is to ensure students are equipped with the

requisite skills and knowledge to prosper in their future personal and professional lives. Students

contend with various factors affecting their knowledge acquisition, growth, as well as classroom

success (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Some of these factors include their native language, cultural

background, and socioeconomic status (Lee & Luykx, 2013). In line with this, identifying and

comprehending the various factors that can undermine the attainment of this goal is vital. Doing

this allows educators to not only identify and eliminate bias but also select the most effective

classroom instructional approaches when working with diverse students (Lee & Luykx, 2013).

As such, this paper will analyze the impact of language, cultural background, and socioeconomic

status on a child’s development.

Elementary students’ language development

Elementary students’ language development is a dynamic and complicated process. This

process plays a vital role in their development, including enhancing their socio-emotional and

cognitive development (Tedick & Lyster, 2019). Elementary students have a broad vocabulary,

considering they learn and comprehend numerous new words and terminologies, allowing them

to easily express themselves accurately and understand more complicated ideas (Tedick &

Lyster, 2019). Elementary students are expected to develop pragmatic skills, such as

understanding social norms, taking turns during conversations with peers, and modifying their

language for different situations (Tedick & Lyster, 2019). These skills improve elementary

students’ social interactions and relationships. Language development and cognitive

development are interlinked concepts. Acquiring pertinent language skills allows an elementary

student to think more abstractly, solve more complicated challenges, and adopt more

sophisticated reasoning (Tedick & Lyster, 2019). Language is vital for social interaction. Due to
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this, elementary students can leverage their language skills to make friends, resolve conflicts, and

share their feelings (Tedick & Lyster, 2019).

How culture affects the development and learning of children and early adolescents

An individual's culture influences numerous aspects of their lives, including worldviews,

values, beliefs, and behaviors. This influence also extends to classroom settings, considering it

can affect children and early adolescents' development and learning (Lee & Luykx, 2013).

Children and early adolescents from varying cultural backgrounds will inadvertently have

differing proficiency in the dominant language where they attend school (Lee & Luykx, 2013).

For instance, immigrant children and early adolescents from Latin America might have low

English proficiency when studying in the United States. This poor dominant language

proficiency adversely affects their ability to effectively communicate with peers and educators,

undermining their learning and development (Lee & Luykx, 2013). A child’s and early

adolescent’s culture shapes the values, beliefs, and social norms they ascribe to. Furthermore,

due to the subjective nature of these cultural aspects, what might be perceived as appropriate or

respectful conduct will often differ from one culture to the next (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Such

values, beliefs, and social norms will affect how they relate with educators and peers (Lee &

Luykx, 2013). For instance, an early adolescent from a patriarchal culture will struggle to treat

female peers as equals during group-based learning activities, undermining collaboration and

peer learning.

How socioeconomic status affects the development and learning of children and early

adolescents

A child’s or early adolescent’s socioeconomic status substantially affects their learning

and development. Children and early adolescents from low-income backgrounds will often have
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access to limited learning resources like tutoring, books, as well as education-based technologies

(Henry et al., 2020). This phenomenon undermines their academic progress, leading to

achievement gaps (Henry et al., 2020). Children and early adolescents from low-income

households are frequently exposed to abuse and neglect from parents and other caregivers

(Henry et al., 2020). Such abuse and neglect adversely affect their physical, emotional, and

psychological wellness. Moreover, this then makes it challenging for them to concentrate in

class, adversely affecting their learning (Henry et al., 2020). Other concerns within the home

environment, such as lack of access to basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing, can

also make it challenging for children and early adolescents from low-income families to

concentrate in class, adversely affecting their learning and development (Henry et al., 2020).

Despite these factors, educators can implement strategies to support students dealing with

economic struggles. One such strategy revolves around partnering with community organizations

or local non-profits to provide such students with resources such as learning materials, clothes,

food, and shelter (Henry et al., 2020). Furthermore, the partnerships can also be leveraged to

mentor and tutor these students (Henry et al., 2020). Implementing this strategy will mitigate

some factors undermining their learning and development.

