I found Hillards observation on names ascribed to black people by Europeans to be very interesting. His observation was that the name being ascribed to African Americans are all adjectives as opposed to proper nouns. He states that those adjectives are “words that suggest no respect for who we are or for our uniqueness as an ethnic family.” I really liked the fact that he brought this up because it can make people who favor the term “nigga” see it in a different light. It really upsets me when Black people say that we “adopted” the word and therefore are allowed to use it as a word of empowerment. There is no consensus among society that the word is now positive. I’m going to use Mike’s story as an example because he brought it up in class. When the black guy hit him and he was telling the story to his friends, he called the guy a nigger to emphasize his anger and negativity. The point I am trying to make is that the definition for the word is not universal, whether it’s spelled with an “er” or an “a”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BTsSswufs0
I thought this video was pretty interesting. It related to our topic in the fact that they talked about hegemony. This video goes into depth about racism and is not just limited to blacks and whites. They demonstrate that there are multiple forms of oppression. They talk about the Aborigines during white settlement and how Australians purposely introduced diseases to lower the population.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Equity and Diversity
This week we took an equity and diversity awareness quiz. Honestly, I did not know a lot of the answers to these questions. My tactic in taking this quiz was to go for the most extreme answers for the questions I considered negative. For the first question I thought 60% percent of US schools had no teachers of color on staff, but the answer was 40%. While I was taking the test, I really expected that number to be higher than the answer I had marked down. The majority of my answers were overestimated, but I still find it hard to believe some of the results. I would rather not share my actual results, but lets just say that I failed. Here is the link to the quiz:
http://edchange.org/multicultural/quiz/quizNEW.pdf
I thought this weeks discussion was interesting. I learned a lot in the WU reading and received information that I could relate to. I did not know that there was a difference between slang and ebonics and I feel like mistaking the two is a common mistake that most individuals make. I think it is really important for teachers to understand that using ebonics does not translate to ignorance; it is a language and therefore should acknowledged as such. Another part of the reading that I thought was interesting was the part where they described why the Asian students in the classroom were so quiet. At home they are taught that talking too much could cause disrespect and harsh feelings and you should not speak unless spoken to. I could relate to this because at home, my sibling and I were taught something similar. We were told not to look at adults directly in their eye because it was a sign of disrespect, but when I went to school, the teachers claimed it was disrespectful to not look at them while they were speaking.
http://edchange.org/multicultural/quiz/quizNEW.pdf
I thought this weeks discussion was interesting. I learned a lot in the WU reading and received information that I could relate to. I did not know that there was a difference between slang and ebonics and I feel like mistaking the two is a common mistake that most individuals make. I think it is really important for teachers to understand that using ebonics does not translate to ignorance; it is a language and therefore should acknowledged as such. Another part of the reading that I thought was interesting was the part where they described why the Asian students in the classroom were so quiet. At home they are taught that talking too much could cause disrespect and harsh feelings and you should not speak unless spoken to. I could relate to this because at home, my sibling and I were taught something similar. We were told not to look at adults directly in their eye because it was a sign of disrespect, but when I went to school, the teachers claimed it was disrespectful to not look at them while they were speaking.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Achievement Gap
I agree with the fact that the concept of No Child Left Behind is excellent, but the way it is being executed needs to be reformed. As stated in the article, its goal is to close the achievement gap and their methods in achieving this goal are through standardized testing and the hiring of qualified teachers. As we have learned thus far, standardized testing is not an efficient way to execute learning. In the Au article, Bill Bigelow described it as being a memory phenomenon and named it a “Memory Olympics.” It simply tests the students for their ability to memorize the material as opposed to actually learning and retaining information. The execution of NCLB contradicts Multiculturalism because it insists on one set of answers.
http://vimeo.com/5281023
What was interesting to me about this video/article was that the Gering School district took it upon themselves to close the achievement gap that existed in their schools. They evaluated the education system of their district and attempted to reform the way it was implemented. Through the evaluation and research, the district observed the academic gap between their White students compared to Hispanic students and free and reduced lunch students to the non free and reduced lunch students. They believe that they had good, hard working teachers, but acknowledged the fact that they were not being provided with the right tools and training to properly enforce teaching. The instructional group aspect of their new teaching system was a bit confusing to me. I wasn’t sure if the children were aware that they were being placed in groups according to their ability and that certain groups were significant to others. If that is the case, I do not agree with it because it seems that it would create even more insecurities about their academic ability. If the students are aware of the criterion of their group, it may affect their performance due doubts of their academic ability for being in an inferior group. It also puts pressure on students to perform well, and we all experienced firsthand (during class) that being pressured has a major impact on one’s performance. Also in the Anderson and Kharem readings, we explored the empirical evidence that supports the stereotype threat model and how it has a major negative impact. I thought the results of the verbal experiment were very interesting in exemplifying this negative impact. The group that was pressured and told that the test was a diagnostic of their intellectual ability performed worse than those who were told that they were being tested to examine problem solving. This experiment suggests that their perception of what is being tested is a major factor in underachievement.
