Blog 6 - Finn

Argument/Reflection:

In the article “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J Finn he lays out the differences in school culture and teaching style depending on the average income of the students’ families who go there.  Teachers of the lower income students often describe them as “dumb” or “lazy”.  There is also less discussion about critical issues in these schools, and creativity/outside the box thinking is not valued.  In the middle class schools students are taught directly from the textbook.  They are taught that if you follow the rules you have a successful job.  The overall attitude from the students was “possibility” and working the “right way”.  In affluent schools creativity is fostered and personal development is taught.  Experiments that relate to the students real life are done and higher level concepts are talked about.  The students are given much more freedom by teachers, and the overall theme from students was thought to be “individualism”.  When looking at all of this we see how there is a problem in the system of education.  Teachers are often unable to see past a student's background, and believe that the student will or won’t succeed solely based on their background.

With all of this being said it makes me worried for the students in the school I volunteer at.  Many of the students come from an economically challenged background compared to the state average.  I can see how intelligent these kids are, and it will be up to all their future teachers including people like me to make a difference in their lives and get them to believe in themselves and their future.  They do have the advantage of being in a strong pre k program that teaches them real social and academic lessons before they even begin elementary school.  My hope is that all of these kids will have teachers that believe in them and challenge them academically, and that I can be one of these teachers.

Here is a link showing the spending differences per student between rich and poor schools:

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs/web/97916.asp

Blog 8 Hehir

 Argument/Quotes:

Those with physical and mental disabilities are not only discriminated against by being given limits to what they can do, but also aren’t given support to help them achieve their goals that exceed these limits.  In the article by Hehir a parent is told that her son won’t have the same future and opportunities as other kids.  While setting expectations is good, a better message would be to ensure parents that their children with disabilities can have the same future with other kids if they receive the correct support.  Problems arise when people try to change someone’s disability rather than give them the support they need.  The article mentions how people with disabilities are only portrayed in two ways, “Tiny Tims' ' or “Supercrips' '.  This extreme and stereotypical view doesn’t give those with disabilities realistic role models that resemble real people in the real world.

The solutions put in place to help are generic if they are there at all.  “We tend to have “one size fits all” reading programs in the primary grades. This is true of other areas as well, such as how schools handle students with disabilities that affect behavior” (Hehir 28).  If students with intellectual disabilities are given a specific way that will help them read rather than giving them the same reading program only to fail, they can learn to read at their own pace instead of not at all.  The author believes that ableism looks to use a one size fits all education approach and to fight against this we need to view each student as an individual with a unique learning style.  The author also argues that schools and buildings need to be built assuming that they will be used by those with all different abilities.      

Here is a link on how to prevent examples of ableism

https://www.everydayactivismnetwork.org/archive/how-to-be-anti-ableist

Blog post 7 Rodriguez

 Hyperlink:

In this article the author knows it was necessary to be taught the codes of power, in this case it was the dominant language of english.  However, he also recognizes how it negatively impacted his life and took away a large part of his identity by not being able to speak spanish at home.  The author speaks of the loss of connection to his family at home and the loss of his personal identity, but concludes that this is necessary to achieve one's public identity

https://alexandraalessandri.com/isabel-and-her-colores-teachers-guide/

I chose to look at this article through the lens of a children’s book on translanguaging, titled “Isabel and Her Colores Go to School” by Alexandra Alessandri.  This book is about a girl who doesn’t want to learn English, but has to because she is starting at a new English speaking school.  Isabel associates English with cold and dark colors, while she is drawn to the warm and vibrant colors she associates with Spanish.  The teaching guide and book mentions how she brings her colores to school, meant to represent her personal culture and language that she brings with her into the classroom.  The idea of translanguaging is teaching a class that incorporates more than one language into the lesson.  This book would help in a translanguaging classroom because it has words in both English and spanish.  Another emphasis of this book is using alternative and non verbal forms of communication in scenarios where language can be a barrier.  One way of doing this is through art.  Isabel and her classmates are able to relate to each other by working on art together.  Translanguaging is an opposite view from Rodriguez’s view, as it wants to keep the individual culture of every student while still teaching the culture of power.

