Blog Post Terry Meier Why Can't She Remember That?

Quotes:
For this blog entry I chose to look at three quotes from the text and then explain their relevance.

1.) "Almost 40% of the total US public school population is made up of student of color, a percentage that exceeds 80% in many metropolitan school districts (National Center for Education Statistics)."
    The importance of this quote is that it recognizes the vast diversity in our schools. As we have been discussing in class, and as we have seen through the articles we have read, diversity and culture play a huge role in community, society and conclusively in teaching. This article will further explore how diversity and culture affect literacy in schools. Children from different backgrounds have a variety of literary experiences prior to entering pubic school, and it is interesting to look at how those experiences influence the education of literacy.

2.) "Periodically she would interrupt her reading to ask questions about the illustrations or the text, the same questions she had asked during the two previous readings. At one point when the teacher asked, "How many mittens are there?" Gabriela, the bilingual Puerto Rican child sitting next to me, turned and asked me, in an exasperated tone, "Why can't she remember that?"... The teacher's likely assumption in this case was that Gabriela did not know the answer to the question, possibly leading to the conclusion that she needed more simplified instruction, or perhaps more English-language vocabulary..."
     This was the part of the article that struck me the most. The first reason is because I can somewhat identify with Gabriela. While in elementary school, I can still remember now occasionally having those feelings that the teacher was asking very obvious questions, or repeating something too many times, and I can remember feeling anxious to move on. The second reason this stood out to me though was because it reminded me of the article by Robert Lake. Much like the teacher's were assuming the young Indian child, Wind Wolf, was a slow learner due to his cultural background, here Gabriela may also be assumed to be a slow learned due to her cultural response to not answer questions that have obvious answers. Due to the fact that this has been in two articles, the importance of not assuming too much about a student is really standing out to me.

3.) "Not every book used in as multilingual, multicultural classroom needs to represent people of color or incorporate linguistic diversity, but if bilingual children and children of color make up the majority of the class, then the majority of books used in the class could reflect that fact."
     I chose this quote because it goes along with some of the points made by McIntosh in White Privilege. Not all children have equal access to books with characters of their same race. In many diverse classrooms I have been in, there are usually a few books with minority characters in them, with the majority of the books having white characters. As pointed out in the quote, however, the ratio of books with colored characters should be equal to the real life diversity.

When looking for a hyperlink to include, I "googled" multicultural books for children and was overwhelmed with the wealth of books available. There were so many books that seemed so interesting and would be welcome in any future classroom of mine. I decided to include a few websites that had some of those books on them.

http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=42
http://flavorwire.com/400364/10-great-multicultural-childrens-books
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3721.Best_Multicultural_Books_for_Children

Talking points in class:
In class I would bring up a few things:
- others experiences with multicultural books (if they had them available in elementary school)
-other ways to teach reading behavior/ make stories come alive other than those described in the article
-other ways to make children fall in love with books

The Silenced Dialogue Blog Post #2

The Silenced Dialogue:
Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children
By: Lisa Delpit

Think Piece

     There were many parts of this article that stood out to me. First and foremost was just the concept of silenced dialogue. This is a term I was never familiar with, and had never actually recognized in my everyday life. After reading this article, however, I realize how strong of an impact it has on people of color, and I additionally realize what I can hopefully improve upon in my life and future classroom to prevent silenced dialogue.
     Another part of the article that really stood out to me was when Delpit talked about the different ways that black teachers/parents talk to children compared to the way white teachers/parents talk to children. The degree of authoritarianism that the adults used and the everlasting affect it has on students was mind boggling! To think that a black student who is used to a strict mother, then goes to school and has a difficulty responding to a teacher's rules, and consequently is put into remedial, behavioral or special education classes is a huge issue. That is probably what I take most away from this article, is that as a future teacher one of the most important things to keep in mind is the way in which you talk to students.

    As also expressed in the Robert Lake article, and by Delpit, things like the way students are used to being talked to are all influenced by their culture. And because this "power culture" so many of us are used to is dominating schools, this is why many very capable students can not reach their full potential. Connecting the piece by Lake and Delpit, I found an article about young students celebrating their Native American culture http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/living/cnnphotos-red-road-native-americans/.
     Martha Demientieff's work with her Native Alaskan students was also discussed in my Educational Psychology Class last year. The concept of teaching students how to speak in their Native Language and then also teaching them the formal way to speak is an interesting one. It reminds me of teachers in some high ESL schools who teach the students in both English and Spanish. This serves two purposes; being bilingual helps students learn to read and write in both languages better and quicker, and being bilingual is also a skill and asset in the real world. Being multicultural and teaching students that there is one societally accepted way of doing things and then millions of other more interesting and probably better ways of doing things is a good way to go.