http://vimeo.com/5281023
What was interesting to me about this video/article was that the Gering School district took it upon themselves to close the achievement gap that existed in their schools. They evaluated the education system of their district and attempted to reform the way it was implemented. Through the evaluation and research, the district observed the academic gap between their White students compared to Hispanic students and free and reduced lunch students to the non free and reduced lunch students. They believe that they had good, hard working teachers, but acknowledged the fact that they were not being provided with the right tools and training to properly enforce teaching. The instructional group aspect of their new teaching system was a bit confusing to me. I wasn’t sure if the children were aware that they were being placed in groups according to their ability and that certain groups were significant to others. If that is the case, I do not agree with it because it seems that it would create even more insecurities about their academic ability. If the students are aware of the criterion of their group, it may affect their performance due doubts of their academic ability for being in an inferior group. It also puts pressure on students to perform well, and we all experienced firsthand (during class) that being pressured has a major impact on one’s performance. Also in the Anderson and Kharem readings, we explored the empirical evidence that supports the stereotype threat model and how it has a major negative impact. I thought the results of the verbal experiment were very interesting in exemplifying this negative impact. The group that was pressured and told that the test was a diagnostic of their intellectual ability performed worse than those who were told that they were being tested to examine problem solving. This experiment suggests that their perception of what is being tested is a major factor in underachievement.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Schooling and Culture
As demonstrated in class on Monday, the definition of race is a controversial topic because it is a social contrast. As Nathaniel Smith attempted to convey to his class, race is a conforming term that has been altered throughout time. Since the topic is so heavy, people to do not willingly engage in discussions about it. The conversation that Mr. Smith had in his class was similar to the one that we had in ours. One would think that students on a collegiate level would have more knowledge on the topic than high schools students, but that is not always the case. When we were asked to describe race, terms such as color, ancestry and culture came up. It is impossible to characterize “race” as one trait or gene. I thought it was interesting when one of the students went home to ask his grandmother what evidence she had to prove that they were white. The grandmother’s reaction unraveled her insecurities of not having an answer to her grandson’s question. How could one possibly know where their ancestry from generations and generations and generations ago came from? Reading this article reminded me of an episode on the Tyra banks show about race. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM2_w-m_UFs) To summarize what happened, Tyra did an experiment with her audience to see how people perceive race. They were given a group of women to examine and told to guess their race based on their appearance. All of the women were either biracial or multiracial, proving that you cannot identify one’s race by the exterior because the audience identified each contestant as one race. What was interesting to me was the young lady who was biracial (black and white). It was so sad to hear how she perceived people of her own kind, and for the fact that society deems us inferior. I did not understand how she would attempt to disclaim and speak so negatively on black people because she too at times has to go through the oppression. People see her appearance and automatically categorize her as black, as she claimed in her rodeo story. Instead of embracing her background and using her knowledge of black history to improve segregation, she uses it to further oppress the black community. Her story was just so contradictive and distressing, that I thought I should share it.
Another topic discussed in class, was the use of the N word. Heidi Tolentino explained to the class that “words that are historically used against a community in hate are often taken back by that community and turned around and used as words of power.” I totally disagree with people who agree and utilize this theory. It sounds ignorant to me, that people in the African American community would use a term filled with so much agony and oppression to refer to themselves. I understand the concept of “adopting” the word from the group of people who bestowed it onto us, but I believe that we need to use it as a foundation and not as a casual word to refer to each other. By that I mean that the word should not be forgotten. It should be remembered as a significant turning point for change in the black community (even though it is still used today) and not used at all by any group of people, regardless of its new meaning. When I was in fourth grade, we would often have periods of time where we would read a book as a class. The teacher allowed us to volunteer in taking turns to read aloud. One week, we started reading a new book and one of the white girls in the class raised her hand to read first. As she began reading she came across the word nigger and took a long pause. The teacher attempted to reassure her in saying that it was ok to say the word. She hesitated, but eventually whispered the word and continued reading. A few sentences later, the word reappeared. The same awkward pause came, but was ended with her telling the teacher that she was uncomfortable reading so she stopped. The N word had never been discussed in that class before, so clearly her parents or other family members educated her on its history and instructed her to never use the word. You could see in her face how uncomfortable she was just by looking at it. I could imagine her confusion when the teacher kept telling her that it was ok. This is exactly why these topics should not be danced around. Just like the student in the reading that asked why only black people were allowed to say it I am sure there are many other uneducated students that are curious and have questions that need to be answered. I don’t think that any student should have to feel uncomfortable in a teaching environment when they are supposed places of reassurance.
