For example, in my observations, I saw a bell ringer take three different routes in the class. The bell ringer had a question that states, “What factors identify your culture?” Students answered stating their clothes, traditions, etc. In my first observing class, an African American student stated fried chicken, “…because I’m black and all black people like fried chicken”. This led to a conversation about stereotypes and how they influence society. In my second observing class, food is brought up again one students says, “Hey Mr. Paul, your culture doesn't eat meat, right?”, the student believing I was Indian. This led to a conversation about assumptions and I told the class about my Filipino culture. Only in my last observing class the bell ringer went smoothly. What this shows is that a lesson plan can be perfectly adjusted for your students but they may not go the way it was planned.
The video below shows a student poem that may describe the feelings a future student of yours may have.
In our classrooms we will see many different students of many different backgrounds. Some may not share the same feelings for school as Malcolm London but all of them are your students. What ways would you adjust for student variance in your lesson plans? Assuming you would take the time to help a student’s self-growth if a situation arises, how would you do it?
Awesome post Paul,
ReplyDeleteI think your example about the bell-ringer is a great example about how open-ended questions work towards bringing everyone’s individual opinions, beliefs and backgrounds into account. When questions like those are given then you can allow everyone in class to bring something into the conversation. I think this is the best way to adjust to student variance without thinking of 100 or more individual questions for each student.
I think you are spot on about the importance of handling diversity in a way that can provide valuable learning experience for everyone. It is a valuable skill to see the differences in people and to appreciate what we can learn from others. As a teacher it is your responsibly to provide a safe space for all your students. This starts with acknowledgement of stereotypes and how they can be damaging.
ReplyDeletePaul, thank you for sharing that video! I like that it highlights the aspects in which the education system is failing. The most important message I believe is that as educators (and society in general), we should keep in mind the different circumstances that each student has and that each of them has feelings that should be validated and addressed. On the other hand, people like me that came from the system are evidence that dreams can be reached. I plan on being an educator that hopefully will be a role model for students. I am proof that with diligence and patience dreams can be accomplished despite the violence and discrimination. We should never forget our responsibility to the community and to always attempt to impact student’s lives in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your comment, I completely agree with the need of being flexible and to divert from the lesson plan in order to address issues that might come up during our lesson. If your teacher did not allow for that time to address the student’s concerns the misconceptions they had would not be changed.
Hey Paul!
ReplyDeleteLove your observation example. I think it really speaks well to what you bring up. You write in this post how you feel that only the last class's bell ringer went "smoothly." What makes the others seem rocky? The responses you cite from other classes seem just as important. Maybe part of the point of the bell ringer was to have students address stereotypes, and because of the students in each class, their experiences warranted different responses. Sometimes you need to let these conversations happen, sometimes you may need to push for these conversations. As for your question about adjusting, do plans ever go according to? I feel like I've seen teachers constantly adjusting activities, especially when the students just weren't understanding. Food for thought!
What intrigues me most about your post is that something that may be considered small or insignificant in some classrooms is an opportunity for growth when teachers are willing to give class time to them. In your example of the African American student, the class was able to look at stereotypes and why they exist. It is so important to take advantaged of the opportunities we get as educators to explore diversity and how our students interact with it.
ReplyDeletePaul, I really enjoyed the video you attached and your thoughts regarding classroom diversity. As we have discussed in class, altering lesson plans to meet the needs of diverse students can be done by providing multiple methods of learning the same concepts. I hope to have a strong enough relationship with my students that I will know how they learn best and how to accommodate them, thus providing the variance in instruction that they need. I also hope to facilitate a classroom environment that encourages personal growth, and that allows students to see the big picture of what they're learning and how they can apply that knowledge in other areas of their life. Ideally, this will facilitate personal growth in the students.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteYour post put so much emphasis on diversity and differentiated instruction, and I also believe that they are both equally relevant and play such an important role in the classroom. Not even one student is the same as another one, so that is why at times it might be even difficult to accommodate the needs of every single student. However, the lesson plans become easier when we as teachers have strong relationships with the students and know how to best accommodate the needs of all students in the classroom and together we "uncover" the content successfully.