Blog 4 Krenshaw

 Extended comments:

I chose to do an extended comments post about Angeline’s post because it was very interesting and added a new element to think about intersectionality from that wasn’t mentioned in the article by Krenshaw.  Angeline mentioned how a big reason for women of color and people who fall in multiple oppressed groups to face discrimination more than others is due to a lack of an authentic effort to fix injustices, leaving room for people to “fall through the cracks”.  She mentioned how when efforts are made, by companies for example, to diversify their company their only intentions are to look good in the public’s eye so they will not be called out as racist and unjust.  This lack of authenticity makes for weak surface level attempts to create diversity in a workplace, inevitability still discriminating against certain groups, which oftentimes are people who fall into the intersectionality group.  Angeline argued that companies should support diversity if they truly believe in it and not to lie and halfheartedly support it when they do not believe it is important, which I agree with.

Here is a link for different lesson plans on teaching intersectionality

https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/summer-2016/toolkit-for-teaching-at-the-intersections

Blog 5 - Tatum

Quotes:  “A white male student in the class responded to this discussion with frustration in his response journal, writing, “It’s not my fault that Blacks don’t write books”. Had one of his elementary, high school, or college teachers ever told him that there were no Black writers? Probably not. Yet because he had never been exposed to Black authors, he had drawn his own conclusion that there were none” (Tatum 85).  In this example of prejudice we can see how racism is formed from a combination of two factors, one being the lack of exposure to information about minorities and races not in power, and two is the conclusion we draw from that misinformation/lack of information.  We can also see how this would create a spread of misinformation and prejudice, because the more racist ideas get spread the more it will become common.  When this student becomes older he may still not believe that there are black writers and share this view with his kids which will sway their beliefs. 

Ben L. video analysis

 

blog post 3.5 Kohn

 Hyperlinks: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442707.pdf

This week I choose to look at the content through the lens of music, and in particular the benefits of music on children and their learning.  The article I found talks about the influence of music of a child’s brain development, academic performance, and practical life skills.  Looking at the chart from Alfie Kohn from this lens we can see how music could make the classroom a much more welcoming and engaging space for children.  Music would have an impact on the “location the teacher” and the “Teacher’s voice”, giving the teacher a chance to move around and engage with the kids while also being seen as a more fun and less intimidating figure.  As mentioned in the article by Jenny Nam Yoon, “Musical math also reduces students' anxieties about addition and multiplication. An added benefit is the growth of students' self-confidence and sense of mathematical accomplishment. This teaching idea is especially helpful with students having difficulty with basic mathematical concepts” (Bard, Dean 1992).  Music makes the content much less scary to learn for students, giving them higher self confidence and giving a new chance for students who struggle with math to understand the content in a new way.  Music would also help with Kohn’s standard of “student face’s” and “sounds”.  Using music more in education would increase student engagement because it would mix up the lesson plan and give students who don’t excel with traditional teaching a new way to excel.  Also, it would give the students a chance to collaborate and the class to sing and make music as a whole, creating a sense of community and togetherness.  

When looking at culturally responsive pedagogy through the lens of music you see many benefits.  The first connection I made was that music programs are often the first thing to get cut from a school if they are experiencing a budget problem.  This does not so much affect private schools or schools with a surplus of money (happen to be schools with a larger white population), but more affects public schools with a budget deficit (many times will be mostly students of color).  Adding music into the teaching or core curriculum can give kids, no matter how much money their families or their schools have, a chance to try out making music.  As shown in the article students who practice music have higher test scores, so adding musical instruction to all classrooms would help to level the playing field from this perspective.  Another way music and culture are intertwined is with teachers sharing their culture and students’ cultures.  Music and culture are very connected, and a teacher can share their culture with their students through music, while introducing them to different thoughts and backgrounds.  It would also work the other way, where a teacher who doesn’t share much similar culture to their students can try to relate to them by playing music that the students value.  Another way music education is culturally responsive is in the teaching of life skills.  “Discipline, ability to manage stress, cooperation, appreciation of their culture and the cultures others, and learning to express their feelings are valuable and necessary skills in achieving a balanced and healthy life.” (Yoon 27).  While schools teach all students the same core curriculum, they often don’t teach life skills and sometimes even assume students will have learned these from home.  However, every student has a different home life and aren’t all taught important skills by their parents.  Having musical education will help teach students skills that the core subjects leave out.

Article: (MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM: ITS INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN'S BRAINDEVELOPMENT, ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, AND PRACTICAL LIFE SKILLS, by Jenny Nam Yoon, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442707.pdf)