Another topic discussed in class, was the use of the N word. Heidi Tolentino explained to the class that “words that are historically used against a community in hate are often taken back by that community and turned around and used as words of power.” I totally disagree with people who agree and utilize this theory. It sounds ignorant to me, that people in the African American community would use a term filled with so much agony and oppression to refer to themselves. I understand the concept of “adopting” the word from the group of people who bestowed it onto us, but I believe that we need to use it as a foundation and not as a casual word to refer to each other. By that I mean that the word should not be forgotten. It should be remembered as a significant turning point for change in the black community (even though it is still used today) and not used at all by any group of people, regardless of its new meaning. When I was in fourth grade, we would often have periods of time where we would read a book as a class. The teacher allowed us to volunteer in taking turns to read aloud. One week, we started reading a new book and one of the white girls in the class raised her hand to read first. As she began reading she came across the word nigger and took a long pause. The teacher attempted to reassure her in saying that it was ok to say the word. She hesitated, but eventually whispered the word and continued reading. A few sentences later, the word reappeared. The same awkward pause came, but was ended with her telling the teacher that she was uncomfortable reading so she stopped. The N word had never been discussed in that class before, so clearly her parents or other family members educated her on its history and instructed her to never use the word. You could see in her face how uncomfortable she was just by looking at it. I could imagine her confusion when the teacher kept telling her that it was ok. This is exactly why these topics should not be danced around. Just like the student in the reading that asked why only black people were allowed to say it I am sure there are many other uneducated students that are curious and have questions that need to be answered. I don’t think that any student should have to feel uncomfortable in a teaching environment when they are supposed places of reassurance.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Facing Differences
The language aspect of this week’s class discussion was the most interesting to me, mainly because it relates to my major, which is linguistics. Generally, linguistics is the study of language, but it is much more intricate than that.
During our discussion about language barriers and how it hinders learning, reminded me of a time in school when I was very young. At home my siblings and I were spoken to in English by our parents, but we had a Haitian baby sitter who only knew how to speak Haitian Creole. I am not a native speaker of Creole by I do consider myself bilingual. During class, there was a portion where we all had to share something that we did during the past weekend. When it was my turn I began telling the class about where my Nenen took me, and before I could even go on the teacher stopped me and asked me what a nenen was? I remember thinking to myself, how is she a teacher if she didn’t know what that word meant? So I said the word to her again because I figured maybe I was pronouncing it wrong and she still didn’t understand. I repeated the word several times until I became so frustrated, insecure and embarrassed, that I just stopped trying and did not even finish the story. Later that day, I went home to tell my mother that the teacher did not know what a nenen was and asked her if I was pronouncing it wrong. She explained to me that it was not an English word. Nenen translates in English to Godmother. The whole time I was unconsciously speaking Creole to my teacher.
When I look back at this situation that I encountered, I cannot even imagine what it must be like for children who are non native English speakers and are forced to learn and master material outside of their native language. They are being educated in one language at home and taught another at school, which automatically puts them in the “children-at-risk” category. As stated in the sleeter and grant reading, a child can be put in that category due to their backgrounds, low income, low achievement, handicap condition, minority status, inner-city household and limited proficiency in English. It is hard enough to learn one language, let alone two, especially without reinforcement. Usually when you learn material in school, it is reinforced at home, or at least it should be, because without it, information will not be retained
. Reinforcement ties into the section about Parental Involvement. They basically stated that if you want your children to succeed, as a parent, you need to be active participants in their lives. The problem is a lot of minority parents are not active participants for various reasons. I believe that rules should be implemented to increase parental involvement because in a lot of cases parents are not aware that they should be involved in their child’s academics and reinforcing what they learned. My mother used a positive and negative reinforcement concept with me. If I wanted a la carte money to buy a treat at school, I had to be able count whatever amount of money my mother gave me and tell her the correct amount. If I was unable to count the correct amount, I would not get the money. This is just one of the many ways that parents could get involved.