     Points to discuss in class:
Including points made by both Lake and Delpit, what are some ways that teachers can make it easier for students of different cultures better able to learn in.an "American" classroom. As the USA becomes more and more diverse, should the makeup of a traditional classroom be changed all together? Or are there other ways that we can make children who have skills, assets, and knowledge from other cultures more welcome and better able to reach their potential in the traditional classroom?

blog post #1 peggy mcintosh

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Peggy McIntosh
Think Piece



Similar to the author, Peggy McIntosh, I had never really given much thought to my skin color giving me "white privilege". I think the way McIntosh describes white privilege as " an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebook, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks". It is good that McIntosh also notes that just because white people benefit from white privilege, does not make them oppressors. Many are not aware they are privileged; once they become aware they are privileged however, and do nothing to lessen or end white privilege, then we become oppressors. I think that all of the effects McIntosh listed can be found in everyday life, and most I can say I have experienced myself. A few that stood out to me were: #9 That you can go into a music shop, a supermarket or a hairdresser and find other people of your race or culture represented, #26 about makeup and bandages matching my skin color (this is something that I was never aware of, but now that it has been made aware, I can look back and see how true it is), and constant throughout many of McIntosh's effects was that everyday accomplishments or actions are not attributed to being "white".
It is important also that McIntosh mentions that just being aware of these privileges and the systems in place, or even further not liking them, will still not change the normalcy that has become of them. McIntosh offers one solution, that the ignorance most people have about the access to the real "American Dream" and how most people feel racism has ended simply because we have improved since the Civil Rights Movement, is the biggest problem that we face, and that informing the oblivious whites who have earned this advantage and conferred dominance is very important.
I think more solutions can be offered to this problem. What other ways can we change our American society so that all 26 of McIntosh's daily effects no longer exist? What ways can we educate people on white privilege, unearned advantage and conferred dominance? How can we teach people to walk in another's shoe?

http://www.tolerance.org/article/racism-and-white-privilege

This is a picture of a children's textbook, and as McIntosh states, the history of American civilization is pictured as being of all whites.

**Housekeeping Note- the first blog post I did was with the reading for next week, this is the REAL blog post one, which should have been published last night, but I published the other one last night instead by mistake**

Blog Post #1 An Indian Father's Plea

Robert Lake
An Indian Father's Plea



The picture is of the baby basket that Wind-Wolf was placed in where he learned much of his priceless cultural knowledge.

Think Piece:
 I think that this piece written by Robert Lake is of importance to all teachers. While this piece talks specifically about the troubles Native American students face in schools, it can also be applied to all diversity groups. Lake is attempting to make the teacher realize something very important; that knowledge can not be defined, while some define knowledge as being able to add 3+7 quickly, others define knowledge as being able to "count more than 40 different kinds of birds" (Lake 157).
And consequently, the knowledge that every student comes into a classroom with is based upon a variety of outer effects, one of which is culture. Lake is trying to make teachers understand that simply because one student's culture, and knowledge from that culture, does not meet the knowledge and culture of his new learning environment, does not de-value the student, nor his knowledge.
What is worse than not accepting other's knowledge, values, and culture is looking down upon them because of it. The other students who were bullying Wind-Wolf were at just as much fault as the teacher is for not accepting Wind-Wolf's talent. Discriminating against someone for their differences instead of appreciating their worldliness is such a crime, and it is even more saddening when it is beginning at such a young age. I worked at a Polis Deli all throughout high school, and the family was first generation immigrants to the US. The owner's son, a second generation citizen, had grown up speaking Polish, eating Polish food, going to Polish culture classes on Saturdays and attending special Polish events at the cultural center. When he was 6 and 7 years old, he had no problem speaking in Polish or English, was proud of his culture and loved to eat pierogi's and kielbasa sandwiches (traditional Polish dishes). Now, upon entering a new school with all American cultured students, he rarely speaks in Polish and much prefers English, he no longer eats Polish food and much prefers chicken nuggets and always asks to skip Polish school on Saturday. When asked why he like to be like his classmates, he says it is because his friends used to say he talked funny, and that the food he ate was gross, and always wanted to play on Saturdays and he could never go. This seems exactly like the type of thing that is happening to Wind-Wolf in this piece.
Instead of people, especially children, discriminating against others for their differences, we should be intrigued by other cultures and celebrate those differences, because without them, the world would be a very boring place.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/living/cnnphotos-red-road-native-americans/