Rose, Ricki, Lindsay, Corine, Leslie Reading Group Discussion #2 February 17, 2012 The Dream Keepers pgs.

45-85 Rose: The teachers that were not making their lessons culturally relevant for their students really bothered me. Have you ever encountered a classroom climate like this? How can you reverse this in the classroom and therefore reverse their classroom performance? Lindsay: I think it will be more beneficial for the teacher and students if the material learned in class is culturally relevant. I have not been in a classroom where the lessons werent culturally relevant, however, I think there would be a definite increase in performance if the students are able to relate to the material. The students will want to be involved in inquiry based learning when the lessons are culturally relevant. Rose: In the book, a teacher did not notice when a student was placed into the wrong class. What kinds of records do you keep to track your students progress so that you would never miss an error like this? Lindsay: A teacher should always document any type of assessment in the classroom, whether it is formal or informal. Ricki: I think it is so important to monitor every students progress in your class. And, teachers should not depend on just formal assessments. I have learned that every aspect of a childs performance in school is important to recognize. This includes any extracurricular activities, lifestyle at home, and whether or not the parents support the childs education. It is based on all these factors that students can be placed into the appropriate classes, while being monitored as well. Rose: One thing that I have found really helpful is making line graphs to monitor progress on formal assessments. It allows students, parents, and myself to actually see student progress and what still needs to be improved. Ricki: I also agree with this book when it was mentioned how teachers are now over-relying on standardized testing scores and using them to measure students progress and achievement. Formal assessment is important, but so is informal. Not everyone will be a good test taker, and tests will not truly reflect each childs true abilities. Corine: Ricki - another point the book makes on p. 64 concerning student success and measuring their ability caught my eye - the book claims that, students who fail to look, talk, or act as the teacher does are in danger of being placed in the lowest tracks, and then these students continue a cycle of poor school performance that began with a teachers biases and predispositions toward them. I do not know how much I agree with this, due to lack of direct experiences with seeing these biases, but I think it is interesting to think about, and sad if this is truly the case. The book gives an example/memoir of a student who had this experience, and it was so disturbing to read about! Having a culturally relevant classroom definitely means that teachers cannot have biases or predispositions toward the students, as this can negatively impact the students, and from what the book describes, set the student up for a low-track schooling experience which the book describes as having less attention and individualized instruction from the teacher.

Ricki: I remembering reading about that. I believe it is just as important for students to teach each other and not have the educator do all the teaching. People learn from each other. We do not just learn from one person. Having a true and positive learning experience needs Leslie: I dont know about all of you, but I thought the teacher that talked about organization at last nights whole group seminar was helpful. She had so many different organization tips that were helpful for keeping track of all the students in her class. Everything should be documented and a teacher should keep up with everything to ensure that no students are left behind. Rose: Leslie, I totally agree! She seemed totally prepared for any questions or issues concerning things being recorded. This is so important because alot of times parents dont understand the assessments and ways that students are being graded, so it is good to be able to show proof and documentation of anything they may want clarified. Lindsay: Parent/teacher interactions are also beneficial when it comes to understanding the childs abilities. A teacher must try to understand what is going on at home might also be impacting how the child is progressing in school. Rose: I have seen so many examples of this at my school this semester. I am at a very low socio-economic transit school and my students families are constantly struggling with issues I never had to be concerned about growing up. It is clear when a family is having issues through the students behavior, so it is important to keep those issues in mind and try to stay connected with the families. Rose: What are some of the ways that you can make your classroom culturally relevant to each of your students that you learned in these chapters? What do you think is the most important thing to do? Lindsay: I think it is important to get to know your students at the beginning of they year. This way, it will be easier to incorporate different cultures and interests into each lesson. Corine: I like how the book said that, teachers with culturally relevant practices believe that all students can succeed, p. 48, and how the teacher quoted said that this doesnt mean trying to tell students that they are something they are not, but to not have the belief that some students may fail, and that all students need a starting point for success. Ricki: I totally agree with Corine, and that quote caught me as well. In order to be a successful educator, we need to believe that each child holds great potential. We have the power to release that potential and help each child succeed in his or her own way. I think success is the progress each child can make towards a goal that has been made independently. Success will be different for each child. Rose: In 415, we talked alot about having visitors come into our classroom and sharing culturally relevant information. I thought this was such a good idea because it is going to give every student the opportunity to feel welcome and involved in the classroom community. It also brings meaning to special holidays and celebrations in their culture that they might want to share with us. The rest of us will benefit from learning more about a different culture. Corine: I also liked the idea the book talked about - talking to students about their interests and the things at which they are experts (p. 57) - this gives students from different cultures the

