Individual Reflection:

Week 3

Kaitlyn Louise Sumner

Tch_Lrn 330

Spring 2020

March 11th, 2020

Below are my notes that I want to remind myself with and my reactions from the given material:
Pang Chapter 2
This chapter had me reflecting on how I would identify myself culturally. Caucasian
American with Scandinavian descent who speaks English and eats -mainly- in a vegetarian
lifestyle. I am agnostic, pansexual, minimalist who prefers a sustainable lifestyle… pursuing as
an educator that treasures literature and see’s literacy as a gateway to understanding ourselves,
others, and empathy. I normally prefer to identify based off of my strong interest and affiliations
rather than my physical appearances and family history. From reading the chapter, it was cool to
identify between the implicit and explicit aspects of my culture.
Hammond Chapter 2 and 3
Just like from Pang, this chapter breaks down cultures into levels to be able to get an
understanding of how shallow and deep a culture may be intact to a person. So far, I do
appreciate the motives between explaining collectivism and individualism, when having to
oversimplify the cultures to connect from an origin of understanding. I believe with this view
-instead of stressing on integrating and connecting various languages, foods, clothing, etc.,- we
may use the root of our cultures to find common beliefs and values to create and build off of for
a community within our classrooms. Before beginning this semester, I had never thought of the
effects of oral and written traditions and how they may greatly affect how we process
information… as one will be a brain’s preference depending on what you grew up with. The
book states that poverty is not a culture. I fully understand but didn’t initially agree with. I grew
up poor and just found that its an automatic subculture because it was and still is the way I live.
But I also understand that being poor isn’t a choice that someone would willingly embrace as
one.
Wk2 Day1 -Had presentation/class discussion on Au 22 Focusing on Ebonics- African American
vernacular English.
A question really stood out to me during our discussion, “Do you think our society is
prejudice to other languages?” It made me really think of the history behind how Standard
English began. I can’t say that I know a lot behind the motives of its creation, but I do have an
idea. Assuming that the motives are pure, the idea behind a standardized language is to find a
commonality so that everyone may understand each other. Though now that Standard English
has the stigma of success and pursuing higher education and power, now it has been categorized
as a language that is held prestigious compared to other dialects. Now with that stigma, the
language is now used as a tool to be prejudice against other dialects.
When talking about Ebonics, I don’t believe it should be perceived as another challenge or in a
negative light. If I know my student grew up with Ebonics, this should be carried as a second
language to empower students with code-switching, so they have the power and choice to know
when they want to code-switch to empower themselves. As a teacher all I know now is that they
know and use an extra language so now it is my job to give them the tool of code switching to
empower themselves in whatever and whenever situations.
Hammond Chapter 4-6
Self-reflecting on our own cultural background to understand our biases and be able to prevent
any fight/flight actions based on those biases. “amygdala hijack”
From chapter 5, page 85, I really found it humble and refreshing to hear that teachers should find
time for the class to just have fun and socialize with no purpose other than to connect. I feel that
once I have the students in class I should begin as much learning as possible because of the
pressure of having them achieve as best as possible. But must remember to take a step back to
encourage socialization, the emotional intelligence, and continue to grow the strength of the
community in the classroom (and not just during the beginning of school during the focus of
class management).
Pg.89 – I found that I really like this passage!
“James Banks, the father of multicultural education (2002) asserts that if education is to
empower culturally and linguistically diverse students, it must be transformative. Being
transformative means helping ‘students develop the knowledge, skills, and values needed to
become social critics who can make reflective decisions and implement their decisions into
effective personal, social, political, and economic action. Empowerment also can be described as
student academic competence, self-efficacy (belief’s in one’s ability), and initiative.”
(chapter 6) I really liked the idea of creating the pact to ensure students agree to practice being
independent learners, with the support of the teacher. I had always had a type of anxiety during
specific classes in high school that I wish my teacher had made a pact with me to help me feel
more confident in making mistakes to reach my academic goal. I remember going to calculus,
almost every morning before class, to ask for help and I felt that my teacher wasn’t really my
partner in trying to help me better myself. The way he would act reminded me that I was taking
up his free time and that always made me feel discouraged.
“Your job is to find a way to bring the student into the zone of proximal development while in
that state of relaxed alertness so that he experiences the appropriate cognitive challenge that will
stimulate his neurons and help his dendrites to grow.” (p.97)
The Warm Demander (p.99). I haven’t heard of this vocabulary and I really like it and the
meaning behind it!
Wk3 Day1- We had Dr.Molly come in to talk about math and social justice.
I always love multilayered lessons, so I found her coming in was very interesting! For
example, using math for political action. For example, my group is teaching with the book
“Separate is Never Equal” basically focuses on the Mendez family’s case that also help start the
Brown v Board and will ask the students the demographics of their class’s race! Like what
percentage of white student’s vs Mexican American, etc. Then find those percentages, then read
the book, then talk about percentages of the court case and how the case has impacted the rates
of students in the Orange County.