Where I'm From

I am from kid cuisine meals

and pink jelly sandals

McDonald's happy meals,

and the kids toy with it

 

I am from a home

where Barney was on the television everyday

yelling at my mom

to "pretty please but Barney back on"

singing along to the "I love you song"

 

I am from a "swamp yankee family"

where driving 20 minutes is f  a   r

and Rhode Island is the only place they know.

I am a granddaughter

with a grandmother

who poured her soul into teaching

saying "you'll be perfect for this one day"

 

I am from a blended family

where having two bedrooms at two houses,

a step-mom and a step-dad,

is normal to me

 

I am from parents who put me first,

who support my hopes and dreams,

no matter their relationship to each other

 

I am from the moments

where family time matters most

where blood does not always define who is family

but that of love,

can define a family.

The Use of Rubrics and Writing

        As a pre-service teacher, I have spent plenty of time learning how to write rubrics and what makes a "good rubric". It was not until last semester when I spent time with the rubrics in my SED and MLED class and used them to grade my peers work. I began to realize how the rubric was not satisfying me in terms of grading work in a fair way. While I was not grading essay writing with this rubric, it was work that consisted of a fair amount of writing. I noticed that I always leaned toward the middle of two numbers if the rubric was scaled on a numerical scale from say, 1-4 (1 being unsatisfactory and 4 being satisfactory). Grading was not enjoyable because I stressed over the fact that I was unhappy with picking one number and moving on. My point here is that it is easy to create a rubric as an assignment and move on, but actually implementing that rubric to students is completely different.
       My viewpoint on rubrics has shifted since I had practice with implementing them rather than strictly creating them. One rubric cannot possibly cater to each student in the classroom and this is what Wilson discusses in her article on rubrics. A rubric also does not speak explicitly to the work of the student. Wilson states, "No matter how elaborate or eloquent the phrases I was invited to circle, the feedback they offered to students was still generic because they weren’t uttered in reaction to the students’ actual work" (63). A rubric is created to assess an assignment and therefore, each student is graded based off the same scale which is why Wilson states that it is not a form of personal feedback to each student. Written feedback from the teacher is a better way of speaking to the student about their writing. The feedback should be specific to each student and to offer feedback on their writing which a rubric cannot achieve. Students will learn the most from meaningful written feedback as opposed to a rubric with numbers that will essentially end up defining them. I think about what I am going to do as a future teacher who is handed a curriculum rubric that I am expected to implement in the classroom. In this case, I think it will make the most sense that I offer written feedback along with the rubric to my students so that they know my personal thoughts on their work.

       I was taught to follow the sandwich outline when writing essays which is known as the five paragraph format. Three paragraphs to explain the idea of the paper was always a struggle for me. I was the student in high school who had to always cut my essay down to meet the paragraph and page limit. My peers would sometimes make fun of me that I was a nerd because I wrote too much but I did my best to just ignore them and be happy with the fact that I could write that much rather than struggle with not having enough to write about.
       I want my students to know that I care more about the words of their essay and their ideas rather than if they met the paragraph requirement. In fact, I do not want to provide a paragraph limit. I want the students to focus on their topic and produce strong and coherent writing. Michelle Kenney, author of The Politics of the Paragraph, shares her experience with this in the classroom. She states, "It’s important to develop a strong argument, no matter how many paragraphs or sentences it takes" (Kenney). She believes, as she told her student Erica, that she cares less about the amount of writing she produces and more about the topic she writes about. For Kenney, it is quality over quantity, which is how it should be. 


      As I read Christensen chapter 2, I connected her thoughts on responding to student work to the conversation of rubrics as discussed in the above paragraphs and by Wilson's article on "Why I Won't be Using Rubrics to Respond to Student's Writing". I discussed above how written feedback is more beneficial to the student and Christensen makes note of this as well in her work. She states, " I try to make my notes a conversation to the writer" (66). While offering feedback for improvement to the students, Christensen tries to maintain a balance of conversing with the student while pointing them to areas of improvement. This is so much more important than a rubric.

     Implementing narrative into multiple units is something that I want to practice in my future classroom. I think it is beneficial to give students the time to write narratives in relation to the specific topic we will be covering in the class. Christensen discusses how she teaches about injustice while connecting it to the current text they are reading. She states, "Students write about times when they were allies, perpetrators, targets, or bystanders during a critical moment in their lives" (61). Through narrative, she will discuss injustice with her students and allow them to think critically on a time where they witnessed or were affected by injustice. This can help the students become more aware of their social worlds, their identities, and who they want to be in their society. I think that narrative writing can be useful in a multitude of ways in the classroom and is a way to break up the typical essay writing that is required of the students. 

