Prompt 6 Iisa Delpit

In my first grade classroom there is so much diversity, sociocultural, and linguistic differences. This makes teaching in a whole harder. Because of all of these differences, each student learns and needs to be taught in deferent ways. This makes the job for the teacher more difficult, she needs to come up with a way to divide the class into groups and have a different plan for each group. In my classroom, the teacher does not do this. This puts them in groups based off who gets along. There is a lot of hostility in the classroom, so certain kids cannot be grouped together. I feel when she is teaching because of all the linguistic and socioculuter in the class certain children just stair off into space. I feel bad for those children because they are not learning the material they should be. Also certain children need to be giving attention, with this attention they will be motivated to do work. Other children need a struck discipline to make them do the work. Also there are children who can motivate themselves.

For example in my classroom there is a student who is label a bad kid. He has good intentions, but I can tell he is not getting the attention he needs at home. This is what makes him lash out at school. He is trying to get the attention here. Once I realized this, and I worked one on one with him, he tried harder. He cannot read or right, and speaks very poor English. He has improved a lot since I have been there, but is still really far behind.
Another example is that we have a black teacher, who teaches another first grade class. One of the girls in the classroom said my mother said " I wish you were in the other classroom, white teachers just do not understand where we come from" This little girl asked why she had a white teacher, when she is black. She said "she is mean to us, is that why". I explained to her how it does not matter if you are white or black, and that the teacher is not mean. That she gets frustrated when no one try's and does not like when she does not pay attention. I think after talking with her she had more respect for the teacher, and understood that your ethnicity had nothing to do with the way she taught.

Lisa Delpit says how people believe that white teachers re well intended, and love everyone. But they do to know how to teacher students of color. Lisa Delpit says "A black woman teacher in multicultural urban elementary school is talking about her experiences in discussions with her predominantly white fellow teachers about how they should organize reading instruction to best serve students of color." The white teachers talks about how the children don’t listen and the teacher tries to explain they are listening but they don’t hear you. The rules of power stat that children from middle class home tend to do better in school. The upper and middle class have the culture of power, and this is why they do better. Delpit talks about how children who come from different homes do not understand the rules. Sociocultural students learn different at home. Delpit was trying to say how we need to teach them our rules to our culture. Also to be understanding of their culture.
Link to yourube:
C:\Users\Owner\Documents\whiteteachers.htm

Prompt 4 Carlson

I know for me this whole experience have been a huge eye opener. I have had stereotypes on students who went to city schools, and they were so wrong. I am so grateful for having this opportunity to work with students who are in situations that I cannot understand. When I was told I was going to be in a city school, I thought of dirty school, mean kids, not very intelligent, and people who do not care. After being in this school, I realized this was not correct. These children are just like me and you. They want to learn. I have these stereotypes because I was never taught anything else. I went to a school that was primary white kids who did not come from families who had financial problems. I went in with my own views on them because I was never taught anything else. I believe I have learned a lot as a student myself being in this classroom.

I believe that I was at a disadvantage at first because I did not want to interact with the students, and the teacher did not make it any easy. She told me so many times not to be a teacher. I was afraid of these students. The first day in class, a boy told me he was going to hit me. This just made them stereotype I made for them all the more correct. I came to realize after going again; these students are loving and caring. This is when I got an advantage; they looked up to me in many ways, and wanted to learn. A number of students ask the teacher if I could teach the math lesson instead of her. After gaining the trust of the students it was easy to interact and help them learn. Those children wanting me to teach also made them want to learn.

Dennis Carlson wanted people to understand that race, ethnicity, and gender, does not affect the learning, and that all children are the same in the aspect of learning in general. He shows how “white, middle class, male, get privileged and represented as “normal” while other individual and subject positions like black working class, female, homosexual are disempowered and represents as deviant, sick, criminal, and lazy.” These were the stereotypes’ that I saw. Carlson shows how these are incorrect. He talked about normalizing community, about changing the attitude of teacher and students. He also talks about making sure there is dialog across the classroom. To recognize the importance of common interests and communicating dialog across the classroom.

Prompt 2 Lyn Brown

City School's Infoworks


North Kingstown's Infoworks



The first grade classroom that I am in there is about 25 students, the ethnicities and gender is all different. There is an equal amount of boys and girls per class. The statistics from info works show that 81% of students are eligible for reduce lunch. This amazes me, when I look at the elementary school I went to only 6% are eligible. I being in the school have opened a whole new light for me. I feel that I have been sheltered and was not aware of the diversity in city school. Also 57% are Hispanic, 25% are African American, 16% Asian, and only 6% white. In my elementary school there is 96% white, 2% Asian, and 1% Hispanic. The drastic difference amazes me. There is 26% of ESS students in the city school, where 0% in the elementary school I attended. These are just some statics of the drastic diversity between city schools and suburban school.

It amazed me one day on a Friday; every classroom had to decorate their door. It was all based on Rhode Island, talking to the children about what they wanted to put on the door, and what they knew about Rhode Island I was so surprised. They knew so much about the history behind Rhode Island. They decided to do and ocean team, of clams, lobsters, and light houses. They also made a state flag. They knew how many stars, and colors. I was so surprised that first grade students knew this.

The students all bring something new to the table. Every student learns from one another. For example there is a student from Africa, she speaks broken English and has trouble with certain letters. But she is a very brilliant little girl. I can tell she comes from a not so fortunate family. She talks a lot about her home in Africa. I feel the other kids are so enthused because she comes from a different place. Kids also understand the stereotype of Africa is not what is seems, and that nice smart people can come from there.