Paul, great post. I think it is very important to cater to the needs of individual students. As you said, not every student is the same, and not every classroom will be the same. After doing those readings, I felt as though there is a lot of planning that we need to do in order to reach every student. Actually, I feel a little overwhelmed by it all. I want to reach every student and actually teach them, as I am sure everyone else does too. I think these chapters presented good outlines and models to follow in order to reach those goals. Also, I look forward to the varied discussions in each one of my classes. I can't wait for them to take on a life of their own.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI really liked that video and I think he made a lot of great points about the education and how diverse schools in Chicago are. The example you gave about the bell ringer is a great example that shows how every classroom will bring a different perspective and have different ways of answering the same question. Even within a classroom, each student can have lived different experiences than the rest of the classmates so he/she will bring a different point of view because of his life experiences. That's why I think that it is important to have a plan for a lesson but always be willing to change it and take it in a different directions depending on where the students want to take it (with limitations and guidance of course). Teachers should be open to leading lessons in a way that applies to the personal life experiences of the students that are sitting in front of them.
Paul, thank you for sharing that video with us, and good job on your post. I took the time to read through a few of the comments that followed your post and I wanted to dwell on Jaymie Guerrera's post. I think it is important to realize what exactly is the intended purpose of the bell ringers used (such as the one in your example), or any other activity in the classroom for that matter. It seems as there is a large emphasis this semester in all of my classes on understanding the students and predicting what kinds of responses you can expect. This has opened my eyes and has made me understand that one must try and be ready for a multitude of perspectives with such diversity in the classroom. Having said that, I like when Jaymie asked "what makes the others (responses) seem rocky?" As an educator we must put some time and attention to every single thing we do in our classroom and realize that each should be intended to expand the curiosity of the students in order for them to become better recipients of the ideas we are trying to "uncover", express, and share.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteYour example from your observation really shows how each classroom is truly different as each individual student brings something different to the class which, in your case, is different ideas about culture. Something similar actually happened with my mentor teacher today as she realized that an activity that worked so well for her classes in the previous school year wasn't going so well with her students during her 1st period class. In short, it was a "pass the torch" type writing activity in which the students were to write an important idea from their notes onto the appropriate poster board and pass on the marker once they were done. My mentor teacher soon saw that the students were not very engaged and were simply trying to get their turns over with so they could pass their marker on and be done with it. Upon realizing this, she made a quick decision to adjust the class activity for the next class period to a more group-centered station activity in attempts to get students to stay on task and pay attention to what the activity was prompting them to review. This really goes to show how flexible we must be as teachers because within each classroom of diverse students, anything can happen and we must be prepared to think on our feet and adjust our plans accordingly.
When it comes to English, the core concepts should be the same throughout, but making content more broad based can be essential for diverse learners. So for example, the theme of stereotyping can be a core concept, but the content for it can vary greatly. I think its important to have activities where students are engaged can help them master the concept, no matter what their background may be. These engaged activities can be interest based, which stimulates deeper learning. Also, working in groups can help students learn more about another person’s way of thinking. So for instance, an activity I would do as an English teacher, with the theme ‘stereotyping’ in mind would be for everyone to free write a time they felt stereotyped, and how they felt about it. Afterwords, people would share within their groups, and a lecture would follow.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the previous posts that a simple question can be interpreted in various ways and students will produce various answers. At times questions like these can make everyone participate since everyone has culture either if they associate with he culture of their parents or just culture from the neighborhood they live on. A discussion about culture is a good ice-breaker and a great way to learn about one another and each others' culture. A thing that a good teacher should be able to do is be able to handle a situation where comments turn stereotypical or offensive and clarify that although something specific is seen in a culture it doesn't ultimately mean that everyone of that culture takes a part of such of that example of an African-American student and the fried chicken.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your video and the example that you gave. I can also relate since I just started my field work and the same stereotypical responses came up when doing a survey about who these students are. Some put themselves in this stereotypical categories, while others put each other into those stereotypical categories. I think that it is important to teach students that their classroom is like a mini world; full of unique and diverse people. Just because a majority of the students share the same skin color, doesn't mean that they have to be labeled and put into a stereotypical box. Students must respect each other and learn from each other. They must learn the hardships and the achievements that they each go through. As teachers, we must also be sure that we do not stereotype. In order to truly help our students, it is important to get to know them. Even though some may think that student information sheets with questions to get to know them are useless, these actually can come in handy in learning more about your student than just what activities and hobbies they have, but how that information can be used to help them succeed in the classroom.
