REGINA'S POST
posted by jeanne at 10:54 AM
Friday, February 23, 2007
12 Comments:
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jeanne said...
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ANA STEFANY said...
RESPONSE TO REGINA'S COMMENT:
I think that teachers should expect the same standards or same level as other students who have been exposed to literature or other subject as long as that teacher is making proper adjustments in order to raise the student’s knowledge to the same level as the rest of the class/grade. I also, think that teachers must also teach those students how to learn and study to reinforce/ increase learning the material at hand. I would have to cater and be flexible to every child in order to close the gap, at least in my classroom, as well as maintain support from parents and other outside classroom support.
9:57 PM -
jeanne said...
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This post reminds me of arguments about affirmative action. Some people think it's unfair--they deny the injustice in society and institutional racism against minorities. Affirmative action is a temporary fix for that larger societal problem; there should be other efforts to get at the root of the problem. In the same way, we as teachers may have to implement temporary fixes at the same time as having high expectations of our students--maybe thinking of only temporarily allowing for students' later starts and moving rapidly towards having higher expectations in areas where that is feasible. We should also work to advocate for social change (supporting initiatives to garner government funding for early education programs, etc.).
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Ms. Arcos said...
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I think we should have high expectations for all our students, despite their background or family involvement. If we don't set high expectations for every student, then there's no way for them to succeed and excel. However, when setting high expectations, we need to be careful in that we are providing our students with enough tools to fulfill these high expectations and goals. Here's where we need to look at how each student is different and what each one needs to be successful.
In the case of the students who do not have books at home, and thus do not know how to handle a book, we have to provide enough modeling for them to internalize the process. A good activity would be something like "book buddies" where kids are paired based on familiarity with books, and one kid "reads" to another one and vice-versa. This would even work if kids don't know how to read yet, or if one is more advanced than the other. These children can use picture books and narrate the story basing themselves on the pictures. In such, the kids would serve as models to each other, and this could be a very informal way to familiarize children with books. -
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I agree that we should maintain high standards for all students. Students should be aware of the expectations and strive to achieve them. However, I think it is necessary for teachers to supplement materials for children who come from underpriviliedged households. For example, in NYC public schools all of the students have a book baggy. The teacher could add extra books that would be appropriate for the child to read at home. These books could be in English, if the child's native language is English. If the child's native language is not English, the teacher should seek out books in the native language that the child could read at home. This would also allow the child to read with a family member in the native language. Even if the parent is not literate, the parent will be able to understand the story the child reads them if it is in the native language. This especially important during long breaks from school and particularly summer, so that the student will have resources at home to help them develop their reading. Unfortunately, students with limited home resources do not always take advantage of things such as the public library.
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Regina said...
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Thanks Jeanne!
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Guangqiong Zheng said...
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I think that teachers should have the same expectation for all the students. The students may not achieve the same goal at the end of the academic year; however, their level of improvement should be the same. We should see their improvement of themselves, not compare with the others. Even the students who speak English as their first language, they can have different starting point due to different reasons. I think it is unfair to require all the students to achieve the same academic goal in a short period of time. Moreover, some students may not show too much academic improvement, but they show their improvement of social skill. Does that count? It takes time to master the academic language. I think as teachers we need to give them more time and supports.
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kris said...
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Okay, nobody is for low standards. That's just ridiculous. Of course we all want high standards for all of our students, but what will constitute a "high standard" will be different for every individual. And that's something that I think we come to realize after working closely with our students. You just learn that picking up a book and sitting down long enough to turn two pages is going to be a huge accomplishment for one kid, while pointing to pictures and identifying objects will be a big thing for someone else. I don't think there's anything wrong with that approach. That's life. We are all good at some things and not at others, we all have different strengths and needs. I think there are some basic things that we will expect all of our students to master, but holding a group of 30, growing individuals (who aren't even sure of who they are yet) to the exact same standards seems unreasonable, although our grading system pretty much demands that we do that. On the other hand, the real world outside of school is not going to make exceptions for you because of how you grew up or what your circumstances are. So why should our students learn to make excuses for themselves? It's not an easy, defnitive answer, and thoughts on how to negotiate this issue within a classroom may even change from year to year, month to month.
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Sarah Diaz said...
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In speaking from personal experience: students are at a HUGE disadvantage if they enter school with no exposure to literature. Students who have been read to and have experiences with books are more ready to begin reading because they already understand that there is meaning on the pages, that there is something called letters and these make up words, which then become sentences. When you begin at with a truly clean slate, you can’t begin with letter-sound relationships or sight words—you have to begin with book introduction, left-to-right and top-to-bottom orientation, as well as instill a positive impression of literature. The time it takes to teach this depends on many factors but I haven’t seen it happen in less than a month. The student still knows that he/she is behind the others and often has a lack of confidence concerning books (reading, listening to, examining, etc.). A good teacher has to accommodate for all of his/her students. A big bag of tricks is necessary for all teachers to have. You must simultaneously challenge and support all of your students while maintaining behavior management. This is no easy task. As a teacher, you have different expectations for each student—as they are individuals. In terms of equality and fairness, the same behavior standards must apply to everyone. This is more of a classroom management issue, but I feel that a norm must be set in order for learning, and not chaos, to rule the room. When I am teaching, I expect that all students do their best work on each assignment. This eliminates much of the “she did more/less than me!” discussions, as each student has an idea of what they can do and the teacher is then free to further challenge what their best entails.
