SL Blog 5, Prompt #4

When I am a teacher, I realize that my personal history and sociocultural characteristics will effect my students. I grew up in a school system that ranks well above other Rhode Island schools in performance of math, reading, and writing. Scituate Elementary school ranks proficient with distinction. According to 476 students at Scituate High School, only 5% of students get free lunch, and 84% of students report their ethnicity to be White. (http://www.infoworks.uri.edu/)

Unfortunately, I never experienced going to a diverse High School, and never experienced what it was like to live in poverty or struggle in school. This is similar to Peggy McIntosh's opinion on her schooling, "My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture." All of these sociocultural characteristics (White & Upper-class) will challenge me as a teacher in my classroom. I will never be able to relate to my students on what it is like to have sociocultural characteristics affect me negatively. Johnson wrote, "Being able to command the attention of lower-status individuals without having to give it in return is a key aspect of privilege." As a teacher, I will have power over my classroom that will have lower-status students in it, even if I have never experienced what it is like to be lower-class. However, I realize that I have privilege, and therefore I will give respect and the power of privilege to my students. Until now, I have never learned about diverse students and their learning abilities. Although I would rather have personal experience to back up what I have learned, I am glad that I am learning how to be a culturally competent teacher now.

While sociocultural characteristics may effect me negatively in my quest to become a culturally competent teacher, my personal history will give me an advantage in the classroom. I do not fit into SCWAMP when pertaining to religion, and I grew up in a school system that was sheltered from individuals who do not fit into SCWAMP. Therefore, I know what it feels like to not have privilege, and I can relate this experience to my classroom. I will recognize that personal characteristics affect how a child learns and I will treat all students equally, no matter their personal history or sociocultural characteristics.

During my visits to my SL Elementary School, I have been confronted with many things I am not used to. Edmund W. Flynn had an ethnicity of only 8% White students, and 85% of students receive free school lunches. Compared to the ethnicity and poverty level that I grew up in, these statistics are very different. I have also been confronted about different misconceptions that I have held about diverse cultural groups. Edmund W. Flynn educates many students that live below the poverty level. I always thought that those who have nothing would be unwilling to give up what they have worked so hard for. This was proven wrong however when the students in my classroom wanted pizza for a Friday afternoon snack. A little girl in my classroom offered to pay for the class to have pizza out of her allowance. She has nothing and she offered to help her classmates have pizza.

I have learned so much from these students and their culture, and although I know that my sociocultural characteristics may affect me, I am determined to be a culturally competent teacher. Delpit writes, "The answer is to accept students but also to take responsibility to teach them." As a culturally competent teacher, I will accept my students' sociocultural characteristics and take the responsibility to teach them.

SL Blog 4, Prompt #3

My SL teacher is very culturally competent because she assesses her students with the knowledge of the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics that each child has. On my 3rd visit to Edmund W. Flynn, the students were being tested on basic Geometry skills such as angles, polygons, and rays. The teacher gave them a test taken out of a textbook because she wanted to see how well the students would do.

As a side note:
The ethnicity of her classroom is African American, and this ethnicity makes up 22 % of the entire school. (www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu) The children also come from poor families, 85% of the students at Edmund W. Flynn receive free school lunches. (www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu) Lastly, only 62% of the children speak predominately English at home. (www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu)

With these statistics in mind:
The book in which the Geometry test was taken out of was made be White, upper class, English speaking individuals. Therefore, the teacher realized that this test would be unfair to asses her students on. The way that the math lesson was taught in the text book was very different from the way the lesson was taught in this culturally diverse classroom. The children cannot relate to a test that is not similar to their personal ethnicity's and language. Most of the children had trouble reading the large, "fancy" English words given in the directions of the exam. This is similar to Delpit's theory in The Silenced Dialogue. She claims that students cannot learn, never mind be tested on a curriculum made by individuals who are unfamiliar with the student's culture, and has never experienced the student's level of privilege. She also writes, "In this country, students will be judged on their product regardless of the process they utilized to achieve it " (38). Delpit is saying that students will always be judged on their test scores, no matter the underlying circumstances that may affect their scores. The judges don't care how or why the scores were achieved, they only care about the way the scores compare to set standards. Therefore, teachers of underprivileged students must realize that they need to accomplish their student's best product. Most of the time, the set curriculum is a curriculum that these underprivileged students cannot learn from, which is something to be concerned about. Therefore, it is the teachers' job to create tests that will result in an acceptable product for their students.

Back to my experience:
After the test is given and the result is struggling children, the teacher announces that she will not be grading this test. Instead, they will be reviewing it together. The students are relieved because they felt overwhelmed by this test that was arguably different then what they had learned.
The teacher tells me that she never assesses her students from the tests given in books because there is no comparison in the curriculum's'. Instead, she assesses her students based on their hard work, participation, and sometimes tests that she personally makes. These tests match the curriculum and learning abilities of her culturally diverse classroom. Delpit would love what my SL teacher is doing because she states, "The answer is to accept students but also to take responsibility to teach them" (38). My teacher not only accepts her student's sociocultural differences but she also chooses to teach and asses them according to these differences.
My teacher also mentions that Edmund W. Flynn is aware of how she assesses her students. They agree that the tests given in such textbooks are unfairly made for their school that has underprivileged students because of their ethnicity, language, and sociocultural characteristics.

In my opinion, this 4th grade teacher is extremely responsive to her student's sociocultural characteristics. This is not only because of the way she assesses her students, but also the way that she specializes her lessons so that her students can be successful. Without specializing and adjusting her lesson plans, her students would become extremely unsuccessful due to their learning disabilities that are present because of sociocultural differences. These characteristics include differences such as income level, and the parent's educational level, among other characteristics that effect a child's learning. I think she is doing a great job teaching these students and using her power appropriately. Delpit is very specific about issues of power enacted in a classroom. She writes, "The power of the teacher over the students; [and] the power of the publishers of textbooks and of the developers of the curriculum to determine the view of the world presented... determine another's intelligence or "normalcy." "(25).
My SL teacher has the power over her classroom and uses it to help her students learn in a way that is successful for them. She chooses to asses her students based on important factors such as hard work and participation because this is the way that her children learn. Teachers have so much power over their students. They influence their students in every academic way possible by choosing what view of the world to present. Therefore, it is obvious that this 4th grade teacher uses her power to achieve the most imperative goal: that her students learn. She does this by being a culturally competent teacher. Also according to Delpit, the authors of textbooks have power over students (seen in my experience at Edmund W. Flynn). I am just glad that my teacher realizes that this power present in the curriculum of the textbook is not always useful to underprivileged students. She chooses to use her power to create lessons that are responsive to the ethnicity, linguistic, and sociocultural characteristics of her students.