The education system is failing by not reaching many students, “especially black students, because the curricula and standards are lacking” (Muhammad).
This is Muhammad’s critique of the education system in a one sentence answer. Let’s dig deeper into the reasoning for this and what her framework looks like in the classroom. The dress analogy she shares during the interview is a great way to explain the issue at hand.
The dress analogy as told by Gholdy Muhammad→ If you're a size ten and only size two dresses are available, you are not going to be able to fit. In the education system it means that you can try to fit the students into the curriculum, but it was not defined for them so it is simply not going to work and be successful, it's not going to “fit” them.
The system needs to be dismantled because it favors whiteness and shows no room for students of color. We keep trying to put a band-aid over the problem as a quick and easy fix but what really needs to be done is dismantling the system and reworking it from the bare bones. Part of the process of creating assessment, curriculum, standards should be that all students are included and represented and this is not happening for black and brown students in the education system. Muhammad tells us that there is great justice centered work but the problem is that, "They're doing it around a jacked-up system, you know? So what happens is that you have social justice not deeply intricate and threaded throughout the fabric of the United States or the district school system" (Muhammad).
The justification for the framework→ Muhammad did research on what the black folks were writing about, what they defined literacy as, what their goals for learning were, and so on. By doing this, she came up with the 4 layers of her framework. Muhammad discovered that the black folks gathered together to write in an effort to improve life for themselves as well as the entire society. In response to this, Gholdy states that, “When you improve the society within blackness, you can improve the society for all” (Muhammad).
4 layers: The layers should be treated equally!
Identity- Students need to see themselves within the curriculum, to relate to it. Identity is who you are and what you desire to be. It’s important to find yourself as well as interact with people who are different from you. Identity is important in the classroom because the literature that we often work with does not represent people of color well enough. Therefore, in the classroom we must work on identity with our students so that they feel valued and that they are an equal part of society. I had overall good experiences with being comfortable with my identity other than my family dynamic of coming from a divorced family and having a step mother/father. I sometimes felt like the odd one out when my peers told me it was weird. The many different family dynamics need to be normalized in the classroom because it certainly does not define someone.
Skills- An example of skills is the common core. In ELA as Gholdy states, it can be citing textual evidence. Tools that we need in order to further ourselves. Skills are embedded everywhere but it does not always have to be just about skills. We do not define someone based on a specific skill that they can or cannot do. I’ve struggled with math my entire life and I have always felt that I failed in this aspect of grade school. Gholdy says that it is not all about the skill and she is so right here. This is what teachers have been conditioned to do, drill the skill into the student to prepare them for the test. I had to learn how to do fractions so I could pass the test. What about applying it to a real-life situation? I never had the opportunity to do that in school.
Intellect- Knowledge! Applying your knowledge to something. Knowing your content and seeing it everywhere you go, making connections, seeking ways to create intellectual students in the classroom. Always being a model for your students so it will rub off onto them. I had a teacher in high school that I was immediately reminded of because she would always come in with a connection to the book we were reading and the topics we were discussing in class. Whether it was an experience she had herself or something she read, I could tell she knew her content.
Criticality-Helping students actively read, write and think. Teaching students to question what they hear and what they see. We do not want students to just take what they see and say “okay that is it”. We want them to question it, to think about it. We want our students to question what they see in terms of oppression and racism, to act on it, to speak on it. When I was listening to the podcast and this particular conversation about criticality, I thought about what is going on around the world right now with racism and the notion that being quiet is not the best option. People think because they are quiet that they are not racist and this has something that I have seen people talking about on social media.
Teaching ELA using Muhammad’s Framework
-As educators, we can teach our students criticality by showing them how to question what they see and what they are reading. We want students to have those conversations on oppression that they see around them. A good example of this in the classroom is taking time each week to discuss any current events that are happening and questioning them. Having those conversations with the students to help them learn how to speak on issues in the world and not simply take one answer as the right one without any discussion.
-Identity work in the classroom should be happening every day. It is important that at the beginning of the year, the teacher makes the classroom a welcoming environment where all identities are safe. The curriculum should reflect the students and their identities. Allowing the students at certain times to choose their own topic to write about is an adequate way of showing them that you as their teacher care who they are and what their hobbies/interests are.
-Creating an intellectual culture in the classroom is important. Allowing students to critique your ideas as Muhammad states in the interview. I want my students to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on my teaching. I want my classroom walls to inspire them and I want us to feel like we are all learning together as a community.
-Students need skills in the classroom but what you then do with those skills is the important part. We should not just be testing students on the skills but having them put the skills to use using their knowledge. Perhaps after teaching students about a concept, we actually have them put it to use rather than take a test to see how much they can cram into their brain and remember so that they can then forget it after they take the test.
I’ll leave off with a quote that I took from the podcast that stuck with me as I listened:)
The dress analogy as told by Gholdy Muhammad→ If you're a size ten and only size two dresses are available, you are not going to be able to fit. In the education system it means that you can try to fit the students into the curriculum, but it was not defined for them so it is simply not going to work and be successful, it's not going to “fit” them.