Curating the Text in a Classroom

 As I read Chapter five of Garcia and O'Donnel Allen, I came across a statement that I thought was important to note as I read on in the chapter. The quote reads,  "This is not simply about making a list of the 'right' texts to teach in your classroom, but about assembling with a care a collection of materials that deliberately reflects your commitment to culturally proactive teaching" (Garcia & O'Donnell Allen 91). I'd like to dig deeper into this quote and how important this is for teachers and future teachers in terms of the text that is offered in a classroom. It is noted in the text that english departments "curate the selection of texts that are in a classroom" (90) and the selections can be outdated and not relevant to today's teaching. So what does this mean for us as teachers who should be practicing culturally relevant pedagogy? We should curate the texts to be relevant to our students and to choose texts that are representative of members in the classroom.

                                                       I think about how I'll choose to share my thoughts about a specific

 text to my students and how I will present it in a way that allows them to critically analyze the piece of work whether it is one that the district chose or not. A quote from the text states, "we consider what purpose these texts play within our classrooms and students' worlds outside of school" (94). Figuring out what aspects of a text relate to your students and focusing on that will help them better understand and analyze the work. There are going to be novels, plays, etc. in the course of the class that one or more students may not be interested in or able to relate to, but the way in which the teacher presents the text will show their willingness to bring cultural relevance to the classroom. What I mean by this is that maybe there is a certain part of a novel that I think relates to my students and therefore, I would be vocal about this specific part of the text and to create a lesson around it or even just a class discussion that gets them thinking more about how they relate to it. I should add that this may not be possible with every work however, when you are able to relate the reading to the class, the outcome of understanding will be greater.

In terms of deciding what texts to teach to the class, "will you be complicit in perpetuating this tradition, or will you push back against common expectations that only canonical texts should be taught?" (95). Personally, I think I would push back. I want my future students to have a different experience than I did in school. I want to share a variety of genres, authors, and different types of writing styles (narrative, poetry, etc.)  to my students and not just the usual male dominated white author texts as stated in an earlier chapter from Pose, Wobble, Flow. There should be a balance of the traditional canon and works that branch outside to bring in different cultures and views.

While the students should be immersed in culturally diverse texts in the classroom, they should also at times be able to choose the books they want to read that interest them the most. These books could be the ones they read in their free time and at home. The "both/and" approach that is discussed in chapter five of the text is a good way to create a balance of texts. To summarize this approach, it is "allowing them to choose their own texts to develop their identity as a reader while also providing them with required reading to allow them to see the different contexts and perspectives of the world"(98). Students need to have the freedom to choose the genre they enjoy while also being taught new perspectives through the text that is chosen by the teacher.

 I'd also like to add that if you have not had the chance to watch the Ted talk by Chimamanda Adichie, you should go watch it ASAP! It will be a great twenty-minutes out of your day, I promise. Adichie talks about hearing "a single story" about someone or another country that we are unfamiliar with and how that is disheartening and instead, we should choose to be enlightened about the many parts of the world.  She also
shares her experience with writing and how her one view did not help her see different perspectives of the world as a child. How can this connect to the world of teaching? Well, as a teacher, you should be open to learning about new places and new things around the world. In addition, as a teacher of young students who are still learning about the world ahead of them, you would be doing a disservice to them by not allowing them to be immersed in different cultures of the world and the ways of life outside of their life. You should always be willing to speak of culture and diversity in the classroom in order to make your students feel comfortable. Adichie provides her insight on the dangers of only knowing one story and I think it can relate to being a culturally relevant teacher. If you've seen it, I'd be interested to hear your take on it and how you think it connects to yourself as a teacher or future teacher.

What is the cause for divide between students in the classroom? Is it the achievement gap or the educational debt? This is the question I have after reading Winn and Johnson chapter 2. I believe that both are a factor in the world of education. While reading this, I thought about my anthropology class I

am taking right now and our topic for the next couple of weeks is inequality and injustice in education. We’ve been discussing how students are affected in the classroom because of their economic status and which town/city they live in. In some areas, the poor are sectioned off to a specific part of town and therefore, all of the kids in the same economic position are at one school together. Since their families work low wage jobs, they cannot afford to pay the high taxes. What does this mean for schools? Well, since schools are funding by tax dollars, if the residents cannot afford them, there is not enough money for the schools to make the changes that they need to make or even have a general upkeep on the school. To allow education to change would mean that higher paying jobs need to be available to families so they can pay taxes to have their child attend a school that can keep up with the educational changes. Poor families must not be sectioned off to one part of a town. Everyone must mingle together and diversity must exist. While I do think the achievement gap plays a role in this situation, I think that the educational debt plays just as much of a role in the divide in education.

