Before I came to the United States, I had little exposure to learning about race. Almost every time I heard about it, it's when I was watching a movie or a documentary. However, by weekly readings and classroom interactions these weeks, I found that “race” is an issue that cannot be overlooked in American society because it is a vitally important factor that affects many other issues, especially education. These weeks we talked about race a lot and I got a deeper understanding about it.
The readings for this week mainly focus on the literacy practices among minorities, especially African American male adolescent. Alfred Tatum described African American adolescent as being in “crisis” that although they have an urgent need of literacy and life outcomes, they suffered from inequality and even being overlooked.
I would highly agree that “…a very high level of preparation of reading, writing, speaking, mathematics science, literature, history, and the arts will be an indispensable foundation for everything that comes after for most members of the workforce.” (National Center on Education and the Economy, 2006) Unfortunately, Black adolescents always being marginalized and isolated as a result of the stereotypes of people, so it is much more difficult for those adolescent to get a better job than their White peers. In addition, what impressed me most was Derrick’s response to literary practices that mentioned in Kirkland’s article. “Derrick enjoyed reading texts from genres along the lines of his particular worldviews and responsive to his internal and external self.” (p.203) Derrick is a Black teenager who describes reading as brainwashing. From my point of view, adolescent prefers to read what is relevant and fun. In other words, they want to get a sense of engagement rather than read the boring and irrelevant texts which they may think are not useful for constructing subjectivity, a sense of self and possibilities for action.
Some of the African American students reluctant to read because it was not relevant to him. This made me remind a philosopher in China-Confucius-who advocated that “educate students in accordance with their aptitude.” Indeed, in a classroom, especially a multi-ethnic classroom, we should figure out the teaching method which could be accepted for all the students. A school is a place where we, as educators, provide students with foundational knowledge that prepares them for opportunities to engage in society. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate every student. For students who don't want to read, educators should let them know why they must practice reading and give timely guidance in order to improve their literacy rather than treat those students differently.
A school should be a safe place of intellectual, and literacy development has to be conceptualized and addresses the needs of all adolescents. Thus, educators must have their own method to advance the literacy development of both the poorest and the most privileged adolescent. To what extent do you agree with me? And do you have any special method to deal with the problem if some student reluctance to read in your class?
Hi Chelsea!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. It's really valuable to hear the perspective of someone who's new to the US and its education system.
Your bringing up Confucius is an excellent way to advance the discussion from this week's readings. My knowledge of Confucius isn't great, so please anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't a major component of his educational philosophy the idea of learning about the world as a form of self-realization? This ties in with the themes from this week about the importance of the individual in cultural modeling, and helping students connect with texts in a way that feels meaningful and worthy to them.
Sorry for replying late, robin! Thank you for your comment!
DeleteConfucius has a wide range of ideas about his educational philoslphy, and indeed, self-realization is a key component of his idea, but "teaching according to student's aptitude" also has a tremendous impact on Chinese education history. I think they are just different demensions.
Thanks for sharing, Wangeng. I 'm agree with you that classroom should be a safe place for students not only study but also can share their emotions. And I think what teachers should do is to teach students knowledge and care for their. I want students can regard teacher as someone that they can trust not fear to talk. I think this situation happens a lot in China. And I hope we can do the effort together make students can feel safe in our classroom when we back to China and become a teacher.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Na!
DeleteIndeed, Chinese education has some weaknesses to some extent. So I would say let's make efforts to devote ourself to this issues and try to figure out more useful teaching strategies and methods in America!
Thank you for your post; I found it really interesting! I especially like when you quote Confucius, who said that we should, "educate students in accordance with their aptitude." In the context of the classroom, this means our teaching methods and texts need to be conducive to the interests and reading levels of all students in our classroom, regardless of their ethnicity or academic level. Also, as you've stated, it is important for readers to be engaged in the content that they are reading, and one way that students find this path is by relating the text to themselves. This is why it is important to find relevant texts that students are likely to find interesting, but will also learn from.
ReplyDeleteI hope this isn't too idealistic, though. For example, what if, as an English teacher, the school requires that you have students read Shakespeare? It is likely that at least some students won't be engaged when reading this book (I know I wasn't...). So, what do we do as teachers if we have to teach this and assign this as a text for students to read? You also ask this question in your post, asking that if we have any special methods to deal with student reluctance to read, and I honestly could not offer a solution to that; it is something that I'm still grappling with.
