Student Interview

In my 75 hour clinical I chose to interview a struggling student which I read quizzes to because his IEP required so and this gave me some one on one time with him so he could be honest with me outside the classroom.

1. Do you like Geography class?
      "Yeah"
2. Do you like the way your teacher teaches class? What would you like for her to do differently"
      " Yeah, noting really, I like the way she does it."
3. Do you find the quizzes hard?
     "Sometimes. When she gives us multiple choice quizzes it is easier but it is hard when we have to write it out."
4. Do you like the way I taught last week"
      "Yeah."
5. What did you like best about it?
     " I liked the way you showed us pictures of Russia because I didn't really know what it looked like over there."
6. Did you like the guided notes that I handed out for the class?
     " Yeah"
7. Why did you like them"
     "Because they helped me figure out what we were talking about and remember it better."
8. What do you like best about Geography class?
     "I like watching student news at the beginning of class. I like knowing what is going on and I don't watch much news when I am at home."

9. Do you feel like the guided notes helped you learn more about Russia?
     "Yeah"
10. Why do you feel that the guided notes helped you learn more about Russia?
     "Because they let me write down things that were on the quiz so it was like studying but not really studying.  It went with the pictures you showed us."

After interviewing this student I felt like the lesson I did on Russia with the guided notes really helped this student. I was a way for him to learn that was different than he was used to doing in the classroom and it showed positive results because his score on the quiz on Russia showed significant improvement from his previous quizzes that I had read to him and he did not need as much help reading the answers on the quiz because he was more familiar with the vocabulary and key points I was trying to get across that were significant for Russia.

Misunderstood Minds Activity Reflection

I did several of these activities on the misunderstood minds website and all of them got me pretty angry and frustrated.  I completed the attention and reading activities and I must say it helped me to partially realize the hell that some of these kids go through.  If I faced those troubles every day I wouldn’t want to try at school either like I see some many kids do in my PDS classroom.  The attention activity where it asked me to read the article and answer the questions while the article faded in and out while switching to different pictures then went blank kind of hit home for me because I do that a lot but I figure it happens with most people.  Either way it still made me pretty frustrated as well as did the listening activity.  I tried this activity five times and still couldn’t get my picture to look correct.  The reading activity with the phonemes seemed like a puzzle to me which I figure is how it feels to a student with a reading problem would feel.    

Doing these activities after watching the video made me get more of a feel for what the kids in the video as well as other kids go through that have problems in these areas because it can be pretty easy to just watch the video and think, “whenever I become a teacher I’m not going to have kids like this in my classroom.” I’ll admit that’s kind of what I thought when watching the video for the first time.  I would think that all teachers and those becoming teachers have some sort of fantasy about this perfect classroom where they taught how they wanted to teach and all the students earned perfect grades on the first go around and everything was cheerful and happy, but in reality that’s not the case.  It seems like from what I have learned, both in college and from teachers in public schools that the number of students with learning problems is something that is increasing.  Students like Nathan and Sara are becoming more common and I think that educators need to understand the problem in order to deal with it  which is something far more easier said than done especially for teachers who have been teaching for a long time.

ThinkQuest

I found this interesting project on westward expansion in the ThinkQuest library.  I think I would use a project like this in my future classroom because I think it gives an interesting way for students to learn about how the population of the United States moved West and some of the things that made that possible.  People didn't just pop up out of nowhere in California, they had to have came from somewhere.  I think students would find this interesting to work together to learn how the Western United States was shaped.

Best Practices Blog Reflection

I chose to read the More Than Just a Motto: Nobody Eats Alone at Harborside blog posting.  I think that Harborside Academy has a good thing going with their "Nobody eats alone at Harborside" motto for their school.   It really means nobody should be left alone to solve any problem which is a good motto to live by for a school. They are very involved in team building and their community and have a three day camp for each grade level at the beginning of the school year.  The faculty said that this has let them deepen their relationships with their students in important ways.  I think this is part of culturally responsive teaching.  They make the extra effort to get to know their students outside of the classroom which help them when they are teaching the students in the classroom.  They also have what they call academic and character intensives to help students that are having trouble mastering the content for the given semester or are not focused on their school work.  The faculty also gets their students involved in community service throughout the school year and requires 15 hours of such.  They make time after they have done this for the students and teachers to reflect on what they did which would also make a deeper connection between the students, teacher, and community which also has to do with culturally responsive teaching.

where I am from tyler chadock

After reading these articles dealing with language in Appalachia I feel that I have a better understanding of the topic and how to deal with it. It really opened my eyes to what a problem this is because I knew never really thought about this existing.  I thought back to the times in my life where a person was judged only by how they talk, or in my personal case, the first three digits of my home telephone number.  I remember how much that angered me and vowed that I would never do that in any situation.  I think the quote from the Purcell Gates article, “ As soon as she opened her mouth, I knew she was ignorant.” (Purcell Gates, 2002) best illustrates this. It is important to realize that the way someone talks or where they are from should not dictate how much effort a teacher should put into teaching that person.  It is important to teach kids, not stereotypes.

