During this semester we have read many articles which offer great techniques for teaching English Language Arts in urban communities/schools. We have read essays from Duncan-Andrade explaining what “gangstas, wankstas, and ridas” are. Then we learned about James Baldwin's experience as a person of color living in the United States and his views on race and education. Lastly, we learned about Muhammad’s podcast and the standards or pursuit that must be met in order to be a successful educator. What all these authors and articles have in common is that they are trying to make culturally responsive teaching more accessible for their students.
In the Duncan-Andrade article, “gangstas, wankstas, and ridas”, we learned about being a “rida” or a teacher that is willing to go above and beyond for their students. For example: moving into the community where they teach so that they can experience first hand what the students have to go through day in and day out. By moving into the community teachers will better understand what the students can relate to. This will help the classroom because the teacher can give the class meaningful assignment where the students can actually relate to. Doing this will make you a better ELA teacher and according to Andrade a "rida" which is what I aspire to be someday. In the book, "Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain" or CRT there is a chapter titled, "What's Culture Got to Do with It?". I think this chapter connects well with what Andrade was trying to explain in this article. In order to become a "rida" we must first understand the deep roots of culture like Hammond says in her book. Hammond says, "we have to focus on the roots of culture: worldview, core beliefs, and group values" (pg 25), not necessarily on the small things like holidays, and food. We have to look at the big picture and find lessons that share those worldviews and values. This is important because it will make the student feel welcomed into your class and will also make the student more interested in the lesson because they can see themselves in it.
In James Baldwin's documentary we learned about his experience as a person of color living in the United States and his views on race and education. For example, at one point Baldwin implies that ELA teachers have the power to teach students of everything people in the past have fought for, in order for us to be here in this school learning today. It is important to teacher our students about the struggles the Black community has had to endure. It is important to show our students that they are sitting in the classroom chair in order to make a difference. Our students should be told that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to and as a ELA teacher you can teach them how to use critical thinking and writing skills to make a change. We can teach in a CRT kind of way by using "The four practice areas of Culturally Responsive Teaching", which include awareness, learning partnerships, information processing, and community building. By including all of these four steps into our lesson we can do what Baldwin is saying in his documentary. Hammond says in page 20, " The achievement gap has denied undeserved students of color and English learners opportunities to develop the cognitive skills and processes that help them become independent learners". By closing this gap and making sure our minority students are getting the support they need we are helping them to want to learn and be part of a a solution in the future. We as teacher have the ability to facilitate our students to make a difference in their community or even bigger than that.
A classroom where everyone is included and where the material being presented is relatable and where the teacher is aware of this and is willing to make a change for inclusion is a culturally responsive classroom. In the future when I have my own classroom this will be my goal. By using these two CRT concepts in my future classroom and the others mentioned in Hammond's book I will have a successful classroom and a space where all my students feel heard, respected, and included. If a student can feel some of these two points I believe you will have a thriving classroom!