opportunity to be the teacher and to share their knowledge and experiences with the class. This reflects respect for the experiences of the students, which I think adds to being a culturally relative classroom. Leslie: Last semester in Social Studies this was something we talked about all the time. It is so important to make learning culturally relevant for all the students. By doing that all students are engaged and want to participate. For example, in my class now I have two students that are from Korea. One of them likes to tell us about different things she used to do in school in Korea or at home. If we did not allow her to talk about those things or if she didnt feel like we were open to hearing about those things, it may tune her out to some of the lessons. Students like to share things about their own experiences and share what they know. I think by allowing all students to share things about their culture is not just beneficial for those students, but it is necessary. Rose: Leslie--that is really cool and everyone in your class is getting those genuine learning opportunities. Ricki: Not only is what Corine said great for having a culturally relativistic environment, but it allows each student to feel pride in who they are while having high self-esteem. It makes a child feel good knowing that he or she can lead the class in a lesson that really matters to them and their families. Corine: Yes Ricki! Another point the book brings up about this that I think ties into the self esteem and confidence of the students, as well as the culturally relevant classrooms - the book in Chapter 4 was discussing how the roles of the classroom teacher and the students is important to the success of the students, and when teachers endorse classrooms that are more equitable in the relations between the teacher and the students, students can be more likely and more motivated to succeed - teachers practicing culturally relevant methods understand that these typical roles can interfere with the students ability to succeed (p. 60) Ricki: The book also focused on the classroom as a whole group and community. I definitely agree that it is important to develop community and look at the class at the whole. But, do you girls feel that the group aspect of the classroom is more important than one student? Lindsay: I dont believe that one is really more important than the other. The two work hand in hand in. The individual needs of the students must be meant, as well as the needs of the entire group as a whole. The classroom will run smoothly with a balance of the two. Leslie: I agree with Lindsay. No one student is more important than another, the class is a whole is important. What is important is to figure out what each student can do, what they struggle with, and how to teach each student the best way possible. The whole class must always be thought of because you cannot teach each student individually. After teaching a whole group lesson then you can focus on the individual needs of each student as they work independently or in groups.

Rose: In my classroom, I am TOTALLY recognizing the importance of individual attention. My students are very very low, so the whole group instruction is just for opening up a lesson, but the most important part is when I can individually talk to them, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and finding a way to teach them from there. Corine: Ricki I also liked what the book said about the classroom as a whole group and community. It made me reflect on the methods that I have been using, and it made me question if I am doing this often enough. On page 74, the book says that encouraging a community of learners means helping the students work against the norm of competitive individualism, and it causes students to care about not only their own achievement, but they care about their classmates achievement as well. And yes, Ricki, I remember discussing this last week and it was interesting seeing what the book had to say about it! It really makes sense to foster a sense of community learning rather than create competition between students. Ricki: Corine, I was just about to bring up that quote. In our last group meeting, I remember competition was brought up. My high school and middle school experience was very competitive. Getting straight As in regular classes when your friends were getting straight As in their honors classes wasnt enough. It didnt compare. This book discussed the idea of eliminating competition in the classroom, and I totally agree. Success and progress should be celebrated by the individual and his or her peers. Leslie: I agree that success should be celebrated, but it will be difficult to eliminate competition. The competition is developed among students naturally and it would be hard to make students not feel the need to/not want to compete with their peers.