This I Believe Draft 1 (Mind Mapping) By Isabel Howard
Recognizing own bias
Utilizing research to better the classroom environment
Addressing all biases that exist amongst students and seeing how I can reflect a healthier, more inclusive mindset
through a variety of educational mediums.
Analyze my own biases and get to the root as to why I have them, and see patterns in students to sooner address them and not let them impact the classroom community or their perspectives of people with differences later on in their adult life
According to Education article, “There must be special recognition and attention given to the educational needs of children who are living in poverty or in families with low incomes, as well as children who are differently abled; English language learners; and children who are experiencing homelessness, living in foster care, or returning from juvenile detention.”
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This includes students who have been influenced to have a bias towards a social group, a culture, a religion, a race, or more.
To benefit literacy progress as well, I would offer children's books with multiple perspectives.
I know that it may be impossible to eliminate all bias completely, but I could at least show students a variety of different perspectives for them to view diversity. There are multiple sides to each situation, no matter how significant--like a children's book depicting a war--or small, like a children's book depicting an argument between a couple of students at a school.
Students will be able to learn, to view, and to analyze experiences through the lenses of various perspectives because it will be taught to them through non-bias reading of children's books.
Point of views can help eliminate harmful stereotyping. That is why it is so important to provide an extensive, diverse classroom library where students can relate to different perspectives, not just one limited perspective that leads to further biased thinking as well as prejudice towards others who are different in general.
A classroom that promotes equity is a classroom that tells students that each have a fair chance of succeeding. Though equity and equality may not always mean the same thing, equity is arguably more important because sometimes equality cannot exist between students with a large achievement gap or students who have vastly different home lives.
The only way to create true equity amongst students is to eliminate as much bias as possible that could prevent them from being nonjudgmental of not only others, but of themselves.
Advocating for emergent readers/writers
To really advocate for all the emergent readers and writers, I must analyze multiple components of the children's books I am including in class.
I must be able to detect tone, imagery, syntax, dialect, and more, in order to fully advocate for all of my readers in class. My books should not just reflect a singular voice. The voice must be able to reach different students.
“Both those voices [from books titled Sandra Dutton’s Tales of Belva Jean Copenhagen and Lucille Clifton’s My Brother Fine With Me] are authentic, and their authenticity makes the characters believable and identifies them as members of a particular social group.”
When I think back on my own experiences as an elementary school student, I cannot remember any instances of books having multiple voices or dialects that helped students relate to one another or benefit emergent reading. Therefore, I recognize all the more how important it is to help change the pattern in education and reinforce books with those different windows into cultures, ways of communicating, and beliefs so that not just one type of living and expressing oneself is promoted.
Each component, again, has to be considered, not just the theme or main message in a book.
“There is a popular belief that dialects are simply corruptions of "real" or "good" English that reflect basic ignorance of well-known grammar rules. But the truth is that dialect structures are in themselves quite natural and neutral.”
Traditional ways of teaching reading and writing, albeit, have their own benefits, should not be the only way of advocating for emergent readers and writers. It is essential that diversity and equity is incorporated in the majority of the books chosen for the classroom library, if not all.
Theories of cognitive development should be implemented when advocating for emergent readers and writers as well. I believe that both Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's theories are applicable in creating a more equitable environment.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development involves four stages, the first being the sensorimotor stage, the second being the preoperational stage, the third being the concrete operational stage, and the fourth being the formal operational stage.
The sensorimotor stage encompasses infants to two year old toddlers. This stage mainly has to do with recognizing the world and being aware of surroundings. The second stage, preoperational, involves two year olds to seven year olds, and its characteristics include learning expression through the earliest forms of literacy, and gradually adapting to maintaining multiple perspectives. When children are between seven and eleven years old, they are in the concrete operational stage, when they are able to think logistically through sequential events. From twelve years old and up, children reach the formal operational stage. At this stage, they can engage in abstract thought as well as use advanced logical reasoning techniques.
Vygotsky's theory describes how childhood development is influenced by genetics, the environment in which people grow up in, as well as peer evaluation and work in school. About collaborative work specifically--Vygiotsky believes that group work between different leveled students (academically) can produce a multitude of positive benefits.
These positive benefits include gaining awareness of different cultures, attitudes, information, and an opportunity to further social development as well.
In order to know how to create an inclusive and diverse classroom that sparks inspiration for literacy development, research is required. Research is not just a single occurrence; however, it is an ongoing process that teachers should undergo for the rest of their careers. No teacher knows all of the answers.
No teacher knows all of the questions, either. Still, it is important for any teacher to know at least some questions to ask when beginning the research process. These questions can be in the forms of wonderings. A teacher has to wonder about whatever educational environment they're in. They can wonder about their experience in the classroom, or about the school itself, or even about a specific student.
Teachers can draw from personal experiences as well to form their wonderings. This is because personal experiences in school can still be relevant in education today. Therefore, teachers can make connections to what they have experienced as a student to what they are seeing in their current students to this day. Though I am not a teacher yet, I have already made these types of connections/wonderings during my time in the field as an intern. There can be a frequent pattern in schools throughout the years depending on what the question is.
Research and inquiry often go hand in hand. To take part of the inquiry process, teachers have to rely on valid research of theories, experiences, and connections that they can draw from. To research, teachers have to draw from the root of the question, which is formed during the inquiry process.
To be more specific, the technical definition of inquiry is "an act for asking for information." Whether a teacher realizes it or not, inquiry happens constantly within the world of education. That is because teachers, specifically their perspectives, are reshaped over and over by new students, new families, new coworkers, new schools, new communities, and more. It is up to the teacher to make inquiry concrete by deciding to learn about it through research.
One way to keep track of which questions to ask and what to learn from research is to record lessons throughout a teacher's career. A renowned, charismatic, and experienced educator named Dr. Carol Lee talked about this technique extensively in one of her interviews.
Dr. Lee specifically discussed that she videotaped constantly throughout her teaching career, and frequently engaged in self-reflection. She reviewed what she calls “genie in a bottle” moments, and has found that through her research, she has been able to better understand these moments more and more over time. She realizes that this type of reflection and research is very much, again, an ongoing process.
Through this technique, it has been proven that not only should teachers pay close attention to any issue or gap observed in the classroom, but also the attributes that a classroom may have. These attributes are perfectly encapsulated within these "genie in a bottle" moments. However, one could also view the attributes within what works in communication between families, or how to cope with a student who has a more extensive behavior management plan. Researching what works can be just as beneficial as researching what doesn't work.
Because research can technically just keep going, it is normal for it to frequently change. Questions may change, motivations may change, and inquiries can change. Just as the environment can always change around a teacher, the research can constantly change as well.
As long as a teacher know which questions to ask, how to rely on valid resources, and how to draw from concrete, relevant experiences by making connections, research can then only make the classroom a more productive, inclusive, and diverse learning community as an actionable result.
Teacher as learner, learner as teacher
Traditional methods cannot always be relied on for successful writing instruction
Unequitable methods cannot be relied on either
For students to become more comfortable with writing, they need their autonomy
The class cannot see the teacher as in instructor. They need to see the teacher as another writer
Teachers should be the facilitator in the writing process. They should not have too much control
Every student should benefit from writing instruction as well. Exclusion cannot be enforced, regardless of level in education or background.
Inspiration needs to be drawn from past experiences to inspire further non-traditional methods
Students knowledge should not be seen as good or bad, or black or white. There are many different types of intelligences that should be accounted for and should help students succeed in writing.