How language acquisition, culture, and socioeconomic status of a student affect classroom

practices

A student's language proficiency, cultural background, and socioeconomic status affect

their classroom practices. Improved language proficiency will enhance students' ability to engage

with and comprehend classroom instructional materials, communicate and interact with

educators and peers, and actively participate in group discussions (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Despite

this, educators might subconsciously favor students with strong dominant language skills to the
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detriment of others struggling with it. Such bias can appear in how a teacher assesses the

students, the participation opportunities they provide to them, as well as the instructional

approaches they adopt. In line with this, educators should tailor their instruction to ensure it

satisfies the language needs of diverse students (Lee & Luykx, 2013). As intimated earlier in the

paper, students’ cultural backgrounds affect the values, beliefs, communication approaches, and

learning preferences they embrace (Lee & Luykx, 2013). This phenomenon can significantly

impact students’ classroom conduct, engagement levels, as well as dynamics (Lee & Luykx,

2013). Individuals will often subconsciously favor those from similar cultural backgrounds,

including educators. Due to this, an educator might unintentionally favor students with similar

cultural beliefs, values, norms, and practices. This can result in exclusion, misinterpretations, and

misunderstandings. As such, educators should improve their cultural competency by

participating in cultural awareness training (Lee & Luykx, 2013). This training will ensure they

are cognizant of their biases and understand varying cultural worldviews, eliminating the risk of

bias affecting their classroom instruction (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Concerning socioeconomic

status, it can affect a student's access to vital learning resources, conduct, and motivation in the

classroom, as well as their readiness to learn (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Due to this, an educator

might unknowingly set lower expectations for students from low-income households relative to

their well-off peers, resulting in academic disparities between them. As such, educators should

set high expectations for all students, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, to eliminate the

risk of bias affecting their decision-making (Lee & Luykx, 2013). Furthermore, they should offer

low-income students supplementary support to ensure they keep up with their peers.

Ways teachers can support diverse languages and cultures in the classroom to further

promote student learning and development

The diversity of students is growing with each passing year. As such, educators should

implement several strategies to support diverse languages and cultures in the classroom. Doing

this will enhance student learning and development. One such strategy requires them to develop

and implement culturally inclusive curriculums (Kumar et al., 2019). Such curriculums often

integrate diverse worldviews, historical phenomena, and authors (Kumar et al., 2019). This helps

students feel represented in the learning endeavor, giving them a much broader comprehension

of the world (Kumar et al., 2019). Besides this, educators should also consider celebrating

students’ diverse cultural festivals, traditions, and activities (Kumar et al., 2019). Educators can

encourage students and their families to share their cultural values, beliefs, norms, and practices

with the class via demonstrations or presentation-based assignments (Kumar et al., 2019).

Local learning networks for teachers

Educators in California can leverage several local learning networks to learn more about

supporting students with factors limiting their classroom success. One such local learning

network is the California Rural Education Network (Romney, 2018). The goal of this network is

to share resources and expertise, as well as focus the attention of policymakers to schools outside

suburban and urban California, most of which serve a high preponderance of low-income

students despite being severely underfunded (Romney, 2018). Joining this network will allow

educators to learn and share various best practices they can leverage to better exploit their

limited educational resources to support low-income students (Romney, 2018). Besides this,

educators in California can also champion their schools to join the California Community

Schools Partnership (Maier, 2021). Doing this will help educators coordinate various learning

initiatives, share expertise, and implement multi-tiered support systems focused on enhancing

students' emotional learning as well as their college and career readiness (Maier, 2021). Due to
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this, educators will be able to provide integrated support to students, helping them succeed by

meeting their socio-emotional, mental health, and academic needs (Maier, 2021).

Conclusion

Based on the analysis and discussion presented in this paper, students' language

acquisition, cultural background, and socioeconomic status impact their learning and

development. As such, understanding these aspects is critical not only for educators but also for

parents to ensure they support students' growth, promote inclusivity, as well as foster educational

success for all. This paper has proposed several interventions educators should implement to

establish classroom environments that embrace and promote diversity, support cultural and

linguistic variances, and foster an inclusive learning atmosphere. Doing this will ensure that

students thrive academically and develop an in-depth understanding and appreciation of diverse

languages and cultures.

References

Henry, D. A., Betancur Cortés, L., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2020). Black–White achievement gaps

differ by family socioeconomic status from early childhood through early

adolescence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(8), 1471.

Kumar, R., Karabenick, S. A., Warnke, J. H., Hany, S., & Seay, N. (2019). Culturally inclusive

and responsive curricular learning environments (CIRCLEs): An exploratory sequential

mixed-methods approach. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 57, 87-105.

Lee, O., & Luykx, A. (2013). Science education and student diversity: Race/ethnicity, language,

culture, and socioeconomic status. In Handbook of research on science education (pp.

171-197). Routledge.

Maier, A. (2021, October 22). California Community Schools Partnership Program: A

Transformational Opportunity for Whole Child Education. Learning Policy Institute.

Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/ca-community-schools-

partnership-brief

Romney, L. (2018, October 7). California rural education network launches to help isolated

teachers share resources. EdSource. Retrieved from https://edsource.org/2018/california-

rural-education-network-launches-to-help-isolated-teachers-share-resources/603083

Tedick, D. J., & Lyster, R. (2019). Scaffolding language development in immersion and dual

language classrooms. Routledge.