The system needs to be dismantled because it favors whiteness and shows no room for students of color. We keep trying to put a band-aid over the problem as a quick and easy fix but what really needs to be done is dismantling the system and reworking it from the bare bones. Part of the process of creating assessment, curriculum, standards should be that all students are included and represented and this is not happening for black and brown students in the education system. Muhammad tells us that there is great justice centered work but the problem is that, "They're doing it around a jacked-up system, you know? So what happens is that you have social justice not deeply intricate and threaded throughout the fabric of the United States or the district school system" (Muhammad).
The justification for the framework→ Muhammad did research on what the black folks were writing about, what they defined literacy as, what their goals for learning were, and so on. By doing this, she came up with the 4 layers of her framework. Muhammad discovered that the black folks gathered together to write in an effort to improve life for themselves as well as the entire society. In response to this, Gholdy states that, “When you improve the society within blackness, you can improve the society for all” (Muhammad).
4 layers: The layers should be treated equally!
Identity- Students need to see themselves within the curriculum, to relate to it. Identity is who you are and what you desire to be. It’s important to find yourself as well as interact with people who are different from you. Identity is important in the classroom because the literature that we often work with does not represent people of color well enough. Therefore, in the classroom we must work on identity with our students so that they feel valued and that they are an equal part of society. I had overall good experiences with being comfortable with my identity other than my family dynamic of coming from a divorced family and having a step mother/father. I sometimes felt like the odd one out when my peers told me it was weird. The many different family dynamics need to be normalized in the classroom because it certainly does not define someone.
Skills- An example of skills is the common core. In ELA as Gholdy states, it can be citing textual evidence. Tools that we need in order to further ourselves. Skills are embedded everywhere but it does not always have to be just about skills. We do not define someone based on a specific skill that they can or cannot do. I’ve struggled with math my entire life and I have always felt that I failed in this aspect of grade school. Gholdy says that it is not all about the skill and she is so right here. This is what teachers have been conditioned to do, drill the skill into the student to prepare them for the test. I had to learn how to do fractions so I could pass the test. What about applying it to a real-life situation? I never had the opportunity to do that in school.
Intellect- Knowledge! Applying your knowledge to something. Knowing your content and seeing it everywhere you go, making connections, seeking ways to create intellectual students in the classroom. Always being a model for your students so it will rub off onto them. I had a teacher in high school that I was immediately reminded of because she would always come in with a connection to the book we were reading and the topics we were discussing in class. Whether it was an experience she had herself or something she read, I could tell she knew her content.
Criticality-Helping students actively read, write and think. Teaching students to question what they hear and what they see. We do not want students to just take what they see and say “okay that is it”. We want them to question it, to think about it. We want our students to question what they see in terms of oppression and racism, to act on it, to speak on it. When I was listening to the podcast and this particular conversation about criticality, I thought about what is going on around the world right now with racism and the notion that being quiet is not the best option. People think because they are quiet that they are not racist and this has something that I have seen people talking about on social media.
Teaching ELA using Muhammad’s Framework
-As educators, we can teach our students criticality by showing them how to question what they see and what they are reading. We want students to have those conversations on oppression that they see around them. A good example of this in the classroom is taking time each week to discuss any current events that are happening and questioning them. Having those conversations with the students to help them learn how to speak on issues in the world and not simply take one answer as the right one without any discussion.
-Identity work in the classroom should be happening every day. It is important that at the beginning of the year, the teacher makes the classroom a welcoming environment where all identities are safe. The curriculum should reflect the students and their identities. Allowing the students at certain times to choose their own topic to write about is an adequate way of showing them that you as their teacher care who they are and what their hobbies/interests are.
-Creating an intellectual culture in the classroom is important. Allowing students to critique your ideas as Muhammad states in the interview. I want my students to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on my teaching. I want my classroom walls to inspire them and I want us to feel like we are all learning together as a community.
-Students need skills in the classroom but what you then do with those skills is the important part. We should not just be testing students on the skills but having them put the skills to use using their knowledge. Perhaps after teaching students about a concept, we actually have them put it to use rather than take a test to see how much they can cram into their brain and remember so that they can then forget it after they take the test.
I’ll leave off with a quote that I took from the podcast that stuck with me as I listened:)
“This is humanizing work we are doing”- Gholdy Muhammad
Hi Cassie!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you brought up the dress analogy from the podcast because I think it's a great way to describe what the problem Gholdy is highlighting is. A dress designed to fit a size 2 will never fit someone who is a size 10 no matter how much fabric you cut or sleeves you rip, it'll never be a proper, comfortable fit. I appreciate the way you broke up the second part of your post into the 4 layers of historically responsive literacy that Gholdy discusses. When reading your section on intellect, I, too was reminded of a teacher I had once. Every time she was about to tell a story or connect the material with something she had experienced, everyone's heads perked up and we all paid much closer attention to what she was saying. Something you wrote that I really admired was "I want my classroom walls to inspire them and I want us to feel like we are all learning together as a community." YES, a thousand times yes. Thanks for a great post :)
Hi Allie!
ReplyDeleteI think when a teacher makes a point to incorporate examples from outside of the curriculum, the students really benefit from that.
I’m glad the structure of my blog made sense because I did struggle with trying to organize the information Into the post so that it made sense. Thanks for the comment!!