In Conclusion
I took this course not really knowing what to expect from the reading material. I did not have any preconceived ideas about what to gain from the class. The material that we have read over the course of several weeks has made me really think about the students that I teach and the best way to meet their individual needs. The course has opened up many questions about my techniques as a teacher. The quote that best describes my learning with the course material is the quote by Michel Foucault on the syllabus. The quote states “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.
For me this quote means that sometimes we have to change the way that we think about something in order to grow as a teacher. As educators we must constantly think about what we are doing for our students and reflect on our practices. This only makes us better. We do this by reading, studying, and taking classes. We then can apply what we have read and studied to our classrooms. As we apply the new ideas to our classroom it is important to reflect and ask questions about effectiveness and what we would do to make changes or make it work for us and the students we teach. I know that there are many new ideas out there, some that I have heard and some that are not known to me yet. As I learn new things I must decide whether to apply them to my teaching style or just use them as information. Sometimes we have to think differently than we ever have before. When we do we have to have the courage to try new things and be open to change.
I have learned quite a lot during the past four weeks. I have learned that there is so much more to literacy than I had ever thought possible. Through the reading of the Indian boys I have learned the value of oral traditions in storytelling. Their oral traditions would have been a dying style to literacy if they had not been able to tell their story. I have learned that it is important for students to tell their stories orally to their classmates, teachers, and family. The stories they tell give us a glimpse into their family traditions and values. The stories they tell or write about help us to see into their lives and the lives of their family members.
In the Delpit and Dowdy chapters I became aware of how some dialects are perceived superior to other dialects. As a child and student in high school and college I had never paid much attention to dialect. After beginning graduate school I have seen how dialect can affect a person’s value in society. From a previous class and this reading from Delpit and Dowdy I have realized that we should not evaluate a student on the basis of his/her dialect. With that said it is sometimes hard not to judge a person’s intellect based on his/her dialect. Society determines what is acceptable and not acceptable. That is proven in the chapters when they talked about code switching and learning to “speak white”.
The students in the Delpit and Dowdy chapters felt inferior speaking their dialect or they would not have tried to change the way they spoke. We as educators need to think differently than society does when it comes to a person’s dialect and not judge that person based on the way they speak.
There is so much more to literacy than I had ever thought in the past. This class has opened many doors of thought for me and I am sure there are doors of thought that will be opened in the future. My ideas of literacy are much wider now and they include more diverse ways of thinking for me and for my students. The differences that arise between my students and me when it comes to reading and writing should not be viewed as negative, but positive. As I teacher I need to be willing to be more understanding of a student’s family and where they are coming from. As I have reflected on this past year I have learned where I could have been more understanding of some of the student’s family situations and how they have related to our classroom. I believe that our job as a teacher is to deliver our instruction in whole groups, small groups, and individually. Differentiated instruction is a thing of the present and it must be done to meet the needs of the students in our classroom. Students should be reading at their instructional level no matter what that level is. Guided reading groups should be set up to meet the needs of the students in our classroom. Students should be allowed to write about things that are important to them. When a student writes a personal narrative they are writing about something that has happened to them and they will write more because it is relevant to them. They should be allowed to tell their stories into tape players, to their friends, and to the teacher before they write it down. This helps them to orally get their thoughts together before writing. As teachers we should have the freedom to step outside the curriculum of the school and use other means to meet the needs of the students if necessary. County texts can be used for whole group instruction, but when small groups are done we should whatever text that we can find that is interesting to the students and on their instructional level. As a teacher we need to see that every child does not fit the same mold. They are all unique and hold a special set of characteristics that define them. While it is impossible to meet all the individual needs it is our job to do our best to leave no child behind.
Throughout these readings I have found that we all have a voice that needs to be heard. That voice should not be discriminated against based on gender, race, or class. The middle class voice should be heard as well as the working class voice. The voices of all races and genders should be heard in the classroom. That voice is unique and important to each person that it represents. If we allow all voices to be heard then we will leave no child behind. I saw something on the internet the other day that said “No Teacher Left Behind”. I had never really thought about that statement, but as I reflected on what it meant I though that it was so true. Just as we do everything possible to leave no student behind I think it is just as important for no teacher to be left behind. We as teachers must stay on the cutting edge of research in education. If we sit back and let thoughts pass us by then we as teachers are being left behind. As a teacher I do not want to be the one that sits back and watches. I want to be the one that is reading, taking classes, and rallying for change in educational practices. I want to be the one that is making a difference in the lives of the students that I teach.
Michelle Moffitt