Updated: CRT in the ELA classroom

                                                

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!

Teaching More Than Just Skills

1.Muhammad's critique of the education system is that we as educators must teach children more than just skills.  We must include all of our children in the curriculum.  We must be be more ""Historically Responsive".  She claims that skills are indeed important but they are not the only goal when it comes to teaching ELA.  Muhammad explains how there are standards or pursuit that must be met in order to be a successful educator: she list four, identity, skill development, intellectualism, and criticality. 

Gonzales asked Muhammad,"Why do you think the efforts that they have made to this point have not been successful?".

Muhammad then response,"They haven’t been successful because the efforts, the systems, the structures, the standards, the curriculum, the teacher evaluation, the assessments were never designed fully with black and brown students in mind. When you have something that was never designed for you, that wasn’t designed for your body to fit it, your spirit, your history. It wasn’t designed for your identities, it’s not going to fit".

Muhammad claims students of color do not do well on class because the curriculum is not written for them and so "it is not going to fit", instead what we should do is use her four "pursuits" in order to include our children of color into the curriculum.

2.

• Identity:  Children can write about who they are using a narrative/poem/ short story.
• Skill development: Children can apply the knowledge in skill they already know to any assignment given.
• Intellectualism: Children must be treated as scholars, they must be able to dig deeper into their knowledge.  When they make a point they must be able to back up that point with facts and discussions.
• Critically: Children are thinking in active ways.  Students would be able to read a text and read in between the lines and understand the bigger picture.

 

History is our Present

 This was a very interesting film to watch.  Baldwin had a quote in the film that stood out to me, "Not all white people were devils and I did not want young black people to believe that". I found it interesting that Baldwin made it very clear that he was not angry at ALL white people.  He even gave the example of the teacher he really liked and she was white.  Baldwin talked about the white teacher ,who when he was 10 years old took him out on fields trips and taught him everything he needed to know as a schoolboy.  Perhaps Baldwin having this positive experience changed his view. Baldwin had every right to believe otherwise after witnessing all he has been through, but yet he didn't want the black youth to walk around with hate inside of them. 

As a future ELA teacher I think it is important to teach our young adults that not everyone is bad and that hate does not fix anything.  Yes, we have to teach them about Black History and discuss all if the horrible things that did happen, but we must also give them the tools to fight for their rights and for their voices to be heard without being filled with anger and hurt. We must turn all that hate, if there is any, and turn it into a passion so that they can fight for what is right.  Like Baldwin said, "not all white people are the devil", so we cannot have our youth walking around with all this hate inside of them. I l really like how Baldwin wants better for the youth.

I think Baldwin's implications for ELA teachers is that we have the power to teach our students of everything people in the past have fought for in order for us to be her in this school learning.  Like Baldwin himself said in the film,  "history is not the past it is out present.  We carry our history with us.  We are our history, if we pretend otherwise we literally are criminals".  As ELA teachers we can keep history present in our classrooms by introducing more black authors into the curriculum, doing research papers, and reading the speeches of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King.  This will be both educational for our white and black students and hopefully the future will be a much nicer place for all of us to live in peacefully.

Medgar Evers Malcolm X

 Martin Luther King Jr.

Providence Students Deserve Better

I would like to begin by saying that what Marge Well's students have to live through in their day to day is so sad and heartbreaking.  No child should have to worry about their home getting knocked down, not having enough trees, or having to be quiet for the neighbors.  We cannot expect children to focus and learn in school with these kinds of issues going on in their personal lives.

If I were to do a project like this in my classroom the place I would choose to focus on would be Providence.  In the school year of 2020-2021 I worked as a long term substitute teacher in a private non-profit,behavioral, special education school in Providence where I got to see first hand all of the disadvantages these families and students had to go through.  Many of the students that I got to work with came from low income families and single parent homes. Some students had no parents at all, their caregivers were grandparents or other family members.  In addition, many families struggled speaking English and therefore were not able to take full advantage of the resources being offered to them and their children.  These were some of the social issues my former students had to deal with.  I am sure this is the case for many other students in other Providence schools.

Like Marge Wells, I would have my students express what their concerns about their community are.  I would have my students make a list  and then share with the class.  We would then have a discussion and we would see if other classmates have common concerns with the community.  As a class we would then come up with ways to address these concerns.  For example, one concern may be the school building is old and it is deteriorating (Dysfunctional Providence).  We would then find who is the responsible person or people.  I would help my students gather all of the information needed for them to demand a change in their school. Perhaps by being an allied and joining them in a protest. This is very important because we as educators cannot expect our students to be able to learn in a building that is full of mold, has broken chairs, old books, bathroom with brown water, and the list goes on.  Basic needs need to be met before we can expect our children to learn and grow.                                        

                                             Mold in the vents  Old text books

https://upriseri.com/providence-teachers-and-allies-march-against-failed-state-takeover-of-providence-schools/