Now to begin thinking about myself, what am I going to do with this information or how will I react to it in the classroom? A quote stuck out to me as I read chapter 2 that I thought about as I kept reading. The quote reads, “In other words, culturally relevant pedagogy seeks not to merely provide knowledge as some fixed entity, but to also reconstruct knowledge in order to serve the needs of students” (Winn and Johnson 14). I think this statement can be interpreted in a couple of different

ways. First off, what knowledge you as a teacher have may not always work. That knowledge may need to be shifted in order to meet the knowledge of your students and to figure out what they need to be successful. It is always a learning process and while perfection cannot necessarily be achieved, always reaching for the best and improving can be achieved. My thoughts also shifted to thinking about myself and the inside work I am doing. How can I keep pushing to reconstruct my own knowledge? Immersing myself in all that I can in terms of this content whether it be reading, videos, etc. will help and guide me while I continue to work on myself.

In Stockman and Gray chapter 6, I thought about how these hacks could help students who feel that they are not seen or heard in the classroom maybe because of their race, gender, or for another reason. This quote comes from the paragraph discussing how compassionate classrooms are helpful; “Here, their histories make them strong, the challenges they face deepen their expertise, and their wounds become wisdom” (99). The last few words of the sentence “wounds become wisdom” stick out to me. It is a powerful saying and when I began to think about it, I felt how true it could be for students. The bad memories they hold can become useful to them as what they have been through has taught them how to come out strong and be a better person. I think it is important to note how students are reacting to the content and the way it is being delivered in the classroom. If something is not working, as a teacher you must find an approach that better fits the students. I may have what I think is a great idea in my head and it could go the total opposite in the classroom. I think it is important to be open to changing your lesson at any time to meet the needs of the class. It is crucial that we get to know what our students need in the classroom to be successful and feel that they are an important member of the room. 

Cultural Relevance in the Classroom

IF ONLY AMERICANS WERE NURTURED IN ANTIRACIST IDEAS, THEN AMERICANS WOULD LOVE.

I chose to start with this quote from "The Book that Made Me: Learn How to Love". It stuck out to me as I read the article and allowed me to think of the word love in a different way. If we think of love in terms of being nurturing and caring, than it is true that Americans surely do not know how to love all humans. I found myself in such agreement with Ibram Kendi while reading his article. I stopped and thought after I read this article; how am I going to teach my students how to love all humans? How do I teach them to be antiracist if they come from a life that believes otherwise? That is a big and frightening job. I think by simply doing the best we can as teachers and leading a classroom that has antiracist ideas is perhaps one solution. My heart hearts for those who do not feel comfortable in our society while there are others who feel so comfortable and high-ranking that they show racism towards others. 

Ibram Kendi appeared on Good Morning America a few months ago after the El Paso Texas shooting to discuss his solution to racism in America. I think it is helpful to not only read about these important issues but to also be able to watch speakers as they do interviews to voice their important thoughts on problems in the world today. In the video, Kendi discusses more on his belief that racism is a “temporary identity” based on the actions of a person. I think that this allows room for the idea that people can change and be better people. By naming them as someone who is permanently racist forever, they are more apt to never be willing to change their thoughts and opinions. I am interested as to what others think about this as well as any other thoughts you have after viewing this video. While it is only five minutes, Kendi brings up some good points from a book that he wrote during the interview.

         As a future teacher, it is important to take note of the methods that are offered in chapter 1 on how to be culturally proactive in the classroom. The ideas are being offered and it is important to immerse in these ideas that could be taken into a classroom now or to a future classroom. An important aspect of building community in a classroom is to make the learning relevant to all students. As a white middle class future educator, I must be mindful of who my students may be and how I can best relate to them and make them feel as though their race and culture is valued in my classroom. One suggestion that I took note of is to select texts from multiple different authors so that all of my texts do not have white authors who are prosperous to our society. I would like to note that these authors are important to share with students however, bringing in different authors offers that range of diversity that the classroom needs. I struggle to say whether I am in favor of the method on having students write about their life experiences and identities as a way of being culturally proactive. Some students could be weary of reliving past experiences and therefore I may eliminate that aspect and use the identity writing only.

         In conclusion, at the end of chapter 1, a specific statement stuck out to me that I would like to share. Bob Fecho states in the conclusion that, “Rather than see it as a state of being you will eventually achieve, recognize that it is a process of becoming” (30). Times change and this means that we as educators must change as well. There is no such thing as achieving perfection and staying in that one space, but we can continuously work towards improvement.