Another part of this week’s discussion that really interested me was the video which basically tackled difference versus deficient.
If it is not seen as the “norm” in society, it is deemed as being deficient This is just a prime example on how everyone is not the same and therefore won’t respond that way. In order for people who are different (race, mental difference, deafness etc) to treated fairly, they need to have an equal opportunity, which does not translate to being treated the equally. By giving everyone an equal opportunity, accommodations need to be made so that one won’t be put at a disadvantage due to their difference. Its goal is so people would not be ostracized because of there difference. I enjoyed reading the Wu chapter because of the different activities that were implemented in the classroom. I personally enjoyed the me pockets. Not only does it give the children a chance to open up and share interesting facts about themselves, but it also helps build relationships throughout the classroom. These bonding exercises break racial barriers, even when they are not necessarily sharing something cultural with the class. For example If an African American boy shares pictures of his pet, one of the other students with a different racial background could feel connected because they too have pets, which may unconsciously throw away racial negative connotations he might have had.
During our discussion about language barriers and how it hinders learning, reminded me of a time in school when I was very young. At home my siblings and I were spoken to in English by our parents, but we had a Haitian baby sitter who only knew how to speak Haitian Creole. I am not a native speaker of Creole by I do consider myself bilingual. During class, there was a portion where we all had to share something that we did during the past weekend. When it was my turn I began telling the class about where my Nenen took me, and before I could even go on the teacher stopped me and asked me what a nenen was? I remember thinking to myself, how is she a teacher if she didn’t know what that word meant? So I said the word to her again because I figured maybe I was pronouncing it wrong and she still didn’t understand. I repeated the word several times until I became so frustrated, insecure and embarrassed, that I just stopped trying and did not even finish the story. Later that day, I went home to tell my mother that the teacher did not know what a nenen was and asked her if I was pronouncing it wrong. She explained to me that it was not an English word. Nenen translates in English to Godmother. The whole time I was unconsciously speaking Creole to my teacher.
When I look back at this situation that I encountered, I cannot even imagine what it must be like for children who are non native English speakers and are forced to learn and master material outside of their native language. They are being educated in one language at home and taught another at school, which automatically puts them in the “children-at-risk” category. As stated in the sleeter and grant reading, a child can be put in that category due to their backgrounds, low income, low achievement, handicap condition, minority status, inner-city household and limited proficiency in English. It is hard enough to learn one language, let alone two, especially without reinforcement. Usually when you learn material in school, it is reinforced at home, or at least it should be, because without it, information will not be retained
. Reinforcement ties into the section about Parental Involvement. They basically stated that if you want your children to succeed, as a parent, you need to be active participants in their lives. The problem is a lot of minority parents are not active participants for various reasons. I believe that rules should be implemented to increase parental involvement because in a lot of cases parents are not aware that they should be involved in their child’s academics and reinforcing what they learned. My mother used a positive and negative reinforcement concept with me. If I wanted a la carte money to buy a treat at school, I had to be able count whatever amount of money my mother gave me and tell her the correct amount. If I was unable to count the correct amount, I would not get the money. This is just one of the many ways that parents could get involved.
Another part of this week’s discussion that really interested me was the video which basically tackled difference versus deficient.
If it is not seen as the “norm” in society, it is deemed as being deficient This is just a prime example on how everyone is not the same and therefore won’t respond that way. In order for people who are different (race, mental difference, deafness etc) to treated fairly, they need to have an equal opportunity, which does not translate to being treated the equally. By giving everyone an equal opportunity, accommodations need to be made so that one won’t be put at a disadvantage due to their difference. Its goal is so people would not be ostracized because of there difference. I enjoyed reading the Wu chapter because of the different activities that were implemented in the classroom. I personally enjoyed the me pockets. Not only does it give the children a chance to open up and share interesting facts about themselves, but it also helps build relationships throughout the classroom. These bonding exercises break racial barriers, even when they are not necessarily sharing something cultural with the class. For example If an African American boy shares pictures of his pet, one of the other students with a different racial background could feel connected because they too have pets, which may unconsciously throw away racial negative connotations he might have had.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)