I really enjoyed reading both of these articles this time. Baker does a great job of designing her lessons around her student’s native language and formal/technical language. I really felt that she truly wanted to incorporate as much of their “home” language into her classroom, to make a connection with her students, and listen to them. From this she developed a deeper understanding of her student’s dialect and turned that knowledge around to help them. This is a good example of a teacher making student centered learning engaging and impactful. Having students describe and discuss their thoughts on their language and other peers “home” language gives students a better understanding of each others background.
When students are able to discuss their prior experience, build background, make connections to one another, and engage in each others lifestyle, they are more comfortable and able to open up and understand new things. Baker took these concepts and applied them to her students own language. It was very interesting to see how her students were able to come up with their own reasons for why they speak the way they do. Because I do not teach high school students, I would have anticipated their answers to be very broad in answering why they speak the way they do (e.g. answering- because that is how I talk), but the discussions they had sounded very analytical. I could also relate to Dwayne, in the sense, that I am sure if I were to watch home videos of my family I would be able to observe my own families “Northern” dialect and compare it to my dialect I have adapted to in North Carolina. After reading this article, I wish I could have been in Baker’s classroom when she was doing this lesson. I am sure I could have learned a lot more about student’s native language and could use that to help my students in my classroom.
In Ladson-Billings article, I once again feel like our education has changed so much over the course of 7 years (give or take some years) from when it was written. Reading that Shannon, the little African American girl that didn’t want to write “nuttin’”, was just allowed to get away with not writing was shocking. Being a first grade teacher, I would never let a child use that as an excuse. Then, I tried thinking about why the teacher would have let her get away with that and I do not know the reasoning behind it, but I also do not know what whole group literacy entailed at the time. Maybe she was hoping the child was not developmentally ready, or didn’t want to push her into writing and make her dislike it. Unfortunately, I snap back to my common sense and think that the teacher was setting her up to fail because she had to know at some point that the child was just using it as an excuse and it was not that she couldn’t do it.
I also liked how her article addressed the need to find something that students may have an interest in and incorporate it into something that might not be liked; in Carter’s case his students’ hated writing. We can not let our students fail in something, just because they do not like to do it. If you have high expectations for students and do not give up on them, or let them make excuses (do nuttin’), it will be much easier for them to understand success because they will do more often. As a result, they should want to perform better once they know they can (or they will perform because they know they can not get away with failure.) Either way they are learning and growing as individuals. Failure in not an option.
Barbara Terauds
Comments (2)
I am glad to find someone who agrees with what I am thinking on these two articles. After reading your response to the little girl who wasn't writing anything, it made me stop and think that maybe I didn't have the whole picture. Maybe there was some reasoning behind the teacher excusing the child to not do work. However, I still agree with you on the fact that the child should have been writing something! I also agree with you on the fact that failure is not an option. What are some things you do in your own classroom that help promote student success? Have you had situations like this in your own room? How did you deal? Also, back to the first article, do you think there is any way you could incorporate a lesson along the same scheme into your own grade level with success?
Posted by Erica Spicer | June 12, 2009 3:43 PM
Posted on June 12, 2009 15:43
Barbara
I did not initially pick up on the idea of concept-based instruction going on in these classrooms. Thanks for pointing it out. You are right to say that both teachers chose concepts that were relevant to their students and taught them in varied and meaningful ways. As to your comment about Baker’s high school students giving concise and meaningful responses to their language analysis...that’s evidence of lots of previous training and encouragement on Baker’s—and likely other middle and high school teacher’s—parts.
It was apparent to me that Baker consistently demanded a lot of buy-in from her students. Allowing them to showcase their cultural identity created a safe zone, in which they felt comfortable verbalizing their findings and their thoughts. This dialogue would not have been possible in a classroom where trust or high expectations were lacking.
I just did a look-back at your post and made a text-to-text connection :-P. Have you heard of the cookbook for mom’s that teaches adults how to camouflage healthy items in kid-demanded foods? (Spinach in brownies is a travesty in my opinion, but if that’s the only way you can get kids to eat them.) Maybe that’s an applicable example of what was going on in the fourth-grade classroom with music as a basis for writing. Perhaps we have to find inviting packages to hide our content in.
Posted by Ruth Johnson | June 12, 2009 10:25 PM
Posted on June 12, 2009 22:25