I think that one way schools contribute to poor literacy instruction is the way some educators interpret the ways of speaking that differ from Standard American English.  While not all, a fair amount of teachers spend valuable time which could be used on instruction  correcting the way their students talk because it differs from Standard American English which goes along with the cultural deficit theory.  This also affects the student because if they are being constantly corrected they may become discouraged and feel unintelligent as Rowland and Marlow point out by saying, “It is this belief that fosters negative attitudes toward minority dialects and leads to dialect discrimination.” (Rowland & Marrow, 2010)  After we have talked so much about this I feel the cultural difference theory is a better approach for teachers to take.  I do believe that students will learn better if allowed to speak and write in the language which they are used to and in time will learn the professional communication skills necessary for employment in the future.

 I think teachers need to show an interest in students and their get an understanding of who they are other than just students in their classrooms in order to overcome cultural deficit perspectives.  I think a good way to do this is by performing an ethnographic study like the Moll article says and learn the ways of the community and of the students’ families.  “He believes the secret to literacy instruction is for schools to investigate and tap into the "hidden" home and community resources of their students.”(Moll 1992)  I believe once teachers have done something like this they will be able to relate better to their students in order to teach them more successfully. 

 I think one of the main ways for teachers to increase literacy in non-Standard English speaking students is to let them speak how they naturally speak in the classroom like Epstein and Harris say, “letting students use their informal speech in the classroom and acknowledging it as a valid language which does not have to be corrected and is not wrong.” (Epstien & Herring-Harris, 2011)  I think that after students get the picture that the way they talk is not looked down upon, they will be able to focus on other things like learning and fully expressing themselves without fear of repercussion which would hinder the learning process.  I believe teachers also need to think about the student’s cultural capital and Moll’s funds of knowledge to paint a better picture of the community in which the student lives.  Once the teacher finds out through these methods a better way to communicate and gain interest with students, they will increase their literacy.

The where I am from project successfully   supported culturally responsive teaching in several ways.  It helped us to learn more about and appreciate our classmates and where they came from which I think helps students learn better when they learn with people they feel they have a good connection with.  The where I am from project also let everyone incorporate their home lives into school work which is something that doesn’t get to happen very often.  In doing these things it has helped the teacher to get to know the students and their communities better which is something Moll discussed. 

 I believe teachers of non-standard English students should go about teaching just as we have discussed within all of these articles.  I think that this is a great way to teach students by combining the points in these different articles, which I would bet is one of the reasons why I am writing this reflection.  I plan on implementing culturally responsive teaching in a couple of ways.  I believe I will let the students talk and write in their native dialect  to a certain extent because I believe there has to be some sort of relative standard for the English Language because if not, it would degrade to the point where no one would know what was being talked about; especially in generations to come.  I plan on doing some sort of Ethnographic study of the community which I will be teaching in and maybe drive around the area to see what parts of town the students live in and various community functions like football games and ice cream socials and other funds of knowledge etc.      

 Works Cited

Purcell-Gates, V. (2002). “...As soon as she opened her mouth!” In L. Delpit & J.K. Dowdy         (Eds.), The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language, culture and power.

 Rowland, J. & Marrow, D. (2010).  Dialect Awareness Education: The importance of Watching Our Words. USC Undergraduate Research Journal vol 3.

 Gonzalez, N.,  Greenberg, J. & Velez, C. Thanks Funds of Knowledge: A Look at Luis Moll's     Research Into Hidden Family Resources. CITYSCHOOLS, 1 (1), 19-21, 1994.

 

  National Council of Teachers of English (2008). National Council of Beliefs About Writing.       Retrieved October 12, 2012: http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/writingbeliefs

 

 Epstein, P. &  Herring-Harris, L (2011).Honoring Dialect and increasing Student Performance     in Standard English. Retrieved October 12, 2012:            http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3655

Where I am From

I am from Jericho, from Pennzoil, and the pond. 
I am from the hilltop, the two story, and the wood smoke.
I am from the dogwood in blossom, the tall trees, and the pine needles.
I am from Sunday rides, and kindness, from Lester and Myrtle, and Chadocks.
I am from the drive in, and well worn work boots with a lighter side.
From green beans will put hair on your chest, and to never telling your sister that.
I am from old Methodist churches where you're related to everyone there in some way.
I'm from Parkersburg, Ireland, and venison and potatoes.
From the time my father gave me "the talk"... on the importance of a clean vehicle, and that sometimes its ok to get it dirty, and my mothers love for nature.
I am from the old bookshelf in a house full of love, family, and memories past.

Ebonics video

I believe both of these videos have some aspects of both cultural difference and deficit perspectives, although in my opinion I would consider the Fox News video to represent more characteristics of the cultural deficit perspective.  The What Matters video about code switching deals more with cultural difference aspects.  The teacher from Chicago emphasized proper speaking among the children because they had never been taught this and no one had corrected them along the way throughout their education. I believe this relates to some of the things discussed in the cultural deficit section of the reading which we were assigned.  The other video on code switching relates more to the cultural difference perspective because it deals with the ways people talk and the different socio-linguistic variabilities and how people switch their communication styles depending on who they are communicating with.