To me, this standard says that the teacher should understand the social, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds of his or her students to create a classroom that is equal for all and to have a curriculum that highlights diversity and is relevant to all students.
I had certain provocative questions that came to my mind after I read this standard. One such question that I had that related to the previous set of standards was, "Does an equitable classroom only come with time, given that it takes time to gather information about the social, linguistic, and cultural diversities of each of our students?" Additionally, a question that I had specifically related to linguistic diversity is "how would I support a student who might not speak any English in a future classroom?" I have not had a student like this, but this is a very big concern of mine. I am afraid that I will not be given adequate support myself to help such a student succeed. However, regarding linguistic diversity, I would be happy, if not obligated, to give this student assignments and assessments in his or her native language and permit their responses to be in that language--an implementation stressed by both Catherine Brown and Ryan Leonard.
For the most part, I believe that I created a culturally responsive classroom by means of interpreting content that is relevant to their lives and their social and cultural assets. Frequently as a economics teacher, I used students knowledge of pop culture and their experiences as consumers (as well as sometimes producers) to drive certain economic lessons and concepts. I have done so in the aforementioned example of the circular flow model, as well as discussions on supply and demand, minimum wage, quality of life, unemployment, and personal finance.
With respect to linguistic equitable treatment, I have done so when I have prepared reading assignments for the students--which you may now understand makes up a large portion of the students' classroom experience in my class. In order to help all learners with such reading tasks, I typically find articles that are current and that the students will likely have some sort of interest in. At the same time I support all levels of readers, from those who struggle to those who are gifted, by editing the articles down and highlighting portions that are necessary for comprehension of the big idea. Finally, my reading assignments also include guided questions that gauge the student's understanding via a variety of opinionated, analytical, and comprehension questions.
In all honesty, I don't know how I will achieve this standard in future years, particularly its "social, linguistic, and cultural diversity" component, as it depends on the diversity of the class that I teach. My classmate, Rebecca Dotterweich, shared a similar concern that I have related to the future diversity, or lack thereof, of my class by posing such questions as, "What if your class isn't diverse?" and "How then, do you create diversity?" I'm not sure how to answer the first question, but in response to second question, I would say that teachers create diversity in the classroom, by having a curriculum that highlights diversity. While ideally, I would want to highlight the diverse experiences of my students, I will nevertheless include the diversity of other individuals whose narratives have been silenced historically. Narratives and experiences lived by people of color, members of the LGBTQIA community, and individuals with disabilities may not represent the "diversity" or the personal experiences of the class that I teach, but that does not mean that these voices should not be in the curriculum. No, in order to have a culturally responsive classroom, all narratives, or nearly all, must be present, even if they originate outside of the classroom.
This standard clearly resonates with aspects of my rationale, specifically creating a culturally responsive classroom and the creation of a curriculum that highlights the diversity of all learners. In my rationale, I clearly state that the local, state, and federal standards that I am mandated to teach often lack complexity and the inclusion of multiple perspectives. Therefore, I conclude that the content that I interpret and the curriculum that I create must be inclusive and represent the diversity of all learners, and should include, but not be limited to, the lived experiences of males and females from all races and cultures, members of the LGBTQIA community, and individuals with disabilities. As a part of making the classroom culturally responsive, the teacher must also strive to make the content, curriculum, and learning experience relevant and meaningful for the students. The teacher does this by infusing the personal experiences of his or her students into the curriculum and by facilitating inquiry around issues that are current and meaningful for the students and their lives.
This standard says the following in my own words: The teacher will practice acceptable classroom management to ensure that students learn and are safe in your classroom. Classroom management should also enable the students and teacher to engage in collaboration, respect, and support for one another, while advancing towards collaborative decisions for the entire class.
One provocative question that I had in relation to this standard was in the meaning of the word "safety" as it is understood in this standard. I think the obvious meaning for safety is to ensure that students are physically safe in your classroom, as the classroom is laid out in a manner in which students can move around easily, or the teacher prevents students from handling certain harmful classroom equipment. However, I think the less obvious, but I would contend more important interpretation of the word safety is, are student psychologically safe in the classroom? While it is clear that students' bodies should feel safe in the teacher's classroom, they should also feel safe from derogatory statements or having their opinions rejected or challenged. That is unless challenges are evidence-based and done so to understand the complexity of the issue on a more deeper level.
Another important question that I had regarding this standard was, where is the line drawn or the balance between effective classroom management and respectful classroom management? I recognize that certain methods of grabbing the attention of the class can be effective, as in whistling or shushing, but do such ways demonstrate respect or help facilitate democratic learning? Ultimately, I would say no, but what then are strategies that are both effective and respectful?
Overall, I think I have practiced sufficient classroom management techniques this semester. For example, I have been told by both my field instructor and mentor teacher that I have a good teacher presence in the classroom and can efficiently reconvene the classroom when required by maintaining a clear and strong voice. Something else that I feel that I have done this semester that I feel that has helped create an environment has been my movement around the classroom. Whenever I am presenting in a mini-lesson or facilitating discussion or independent work, I habitually walk around to all points of the room to ensure that students are on-task and listening to either their classmates or to me. In a survey that I gave out to the students, they also said that I had great movement around the class to make sure that everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing or to help if someone were confused.
In demonstrating understanding for students' psychological safety and creation of democratic learning communities, I have made my expectations clear when I have asked the students to engage in debates or discussions. I have done so by stating that opposing statements must be cordially vocalized and must only arise if their is evidence that contradicts the statement. I have also tried to stress that only one person may speak at a time during open discussions.
