There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
~Michel Foucault
When thinking back on what I have gained from this class I picked the quote by Michel Foucault. This quote is so beautifully written. There is one main message that I get when I read this quote. I think that this quote refers to stepping outside of your comfort zone to think and see differently issues that are going on around you so that you may continue reflecting on things you might not understand in your life. I believe this quote very strongly pertains to education and teaching in the classroom.
This class has taught me how to open my eyes and see beyond my children’s lives in the classroom and to look further into their lives at home to see why they are the way they are. As a teacher it is my job to help students to the best of their ability. If I do not use what the Foucault poem is saying and choose to perceive differently so that I may reflect on how my students live then how will I be able to meet their needs and help them become the best students they can be in the classroom. Many of the readings show different ways that class, gender, and race affect the way students learn literacy in the classroom. The articles also show how they might learn differently and how the decisions that teacher’s make in teaching them can determine whether they succeed in school or whether they are given “permission to fail”.
Looking back on the posts that I have contributed and the articles that I have read I have become more open about how race, class, and gender affect our students. If I had not taken this class I might not have been forced to look beyond my classroom and the way I teach to see that there is important research that shows why language and literacy are so important to students in the classroom.
In the article No Kinda Sense by Lisa Delpit you see the frustration of a mother that wants her child to speak grammatically correct not because she does not respect Ebonics but because she is worried about the way her child will be judged in the public’s eye. I think that the writer makes a good point that it is important for teachers to teach children to speak correctly in certain situations but that we should allow students to be themselves in our classroom and through that they will develop the art of “code switching”. I see how important it is for our students to be able to be themselves in the classroom. If we do not allow that then they will not come in willing to learn. They will constantly be trying to impress the teacher and not focus in on the important learning tasks. As a teacher I want my students to be able to use their home language in my classroom but I also want them to know that there are certain times where it is appropriate to use proper language. I want my students to know that their culture is important and that it is what makes them unique. That is why we must accept the use of other languages in our classroom. I like how Judith Baker created Trilingualism and created three categories of language which should be used in the classroom. The three categories home English, formal English, and professional English help to create an environment where students begin to understand when and where to use the different types of English. I can only hope that as a teacher I model these three types of English. From reading this article I have discovered that I need to show students more why it is important to use these so they can make their own choice to use it and that I am not forcing them to use it.
Through our readings I have come to grasp the fact that reading is not the only important aspect of literacy. Using dance, drama, story telling and music can be just as important to students in learning literacy. Many students come from rich backgrounds such as Native American, African American, Hispanic, etc that have these artistic forms that are very important to their culture. By incorporating these forms into literacy a teacher is more likely to grasp those students attention and engage them more in what they are learning. I think it gives these students a purpose for school and connects school to their culture and heritage. The idea of using these art forms became very important to me through readings that we completed in this class. These art forms are part of our student’s life so we need to embrace them and let our students teach us about their culture. There are always different ways we can incorporate these art forms into our lessons. I think that other students would greatly benefit from it also. I think that sharing different cultures and histories makes children appreciate each others differences better.
In Ladson Billings article we met Carter, an English teacher that was struggling to get his students excited about writing. Carter took music and created a lesson that would spark student’s interest. Ladson Billings quotes “Carter decided to gamble that if he could help the kids connect with music, he could help them connect with writing.”(p. 113) This example shows that if we as teachers take into consideration what our students understand from their culture we can create lessons that will engage them and make them want to learn. In Perry’s article about the Lost Boys we see just how important storytelling is to them and the way they learn and express their ideas. If these boys were not allowed to share their stories then they might have lost their cultural and historical identity and therefore would not have been able to bring those things to their learning. We also met the Native American students that struggled in their everyday schooling because they could not make connections from their home life to their school life. If we as teachers over look children that need this connection then they will loose the will to learn and be successful in school. The Native American children made it very clear that they felt school was like a job. They left it there at the end of the day and returned to the part of their life that was most important to them. I feel if the teachers they had would have looked more carefully at those two students and helped to form connections from home to school those children might have been more successful.
Through our reading s with Laurie and Jake I learned so much. I learned how important class, gender, and race can affect the literacy learning’s of children. Hicks gives such rich details of their lives, culture and histories that help to frame why they were not as successful as they could have been. I have learned that I need to look further into my students home lives, maybe give parents surveys on the types of literacy’s their children have been exposed to before kindergarten and whether the parents read to them. I want to go into next year and get as clear a picture as I can of where my students come from so that I can meet their needs and prevent some of the problems that Laurie and Jake faced. I know I cannot fix all the problems but I can at least use the information to help me understand what I need to do to help these students get ahead.
This class has truly taught me to open up my thinking and to look more closely at the relationships students have at home and with their culture and history. Without knowing this type of information I cannot teach them to the best of my ability. I have enjoyed reading about different types of genders, classes, and races. I think that some of this material I would have never seen if I had not been introduced to it here. I think that it will make me a better educator and more able to incorporate culture and language into my classroom because I know just how important it can be to students learning.
Megan Machuga