The class room that I am involved in has a broad range of diversity. Throughout the classroom there are many different races. They range from African American, Latinos, Hispanics, Portuguese, Caucasians, and there is one Chinese student. Overall the students present a huge cultural capital in this classroom. The different values that they believe in create a diverse range in social standing. For example, one boy that I worked with described to me how he was going to celebrate his Thanksgiving. Immediately after the boy was finished speaking another little girl from a different race and ethnicity explained the way she was going to celebrate hers; which was completely different right down to the food that her family makes.
Overall the linguistic styles that are spoken throughout the classroom are all pretty similar. However, the reading skills in the classroom are very different. Some students that speak with “slang” have outstanding scores in their reading. On the other hand, some students who speak very well are extremely low in their reading scores. I had the opportunity to work with two students who spoke very well, one of color and one who was white. However, when it came down to their reading they struggled tremendously.
We did a number of activities to improve their reading scores. At first we practiced using the Dolch flash cards. The students flew through these words. The teacher had no idea how well they knew the basic words. He was actually very surprised. Then we moved up a level and used the Dolch words but also created sentences with them. They flew through this as well. After the teacher realized these students were smarter than he thought we began to do book reading. The students would listen to me read first, and then it would be their turn. After doing this a few visits the students began to develop much better reading skills when it came down to voice expression and actually understanding what the content in the story was.
Hey Ashley
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience while helping a few students go over words. The teacher had set me up with three kids this one particular day and handed me a sheet of paper that had a about one hundred site words and asked me to go over these words with each of the students. I worked with one student at a time and they flew by the words. There were always a few words that I had to go over a few times but with constant practice they picked up on the word.
The students in this class were mostly Hispanic and African American, and there was one white student. I was helping the white student and one Hispanic and African American student. In this class all the students were treated equally even the white student. She did not have more privilege then the rest of the students, nor did the teacher expect her to know more than the other students.
This leads me to talk about the article “Our house is on fire” by Johnson. He states, “When white schoolchildren, for example, are assumed to be competent until they show otherwise while students of color are assumed to be incompetent until they prove themselves then having the benefit of the doubt becomes a form of privilege.” I feel like privilege isn’t a problem in multicultural students. Schools that are not so much diverse are more considered to have this problem because they don’t think students from other cultures know as much as they do, and are shocked when they do show they know what is going on.
In the school that I did my VIPS torturing, the teacher didn’t pre assume that the white students was going to pick up on the work quickly. The teacher gave everyone the opportunity to ask questions and ask for help. The teacher knew the white student needed help and that’s why she assigned me to work that student. There was no problem with privilege and from what Ashley says there was no problem with privilege in her class room either.
I just feel like schools that aren’t so diverse have these problems because they aren’t use to working with this environment fulfilled with students of multicultural. Because school such as in the providence school district have so many different culture, everyone should be awarded or encouraged , and not just because they prove themselves competent.
hey Ashley,
ReplyDeleteIn my VIPs experience i dealt with alot of the same issues as you. I had one group with two girls and one little boy. When i first started going there i had the alphabet cards where they would say the letter then the sound the letter makes and then they would read the word that corresponded with the picture and i was having them all do it together until one day i noticed that the little boy really was not saying anything. So after that it took a little longer but i had each of them read the cards separately a-z. I realized after doing this the little boys reading skills proceeded to get better. It is truly and amazing thing to watch and to know that you are helping this students with their future. This one student could have been one of those students who just got by with out really knowing how to read and nobody catching it. Now i know that he has improved and can possible up to the reading skills of some of the other kids in his class. What Ive read from your article you have done a similar job with your two students.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteYou begin your post by mentioning the cultural capital represented in your classroom. I enjoyed reading about the different Thanksgiving traditions. How does such diversity strengthen or challenge our democracy?
I liked your description of your modeling reading expression with your students. Nicely done.
Dr. August