In the future, regarding classroom management and shared decision making, I would like to develop some sort of class contract at the beginning of the semester. In doing so, students will have an active role in the class' decisions from the onset of the semester. With me, students will form a contract that describes their rights as students in the class, while also the responsibilities they have as students in order to secure and retain their proposed rights. One of my peers, Patrick Williams, also emphasized this important device of classroom management; however, he confirmed that in order for the implementation to be effective, the teacher needs to have strict consequences for breakages of the contract, and that the consequences must be followed through with.
In addition to the aforementioned implementation, I would like to also find unique and respectful ways of getting students' attentions. I have not really had too much of a problem doing so this semester, as my voice is loud and clear enough to call the students to reconvene; however, I would like to try other methods. I was intrigued by how some of my fellow student teachers got their students' attentions. For example, Patrick Williams used a electronic doorbell to get his students back on task or to listen for instruction. While this is clearly a unique tool for classroom management I am skeptical about its usage in classes where teenagers are the learners. What I would really like is a method that is done school-wide so that students understand its implications. Such a method was demonstrated by my cooperating teacher from last semester at Clarke Middle School: Sean Simpson. Clarke Middle School had a system where the teacher would remain still and silent but with his or her arm extended in the air to get the attention of students.
In relation to my overall rationale for teaching, this standard relates to my understanding that all students need to feel "safe" in my classroom. How I define "safe" in this instance is that students must feel psychologically safe and should understand that their thoughts, suggestions, and personal experiences will be welcomed in the class. Their perspectives on controversial inquiry topics will not be rejected nor silenced by any classmate. The student's sense of psychological safety is dependent on the creation of safe spaces, where rebuttals are only allowed if they contain reliable evidence as support and are cordially articulated. Thus, challenges to student's thoughts will not be welcome if they are only emotionally driven or baseless.
Additionally, Todd Dinkelman offered a compelling statement related to this standard, that is also connected to my rationale. He conveyed that classroom management disappears and loses its necessity when students are demonstrating active student engagement, and when lessons are well-planned to facilitate this result. I would also add that the in order for students to be actively engaged, and thus, not need the parameters of classroom management, then the students need to have some sort of genuine desire to engage in learning. Therefore, students need to be offered challenging learning experiences, where they can analyze, interpret, and offer solutions to complex and relevant issues.
What this standard says to me is that as a teacher I need to provide scaffolded classroom activities, wherein students are engaged and compelled to analyze interpret, and gain other necessary skills for civic life.
Regarding questions that I have specifically related to this standard, I would like to know “how is ‘worthwhile learning’ defined?” In the same line of thinking, both Patrick Williams and Justin Dooly asked a similar provocative question that I had: “What skills are worthwhile?” Defining worthwhile learning and skills that are worthwhile is completely subjective I believe, and I think that students will have a very different answer than what I will have. However, regarding worthwhile skills, I contend that these are civic skills that the students will be able to continue to use in life after school. Specifically, students will need to be able to interpret and analyze all sorts of mediums in the surrounding world. At the same time, they should be able to develop problem solving skills and use evidence to drive solutions to contemporary issues. I would also conclude that worthwhile learning is demonstrated when students are actively engaged in the content; however, the students must feel some sort of relevance towards the content, in order for it to be worthwhile for them.
If I am interpreting worthwhile skills appropriately, within my clinical spaces, I have done organized several classroom experience where students have had to develop these skills. In several lessons this semester, I have had students interpret and analyze different forms of mediums, such as contemporary articles, political cartoons, various economic graphs, and news broadcasts, in order to understand a controversial issue more deeply. Ultimately, they used their understanding of the issue to answer complex inquiry questions and supporting themselves with evidence.
I have also witnessed active student engagement during the semester, as well. For the sake of time, however, I will only present you with one situation in which this heightened engagement occurred. During the lesson that I gave on whether or not the federal minimum wage should be raised, given its impact on small businesses and consumers, I had the students read a story, among others, about a worker living on minimum wage. In the article, the worker demonstrated that the minimum wage was not a livable wage because he had to seek out other income sources in order to pay basic living expenses. For example, the laborer had to sell plasma. Certain students were stunned by this situation and were naturally compelled to look up other instances where people had to go to extreme lengths in order to pay expenses. Based on their engagement, I would also add that worthwhile learning is also demonstrated when students actively seek out other social studies accounts by pure interest and not because they were mandated to do so.
In future practice, I would like to either initiate or develop classroom experiences that promote active student engagement and facilitate the enhancement of worthwhile skills. Regarding methods of inquiry, thus far, I have tended to focus on items such as stations, visual thinking strategies, and video analysis. However, I would like to improve my facilitation of structured academic controversies, while also implement more discussion-based methods, such as wagon wheel and silent discussions. I would also like to add more simulations and role-playing activities, which I have found typically has demonstrated a large amount of active student engagement. The previous two implementations were also stressed by two of my peers, Samantha Higginbotham and Casey Thomas. To more accurately understand what students believe is “worthwhile learning,” I would like to develop curriculum and lessons around what students want to learn about a particular subject. This idea was also emphasized by Todd Dinkelman.
This standard relates to aspects of my rationale, specifically in relation to what social studies seeks to do and connecting curriculum to the world. As I convey in my rationale, students need to be able to analyze, interpret, and make conclusions about social studies accounts and overall social issues, while at the same time using evidence to offer possible answers or solutions to the inquiry topic. I contend that all of the aforementioned skills are “worthwhile skills” because students will use them in civic life and will retain their importance in life after school. As mentioned before, worthwhile learning is more subjective and harder to define. I am still continually perplexed about what is important to know. However, I do know that important knowledge is not just confined to what mandated standards convey. Local, state, and federal standards rarely encompass all diverse perspectives on a particular subject and are rather basic with no interpretations given. Therefore, worthwhile learning involves exposing students to diverse perspectives, having students investigate complex issues, and making content relevant, and thus, interesting for students.