Do you (really) know your students?

This week’s readings really tied in several of the educational topics we have been examining so far this semester. In Community as text: Using the community as a resource for learning in community schools, Martin J. Blank, Sheri DiBoe Johnson, and Bela P. Shab present the many benefits of linking community and school: motivated and engaged students, improved reading, language, math skills and test scores, participation of all students regardless of ability, and high standards and expectations for students to mention a few. The following video provides the teacher perspective on community schools.

The four models they describe are “service-learning, academically based community service, environment as an integrating context for learning, and place-based education.” (Blank, Johnson, Shab 111) I was extremely interested in the way the Spanish teacher utilized the service-learning model with her students. She “uses service to relay the importance of understanding other cultures, developing good family relationships, and caring for people of all ages.” (Blank et al.112) They describe how students adopt abuelos, and have an “opportunity to practice their Spanish while developing relationships with seniors, many of whom lack any family support.” (Blank et al. 112) How perfect! In my foreign language classes, I always find it challenging to reach the fifth standard of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL): Communities. What better way to reach it than to provide service-learning opportunities to students to practice their Spanish while getting to know someone on a personal, human level and at the same time a cultural level. The many additional examples provided really gave a clear picture of how students can get involved with their communities and create connections and solve problems (food bank, fruit/healthy lifestyles, etc.). If students are hands-on, participating in such volunteer service work, they are more likely to be engaged and feel a sense of connection and responsibility.

Many students in traditional education settings feel a disconnect between community and school and the place-based model helps students overcome this. By using local community member’s stories and lives, they created a real life “element to literature, music, art, journalism, media production, drama, and history.” (Blank et al. 115) I think this idea is so innovative. Taking stories from people who surround the students and using them in class helps to increase engagement, and brings on a strong feeling of belonging within the community.

At the end of the article, they mention how “Plato wrote that the most important task of educators is to teach young people to ‘find pleasure in the right things’.” (Blank et. al 118)  I have written about similar thoughts throughout the semester and have also included them in my Autobiographical narrative. The authors mention doing the following to truly be successful as teachers and I couldn’t agree more: “helping young people develop interests, becoming actively engaged, strengthening their community, or developing high expectations for themselves.” (Blank et al. 118) These are the keys to success for our students.

In Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers: Rethinking the Curriculum by Ana Maria Villegas and Tamara Lucas, the authors present the six intertwined strands of being a culturally responsive teacher and explain how vital these are for prospective teacher programs as well:

1. being socioculturally conscious

2. having affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds

3. seeing themselves as responsible for and capable of bringing about educational change to make schools more equitable

4. understanding how learners construct knowledge and is capable of promoting learners knowledge construction

5. knowing about the lives of his or her students

6. designing instruction that builds on what their students already know while stretching them beyond the familiar

(Villegas and Lucas, 21)

The authors also acknowledge that by doing all of the above, students will also be more connected to who they are as individuals and how they connect to their community. One continuous thought that ran through my mind as I read each strand was… you have to KNOW YOUR STUDENTS! Teachers can not meaningfully engage with their classes if they do not sincerely know their students. “By sociocultural consciousness, we mean a understanding that people’s ways of thinking, behaving, and being, are deeply influenced by such factors as race/ethnicity, social class, and language (Banks, 1996).” (Villegas and Lucas, 22) What a way to tie in everything we have discussed this semester! We must ask ourselves who are we as teachers? How can we learn to understand our students lives no matter how different they may be from our own? How can we help to not perpetuate the division and hierarchies based on race, social class, gender, language group, etc.?  

Many of the strands here reminded me of the case study we read about Ms. Ward’s lesson on California, and how she shut down DeQuan’s knowledge on California raisins, but acknowledged and praised Madelyn for her response. Ms. Ward did not understand how learners in her class construct knowledge and she did not promote DeQuan’s knowledge construction. She did not see all students as learners who already had knowledge and experiences to be built upon. She valued some that were similar to hers and devalued others.

Although we do face the challenges presented on page 24, the authors argue that we have to be the teachers who believe and push to make change possible. Every small step is worth it, and if we continue and never back down we will see results. I have Gandhi’s  “Be the change you wish to see in the world” poster in my classroom and I try to set that example for my students each and every day. This article motivates me even more to do so. I look forward to what lies ahead for me and my students.

In Ginwright’s The Future of Healing, he examines the shift from trauma informed approach to healing centered engagement. His student’s quote “I am much more than what happened to me” (Ginwright) really stuck with me as I read. Too often, I hear teachers discussing students using the student’s trauma as a lead in the discussion. Why should we put their trauma on a pedestal and not who they really are (passions, interests, fears, loves, culture, language, etc.)? Sadly, too often students are put into a box once an adult discovers their trauma.

This healing centered approach to helping the student (and adult) really gets to the root of the student behavior or lack of achievement in school, examining the whole students, a holistic process. Ginwright continues, “However, just like the absence of disease doesn’t constitute health, nor the absence of violence constitute peace, the reduction pathology (anxiety, anger, fear, sadness, distrust, triggers) doesn’t constitute well-being (hope, happiness, imagination, aspirations, trust). Everyone wants to be happy, not just have less misery.” (Ginwright)  To me, that hits the nail right on the head. We have to all understand that it will be a lifelong process for both children and adults, and we have to continue to grow and learn. We can follow the author’s guide towards empathy, dreams and imaginations, critical reflection and loving action, and we can be successful. I want to help my students find what makes them truly happy now, and maybe help them discover what might make them happy later on in life.

Source for culturally responsive graphic.