Evans-Reflection #4

Review

            In preceding chapters, we learned how our individual cultures, as well as, our encounters with stereotyping, prejudice, and racism help to form our identities. This chapter presents another variable that can affect the way an individual’s identity is constructed. It is argued that a teacher’s attitude and perceptions of a student have a great impact on that student’s identity also. It is discussed that there are two views that a teacher may have regarding a student: the deficiency orientation and the difference orientation.

            When a teacher has a deficiency orientation about a student, he believes that the student is lacking in some area. Often, a teacher with this orientation believes that  there is one right way of teaching or knowing, and if a student is struggling, then it is assumed that there must be an outside reason such as poverty, language issues, or an unstable home life. This assumption places the “blame” for the student’s failure back on the student because he or she does not fit with the teacher’s version of “normal.” In order to be successful, the student must be the one to change.

            Teachers who have a difference orientation in regards to a struggling student realize that everyone has a different learning style in addition to outside factors that may affect how they learn. A teacher with this view finds ways to change their teaching to meet the needs of their student instead of expecting the student to be the one to change. They believe that instead of being a liability, the student’s differences can be turned into strengths and built upon.

            The chapter then goes on to discuss how teachers who are difference oriented try to examine their students’ individual learning styles and intelligences to better meet their needs. People approach learning situations in many different ways. Some like to study quietly by themselves in a library setting, while others may prefer to work in a group in an atmosphere where there is music playing or other conversations going on in the background. Over the years there have been many assessments developed to try and inventory individuals’ learning styles. A sample of four of these was presented as well as a summary of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and how they relate to learning styles.

Reflect

 It is so much easier to be the deficient teacher! Wouldn’t it be lovely if all of our students’ cultures and learning styles matched our beliefs and teaching styles? Unfortunately, this is not the case. We as teachers need to always remember this as we plan everything from our classroom environment to how we will go about teaching each and every concept to our various students. I can relate to both the deficient orientation and the different orientation.

            When I first began teaching in Gwinnett 14 years ago, I knew quite a few teachers who were firm believers in the deficient orientation. They taught one way, and if they had students who were struggling, they sought help elsewhere (ESOL, Reading Recovery, EIP, special ed.) instead of looking at what they might do differently within their own classroom. I am guilty of this myself at times, especially when it comes to student behavior.

            I now think however, that many teachers in Gwinnett (especially elementary) have changed their thinking with the push toward differentiated instruction. This type of instruction is basically the same as the theory of different orientation. I don’t know of any K-2 teachers anymore who stand at the front of the room and lecture. We’ve all been taught the importance of teaching to multiple intelligences and learning styles.

            In reflecting on my own classroom, I have areas where the whole class can meet together as a group or where small groups can gather, and I have areas for working independently or with partners. We incorporate music and movement with our learning. We have quiet working times and not-so-quiet working times. We use manipulatives for hands-on learning, and we have paper and pencil activities. I think primary teachers do a pretty good job overall of trying to meet the different needs of our students. The challenge is (and probably always will be) trying to differentiate for each student, in all subject areas, every day.

Revisit

            A couple of sections spoke to me in this chapter. The first was the example of a deficient classroom with the fourth grader named Bing. His story hit home with me when it talked about how he was proud of the fact that he could speak two languages, but how it upset him when his writing was returned with lots of grammatical corrections but not much about his content. It also described how the other students in the class began to correct him all the time like their teacher, and how he wished they would just listen to his ideas and not his grammar. This all made me question how many times I may have made my own students feel this way in my efforts to be “helpful.”

            One of my current EL students also has a speech problem. When he speaks in front of the class, I don’t correct him, but I generally try to repeat back to him what he has said so that I know we’ve understood him and so he can hear it spoken correctly. I’ve noticed recently, however, that some my other students have begun copying the way he speaks in a teasing manner or telling him that he is not saying something correctly. He loves to participate in class discussions now, and I don’t want that to change, so I am going to have to be more aware of how I and others are responding to him. I am also going to have to revisit with the students that our classroom is a place where everyone should be able to speak and share their ideas and thoughts without fear of being ridiculed.

            The second piece that jumped out at me was the suggestion of Howard Gardner that we should assess students’ multiple intelligences in their everyday interactions within the classroom. As I was reading, certain students jumped into my mind. One little girl who’s always humming might have a musical intelligence, a boy who gets upset when he doesn’t get to go to the block center might be a bodily kinesthetic intelligence. It made me wonder about the other students in my class and want to know what they might be. I’m going to try to observe them with this in mind in the coming weeks and try to tailor my lessons to some of these specific intelligences to see how they perform.

            In general, this chapter reinforced the importance of differentiated instruction and really getting to know your students and how they learn best.