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jason m. cardwell said...
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I do not know if you all remember, but at the beginning of this school year we were all asked to read a book called, Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap by Richard Rothstein. I mention this book because it talks about the advantages of children who have learned to appreciate books and reading before entering school. The type of interest that the parents of such children place in books is not something typically seen in lower income minority families. I imagine that most of your Brooklyn inner-city school students are from lower income minority families and that most of those you baby-sat for were not. Parents that are not able to interest their young children in books and reading are creating an enormous disadvantage for those children. This is a disadvantage that will make it more difficult for their children to learn. Ultimately these academic difficulties, in combination with the many social and economic challenges facing primarily lower income minority families, help to worsen the achievement gap that both physically and psychologically impedes the progress of our society.
Although some students face serious disadvantages learning, it does not mean that teachers should lower their expectations. Teachers will have to be more patient and creative to help their students reach the expectations that they have set. If teachers are able to learn what is most important to their students and the different cultural elements that influence their student’s lives, that information would be a great tool for positively influencing academic performance. Only social and economic changes that would make your student’s home environment more conducive to learning, will actually correct this dilemma. Until that happens, teaching in such environments will always be an uphill battle. -
Yesenia Moreno said...
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Fairness, equality, and expectations are all of concern in the classroom, but as how they are addressed is a definite issue and should not be considered separately. My philosophy on fairness closely relates to something as simple as everyone getting the same amount of amount of juice, equality can’t go without speaking about opportunity, and expectations are always at the extent of someone’s full potential. Yes, I believe that a student’s background should be taken into consideration, but never at the extent to where we lower our expectations. Every child should be given the opportunity to reveal their full potential, and that I think is fair. Again, yes, there is difficulty in managing a diverse group of students who are at different levels and as a teacher it’s not about being fair necessarily, but being realistic and accommodating without lowering expectations.
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zenaruskai said...
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The school that I work in now has the same situation where there are so many students that have so many different levels of abilities especially in literacy. It is a six grade that has children who read on the six grade level to children who read on a third grade level. One must think first how they let these children just to pass on to higher grades without demonstration of age appropiate skills? After we realize that the education system is not perfect so we have to work with it. I think that having reading confrences or one on one instruction during independent reading or free period is helpful. Also I think that push in or pull out reading coaches can be an asset if you are given that resource.
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Susan said...
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I agree with Ana Stefany and Trini, all students should be expected to learn at the same standards according to age. I think this question also lends itself to the question of inclusion classrooms, where students with IEPs are learning along side the non-IEP students.
1. If students aren't challenged at some point in their academic career just because they had a background not as affluent as the next child, the teacher is doing a great disservice to the more 'disadvantaged' child.
2. Children are resilient. They are able to comprehend and take on challenges that we think they are not ready for.
3. Children are raised in different backgrounds. If their book knowledge isn't as strong as another student's, no doubt they have learned something else along the way.
4. Students like challenges and like to feel proud of accomplishing them.
Scaffolded lessons with some more defined structure is needed no doubt. But every child is as capable of the next.
Sorry I had to do this as a comment, I couldn't find where to post an original question!
I had a different question in mind for today until about ten minutes ago when I went to check on the babies I nanny for. They are twin boys who will be two in a little over a month. I put the boys to bed a little earlier, and had to go wake them to take tylenol. When I got up there, both of them were sound asleep with a book open acorss their chests, and still clenched in their little fists. It brought to mind a question I have been asking myself ever since I began teaching in the inner-city schools of Brooklyn.
These boys are still not talking in sentences, but one of their first words was "book," and they know how to open a book, turn the pages, and point to things on the page, stating what they see. They mimic exactly what they see us doing when we read to the older sisters or to them. This is one of the early stages of reading. To many of us, that is nothing unusual, I know that was the case with my younger brother when he was their age, and I know many of the children I have babysat were familiar with reading long before they could talk. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many homes. Some children aren't exposed to literature until they begin kindergarten. I know that students enter at many different academic levels, but I can't help but feel worried when the majority of students in a school are starting school with little to no experience with reading.
My question is this- although we know these students are at a disadvantage when their exposure to literature starts late, but how much of a disadvantage are they at? How long will these students be in school before they can start to feel equal to the rest of the students? How would you handle a classroom where the background is so different from child to child? The overlying question is how we should handle an atmosphere in which the support from home varies so drastically... Is it fair to expect the same from students who have no academic background and students who are raised valuing literature as part of their everyday life?
In my multicultural class we talked a lot about equality and fairness- Do you think it is fair to treat students equally? Do you intend to treat all of your students equally regardless of their backgrounds?