After reading Ira Shor's Education Is Politics article I was able to communicate with my students in a way that demonstrated sensitivity and responsiveness to their sociocultural and linguistic differences by using the participatory pedagogy. Shor explains that participation is the most important place to begin because in most traditional classrooms student involvement is low and action is essential to improve knowledge and develop intelligence. During most of the tutoring sessions I had I noticed that when *Mrs. Albany was teaching the rest of the class a lesson she was the one doing most of the talking. There was very little student participation. It wasn't like when the teacher asks a question and none of the students volunteer to answer. The teacher rarely ever asked any questions at all. For the most part she just stood in the front of the classroom and lectured. I am a college student and I hate lectures so I can just imagine what it must be like for a third grade student to have to sit, stay focused, and listen to a teacher lecture for 6 hours a day. Even on the first day of my tutoring sessions my two kids barely spoke. At first I thought it was because they were shy and not used to me. Later I realized, however, that they were anything but shy and they just assumed that I was going to dictate to them just like the teacher did in class. They assumed that I would do all the talking. I was told that I had to read these "decodable" books with them, which they were not big fans of I might add and I don't blame them. But as an incentive I would tell them that if we got through the decodable book they could pick a book of their choice from the class to read. They loved that idea, but when they picked the book of their choice they handed it to me and said "here you go." "No, we are going to read together" I said in return. "But Mrs. Albany always reads to us" they said. I asked them if they ever took turns reading and they said no. So I thought to myself how are these kids supposed to improve their reading skills if the teacher only reads to them instead of with them. So with every following session I did the same thing. I had them participate by reading to me and asking any questions they might have. Also, like Shor proposed, I began each session by asking them what suggestions they might have for improving the lessons. There were times when they didn't have any suggestions. Other times they proposed new activity ideas and new books to read. As a result, this boosted their confidence and they developed a sense of accomplishment which is extremely important for any student.
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I can definitely relate to your thoughts and feelings described in this post. My classroom teacher, Mr. E.* also did not allow or encourage participation from the students as well. His teaching style and methods are also of the lecture type. Also while providing answers for the students, he rarely ever gave explanations as to why the answers were what they were. If the students are not being encouraged to participate and become active agents at such a young and developing age, how are they ever going to transform into critical thinkers? Not only did this anger me, but it also motivated me while completing my lessons with the students. Although I was not selected to be a reading buddy, I tried finding new ways for my students to speak up, ask questions, have fun, and feel comfortable in the classroom. It is extremely important that the students be involved in the course material, and we can both agree that our classroom teachers were not providing this opportunity for the students. Your connection to Ira Shor in this post makes a lot of sense and I agree with you 100%. In a post I made on my blog, which relates to your post, I made my connection to Carlson and his Democratic Multicultural Curriculum Pedagogy. I argued that the students, in a classroom setting such as this, need to become involved in discussion. Much like you discovered while working with your students, I also realized that they truly want to participate and become involved, they just need to be encouraged and given the proper opportunity. Each student has a voice and should use it. As humans, we learn from our mistakes. In classroom settings such as these, if students are unaware of mistakes they make, because proper feedback is not being given back by the teacher, how do they ever expect to learn? My favorite part of this post is when you described the beginning of your lessons. By asking the students for suggestions, it encourages them to voice their own individual opinion, which hopefully is a technique that they can carry over into all types of settings, inside and outside of the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteHey Terri
ReplyDeleteYour classroom teacher was very different from the teacher that I had in my classroom. My classroom teacher was always asking students to answer questions and read books together. I also had to read a decode able book with a few students with every visit. It was so funny because soon as they saw the teacher give me a copy of the book, they would each begin to raise their hand for me to sit by them so they could read the story to me. I don’t understand why the classroom teacher that was in your class kept reading to them if she wanted them to improve their learning. If she keeps reading to them they won’t improve their reading skills. It took a lot of patience to sit with each kid and hear them read the story over and over to me. After reading the book with the third student I had the book down. I knew the words without looking. But it was worth it to see how these students improved on their words week after week. When I first started going they were working on simple words with about four pages to a book. Each week passed and the words got a little more complex and the books got a little longer. It was really nice to see them improve with their words because I was able to see the transformation.
I believe the classroom teacher should be questioning the students and giving the students the opportunity to question what they’re learning as well. This relates to the “affirmative action pedagogy” by Boler. If students aren’t allowed to participate in the classroom how will they be able to question and analyze what they are learning? Questioning is very important, because there is no such thing as a dumb question. The classroom should be the first place where students should be comfortable and have the freedom to ask questions. If the teacher is the only voice being heard, there is no room for participation from the students and because they got use to it that’s why they expected the books to be read to them rather than for them to take the time to read it themselves. They are probably saying to themselves, why read when it’s going to be read to us.
If the teacher continues to read to them she should at least start a conversation for the students to participate in and allow them to ask questions and have them analyze the book. By not allowing them to participate and answer questions they aren’t really learning anything because they aren’t engaged in what is being taught.
Hi Teri,
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern about reading to the children rather than having them read. There is value, however, in reading to children. They hear the rhythm of the language and become familiar with the structure of books. If they memorize the text and pretend to "read" it afterwards, they will begin to make connections between sounds and symbols.
You make an important point about decodable books. They are often devoid of meaningful context. We need to do all we can to design learning experiences that engage our students.
Continue to think on these things,
Dr. August