Thank you for your comment, Reina!
DeleteI think we could use some special and interesting texts to make an introduction about Shakespeare first, and this may be a good way to give prior knowledge to students and they may be more interested in reading it. Do you agree with me?
Hi Wangeng. I agree with you that “educate students in accordance with their aptitude”, because the background and prior knowledge of students are variation. To answer your question “do you have any special method to deal with the problem if some student reluctant to read in your class ”, I think if a boy didn’t like English and reluctant to read English article, I would stimulate his interest first. For example, I would watch basketball game in English or teach him some game terms in English. Or may I would let him learn easy and just small part of an English article, and reward him if he finished.
ReplyDeleteIn literacy, context means everything. Students are not going home and read scholarly or academic texts. For many homes reading for fun is not encouraged and we see students identifying reading as a chore. Those students have that same attitude in class when we give them a reading. "It just another boring reading!" I have seen teachers say the same comments as mentioned in the Kirland reading, labeling groups of students as low readers because of their ethnic background. "He or she always puts the head down when we read and they think reading is boring". It is the teacher's responsibility to make literacy in accessible and applicable. The reading apprenticeship framework, aims to change that in the way student view reading.
ReplyDeleteSomething that my school's humanities departments focuses on is making sure our literacy approach includes elements of authenticity, autonomy, and authority. The reading has to have real word application that allows for student engage in prior knowledge acquisition. This is the ideological shift that the kirkland explains. "The ideological self is constructed in relation to an individual’s present interests and past experiences—the totality of the surrounding ideological spaces that comprise an individual’s pool of interests". The text creates independence that students can critically think about the the idea of the author, and share with others. Students are engaged in a meaningful text with metacognition, asking questions, participating in academic discourse, making connections. Students are think about the text and identifying its bigger significance. Lastly, is the authority piece students are becoming experts on this topic. There is this idea of empowerment because they have knowledge on the topic and can synthesize it with greater themes and topics that connect outside of their community.
As the the Kirkland reading menstion, the teacher is facilitating the literacy to meet the needs and abilities of the readers, and providing that all important context, that create self-expression. For example, Derick reading the Illiad, it said " his interpretation of the text suggests that he thoughtfully and critically read it, made it his own, and made sense of it by using his life and language as lenses." Starting a basic level of "self", students can build to show higher levels of thinking, and incorporating different literacy skills such as interpreting, comparing/contrasting, analysis of evidence, argumentative claim development, and synthesis.
To answer your discussion question, yes, teachers must be an advocate for all students at school and must put aside differences to support those students. I believe it starts with creating a classroom community of respect, acceptance, and empathy towards others and using topics that create engagement. With multiple intelligences for all students, the ways of student engage with a text may look different for each student!
Thanks for sharing!!!
Hey Wangeng, thank you for your sharing. You're right, American is an immigrant country and has a unique history, so the topic of race maybe common in many studies. And I agree with this idea that educate students in accordance with their aptitude. Different students have different kinds of characters and different experiences, so as a good educator, it is important to find what are the difference among different students and what are their advantages and disadvantages, then educators can help students grow better and study well. Besides, I agree with your opinion that it is necessary to integrate every student, for students who don't want to read, educators should let them know why they must practice reading and give timely guidance in order to improve their literacy rather than treat those students differently. Though each of the students are different, they may have what they are interested in, educators find a proper method , know what the students are really interested in and then let them read and write, I think it will have a better result.
ReplyDeleteHello Wangeng - thank you for your post. I really appreciated the inclusion of Confucius' belief that we should "educate students in accordance with their aptitude" because I found it highly relevant to this week's readings. My interpretation, which seems to correspond with many of our classmates, is that we are to view aptitude in an positive sense. For instance, we should examine : Which assets are our students bringing with them into the classroom and how can we use those student specific assets to enhance their individual learning experience and help them achieve their learning potential? This interpretation would align with the Cultural Modelling proposed by Lee and Tatum's Anatomically Correct model of Literacy instruction because it addresses the vital signs of readers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this philosophy in effect has been distorted by underlying prejudice and racism in our current educational system - where we educate students according to their perceived lack of aptitude.
Hi thank you for posting. I like what you said about relating the texts to the students because I agree. I think this helps create a personal relationship with learning that they wouldn't have otherwise. I also do stress the problems that others might have raised. Sometimes teachers are restricted by their districts or schools in what they can teach.
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