Paul, I really like your post and the questions you pose. I also enjoyed your video-it reminded me about my observations today. One of the bell ringers was “What do you think capitalism is?” Out of all the classes I observed, only one student had a good idea about what it was-he started sharing with his group what socialism and communism were. I would love to have a lot of students who are eager to learn about everything and view school as a training ground, but you are right-not every student is like that. I would not mind changing my plan to address issues such as racism, stereotypes, etc.-societal issues such as that-are at the core of my philosophy of education-so I would not view time spent addressing those issues as a waste of time-or an interference on my lesson plan (I would, however, view them as a teaching moment). In fact, if that were to happen in my future classroom I may be swayed to dedicate (if I hadn’t planned it already) a lesson/unit on that.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up working with diversity in the classroom because this encompasses so many things. Students are diverse on so many levels (interests, class, background, etc.)-something that we have to keep in mind. The author talked about teaching diverse students and differentiating instruction-which we talked a little bit about in class when Professor Olson reminded us that students that are performing low should be taught more not less. The book reiterated this when it cautioned us not to change or lower our expectations for kids with IEP’s, ELL’s, etc. In the book it states, “. . . the big ideas and essential questions provide the conceptual pillars that anchor the various disciplines. We do not arbitrarily amend these based on whom we are teaching. Of course, the nature and needs of learners should certainly influence how we teach toward these targets” (42). I completely agree with the book on this matter. We can help these students learn more not by setting low expectations for them, but, instead, by adapting how we asses them.
Loved the Video!
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the examples you posed, because I really do believe that as teachers, we sometimes consider these times as "wasteful" times, but we really need to consider the opinions/interpretations of our students. The reason why I believe this is important is because we have to let our students take chances and make meaning of what is in front of them. Today for my observations at Team Englewood, the students were going over parts of speech through various handouts. They hated it, and it didn't seem important to them. Perhaps if the teacher would have engaged them in a different way, today would have gone a lot better. I tried to push as many students as I could today to remember what a verb is and how it can be used in a sentence, but they need more than that.
Hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, I was just wondering what made the last do now activity was and why that one went smoothly compared to the other ones? To me it sounded like the first two went really smoothly as well, since they provoked some sort of discussion amongst your students and it sounded like they came away from the warm up with a better understanding of your culture as well as understanding stereotyping as a whole. Anyway, nice job handling the responses by your students, making a smart-alecky comment into a worthwhile discussion.
-Austin
After reading your post the only two things that come to my mind are thinking on your feet and according to plan. The reason why is that when we create our lesson plan we have a plan of what we want the students to learn. In the lesson plan we have many steps to reach that goal. The lesson plan can go either two ways it can go according to plan or not. The not part is where we as teachers are tested and answer the question can we think on our feet and bring the students back to the lesson? Can we take what they have stated/done and make it a teachable moment for the lesson?
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Paul.
ReplyDeleteYour question about differentiation strategies for different groups of students made me think of an activity that my mentor teacher planned on 9/11. The class at Westinghouse College Prep discussed the John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," and to my surprise, rather than declare him a traitor, most students sympathized with his decision to follow his Islamic faith and fight against his country. The students were predominately black and (likely) low income. I told them about my high school experience at white, suburban, middle class school where I speculated that nearly all students would condemn Lindh as a traitor. Then my mentor teacher and I asked them why these two student groups would have such a wide divergence of opinion... which really got them talking! So I guess my point is that adjusting lesson plans for divergence and diversity is, of course, crucial but that it can also be useful at times to "draw back the curtain" and challenge students to analyze why they might learn/think/feel in a particular way as a social group so as to not only "acknowledge" differences but understand them as constructed and therefore transformable.
I am a huge fan of talking about stereotypes to high school students. There is so much we can teach students about stereotyping themselves, others, and society. The students enjoyed hearing about me talk about growing up in the suburbs and my conceptions of Chicago. I was able to have a one on one discussion with one of the students about his perceptions of his peers and it was eye opening to see how students a few years younger than me view the world os differently.
ReplyDelete