Naming Their World

Reading through Freire has really brought me back to a lot of the things that I have come to believe about teaching.  From the process of being completely inundated in Teach for America to jumping into my first year teaching to all of things that I have learned through this MAT program in the last two years, I have changed and struggled and been molded a lot as an educator. One of the things that I latched onto most with Freire in relation to both my practice and my project was his discussion of voice and dialogue in the classroom. Since my TICC project deals with student voice and self-advocacy, Friere's discussions about having dialogue have resonated with me through allowing dialogue in my classroom space and as a way for my student's to overcome ways their are oppressed in the school building. 

According to Freire, "dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world (p.88)."  As a teacher and through this project, I have been trying to focus more on helping my students put name and meaning to the things in their world.  They have experiences from home and school that shape the ways that they view the world.  The opportunities that they have, the relationships that they have formed combine with these experiences to give them the world that they call the world.  Through naming their world, my students helps them to "achieve significance as human beings" (p. 88).  These things can only happen with the welcoming of dialogue in classroom.  It is far too often that the "banking concept of teaching" with students as containers and receptacles takes over our schools and robs our children of their ability and freedom to construct knowledge for themselves and in collaboration with their classmates (p.73).   

As we have gotten into the investigation stages of our projects, I have been able to watch many of students' interests bloom as they explore community projects.  They are fascinated with the research, working with one another to discuss solutions, and working on ways to present their ideas to both the adults in our building and the community as a whole.  The level of their dialogue is skyrocketing as they provide feedback to one another and are given the opportunity to explore.  The moments that are my favorite are those that come completely unexpected to me.  They come out of authentic dialogue that the students are having in reference to their change papers where they outlined things that the school needs and changes that they would me.  They come when students are discussing what they want to do to address the problem and the manners that are best to approach it.  They come in their brilliant ideas that I never would have imagined. I consider the many times that I have played oppressor in the classroom as I assert my authority to regain control whether behaviorally or in academics.  Yes, the students need my guidance, but they do not need me to take all of the knowledge that I have and try, with futile attempts, to pour it back into their heads.

Rereading parts of this book and reading others for the first time was a great check for me about whether I am being a "banking concept" teacher or a "problem-posing" teacher.  While there is ease to falling into the pattern of sit down and listen, it is exhausting and ineffective for the teacher to be doing the learning as the children are sitting and taking it in.  Moving forward in my project, I want to continue to use the mindsets of Freire to shape the way that I talk to my students, the way dialogue is used in the classroom, and the development of student voice through our TICC projects.

Book Clubbin'

The month of January has been completely inundated in the implementation of book clubs in my classes. There have been a wide range of ups and downs from hearing students have amazing, authentic discussions about texts to working through issues of students not completing their reading and being off task.  It was a daunting task getting all of the book clubs organized into groups, books chosen, and expectations laid out for the students.  I really struggled, and truthfully, am still struggling some, to get the various groups organized in a way that made sense for both me and my students. 15 book clubs is a lot to keep up with when you have 60 different students involved. The original onset of organization was tough as I maneuvered how to keep up with everything. Once the book clubs actually began, the confusion and difficulty came from trying to grade my students accurately on the rubrics while circulating the rooms and listening a melee of different conversations that were going on.  I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything that they were saying to one another about their topics and not short change anyone in their discussions just because I missed hearing something.  I also had to deal with students who did not do their reading or did not come prepared with their anecdotal notes to aid them in their discussions.  We remedied that by having those students working on other work during the book club time. I think that in the long run, this will work to curb the behavior, because they would much rather take part in the book clubs.

The triumphs in book clubs have far outweighed the few behavior problems, the students who did not complete their reading, and the logistics for me as the teacher.  I have had some of proudest teacher moments since beginning teaching a year and a half ago in the last two weeks.  It is an amazing thing to leave questions open-ended and give students the space to delve into text and have really authentic discussions based on textual evidence about things that they were confused or curious about and connections that they were able to glean from their reading.  Discussion topics ranged from the shape of the globe and the proximity of Pearl Harbor to Japan to the Holocaust to personal issues of divorce, adoption, and separation from family members.  They were AMAZING. I was taking pictures and videos and texting Dr. K, because I was just so proud of them.  Those highs this month have given me more of a peace that I can handle the constructivist classroom. I can release control to my students and trust that they can do the right thing on their own.  I can work have 10 different things going on in my room and have a sense of controlled chaos with a healthy chatter of learning happening around me. I can step back and THEY can be successful.

I am looking forward to the upcoming months where book clubs continue to grow and flourish and we move more into Reader's Response and performance based projects on the books that they are reading.  I am looking forward to giving my students more freedom as we explore topics of change and need in the community with our TICC project.

Critical Inquiry Framework

Looking back through A Critical Inquiry Framework has been really powerful since our projects have now started rolling.  It has helped me to refocus on what I am doing with my students and pointed me in new directions with how to keep the momentum going for the projects and push their critical thinking more.  My TICC project is at the point where I have completed a lot of the set up and background for my students with the pre-project data collection of surveys about self-advocacy and discussions and persuasive writing on changes that they want to see happening in the school building.  In the upcoming week, students will be forming groups to begin the work on their specific projects to elicit change in our school and community. Looking at the articles It's Not Easy Being Flat, Latinos for Involvement in Family Education, and I Need a New Way of Lyfe reconnected me with the purpose of this project and helped formulate an action plan moving forward.

It's Not Easy Being Flat pointed me toward the importance of incorporating critical literacy into my project more.  My students have been looking at different persuasive pieces at mentor texts during their writing processes, but there is room for more critical literacy that are not persuasive pieces specifically.  They need to see more texts about children taking a stand and changing their world such as Kid President or works by MLK, Jr. or Gandhi as shown in this TICC project.  I want to look more into the UN Rights of a Child to foster more conversations about what the students' rights and responsibilities are.  It would be powerful to come up with not only some rights for my students but also some responsibilities as the teacher in this project does.

The more that I learn about the students, my school, and the surrounding community, I realize what a tight knit community my students live in.  Many of them live in the same neighborhoods, live very close to other family members, and know and interact with their neighbors regularly.  For this reason, I was interested in the study Latinos for Involvement in Family Education to help guide my thinking more about how to get the community involved in what my kids were working on in the classroom.  The main point that the author of this project makes is the need for families to feel respected and have equal access to information.  Parent involvement and communication is often something that is labeled as a problem at our school.  While I think that it is improving greatly with our new principal, I think that there are definitely gains to be made, not only by our school but with me as a teacher.  The woman who began LIFE talks extensively about the power of taking ideas that are the parents and supporting them in the school.  Then they are the agents for change while community and trust are simultaneously being built.  I think that another way to make my project stronger would be through incorporating my students' parents and their opinions into the projects that are happening in the classroom.

I also love the "I Need a New Way of Lyfe" study that took students into the exploration of the rights of an adequate standard of living.  One of the most powerful parts of this study is seen in the texts, tools, and resources that the teacher used - local newspapers, church bulletins, and photographs from the students' community coupled with historical documents about the larger African American community.  I can link this part of the project even further with my students' families and larger community by encouraging them to bring their lives and experiences into what they are doing.  Although this is a high school study, my students can do the exploration and thinking piece about the needs of the community that they live in.

Overall, through reviewing these studies again, I want to think more about how to connect the project that we are working in in the classroom to the larger community.  I want to use more critical literacy to link my students to the UN Rights of the Child and how those are manifested in their lives and others' lives in different ways.  I want to work to make more connections across the more for this to become something more and more meaningful to my students.