Brown talks about the differences that girls face in society. You have the girls who come from less fortunate families who are look down upon and have the stereotype of being laid back, expected to have the same life their parents did ( never get out of the rut), do not care, and do not try. Then she talks about the rich to middle class girls as being aggressive, they will argue, always get what they want, and spoiled. These two different social classes have two way different experiences. She talks about the Metonymic fallacy which is to portray white middle class woman’s experiences as a whole of women history and experience. She wanted to contribute to broader attempts to mark out differences within whiteness, to understand how the construction of whiteness varies across lines of class. Teachers need to realize where these students are coming from. The teacher needs to realize the background of students, and they need to be aware of where they come from. Need to understand and be understanding of different beliefs and be open to them

Prompt 3 Ira Shor

We go to college to learn how to teach, so that we can give back to our community. It is our duty to teach and understand different situations to help our students. We as future teachers need to understand that not every student comes from the same perfect ideal background. In every classroom you will have a student who is less fortunate, has learning disabilities, or strives for attention. These are all characteristics that are found in all classrooms. With the different diverse learns is when “a culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning. Teachers need to adapt to the sociocultural differences and try different methods of teacher to ensure all students in the class are learning and no one is left behind.
In my classroom, there is a very wide variety of learns, there are, ethnic, gender, and learning levels. My teacher does not know how to interact with all of these students. She does mass lessons on the carpet. For example math, she was teaching how to add three sets of numbers.
Ex. 4+9+6
4+6=10
10+9=19
She does an example, and then does practice, and then they go to their seats for independent learning. This seams great. She does examples, then she lets the class help, then they work on their own. But what about the students who can’t add the two numbers 4+6. They sit there and just give up. The problem to them is too difficult. The teachers allow this, by not walking around to see if the kids are doing their work. They are expected to do the work, and hand it in on the desk. After fifteen minutes or so they move on, so she never knows till she returns home who did the work. At this point it’s too late; she can’t go back and re-teach because they need to stay on the schedule to make sure all the classes end at the same point for the following year. So when this student gets to the next level find the missing addend for example: 4+__+6=19. This student will be even more lost. The hopes of her learning the math she needs will not happen. This will affect her whole life at least thru high school. This is all because of her first grade math teacher, not caring enough to make sure she understood what was being taught.
Ira Shor talks about how “no curriculum can be neutral”. Not every student learns in the same way, teacher cannot have a neutral curriculum there needs to be a stretch in parts to ensure all your students are learning. Shor also says that “the teacher leads and directs this curriculum, but does so democratically with the participation of the students; balancing the need for structure…The teacher brings lesson plans learning methods personal experience, and academic knowledge.” Teachers need to bring in personal experiences to connect with the students. The teacher needs to encourage participations of all students. A teacher cannot call on the same students, because she knows they know the answer and will save her the hassle of re-teaching, and trying to pull it out of some students. Ira Shor talks about how you need to have student interacted in the classroom or you will have problems later on. He stresses how teachers are a huge part of a child’s life and success. We as future teachers must take our job seriously.

Prompt 5 Dewey

The cultural competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students’ learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.
In the classroom I have noticed parent teacher communication. I have noticed the teacher talking with parents, about their child. When talking with the teacher one on one she seems to know a lot about their background, which I think is really important. To know what type of family your students are coming from. Last week my teacher found out that one of her students who has been suspended four times that is labeled a behavioral student comes from a single mom. She had him when she was 13 years old. This is why he is lashing out; he is not getting the attention he needs at home, so he tries to get it in school. When he is in a group he will do anything to get your attention even if it’s something he should not do. When working one on one he is fine. Now that she knows this it will be easier for her to connect with him. She knows she has to show him attention to keep him calm. He will now hopefully start to learn more.
She has talked a lot about how parents need to be involved and help their children with home work, especially those who are struggling. The school day is just not enough time to be prepared for the next grade level. It’s partly the parent’s responsibility to help their children learn. For example a little boy who is labeled as students who need extra help, who are behind the rest of the class needs more one on one help that can no be given all the time in school. The teacher was talking to the parents about different things to help him such as making him read a night time story verse them reading to him. She also gave his parents different books to work on what he struggles with. This shows how the teacher really cares about her students and is connecting with the families in every way she can.
There is a huge benefit of collaborating with the wider school community to make sure that your classroom is on the same or similar path as other classrooms. Also to make sure your class is also at the same pass of other schools at the same level. This talking amongst teacher helps a lot for the transition in between grade levels. To make sure all the levels are learning at the same pass and all get to a certain point, so that the following year the teacher can just pick up where the previous teacher left off. Verse having to re-teach a subject to get your whole class on the same page and taking time away from your plan.
This connects with Dewey because Dewey talked about how there needs to be interactions with teacher to family and teacher to society. That there are societies of people but that we need to interact with the different societies to go anywhere in life. If they do not talk and interact Dewey says “otherwise, the influences which educate some into masters, educate others into slaves.” He is saying that if we do not talk amongst one another some students are going to exceed and some will fail. Sometime it has nothing to do with social class. For example you have two classrooms and in one class they do not learn how to multiply and the other class does not. When they get to the next grade and they are learning division the class that did not learn how to multiply will be further behind because of it. Your child was selected into this class for no reason. A computer selected them into the class, and now they will be penalized. Dewey is saying how this is wrong, and that we need to talk amongst teachers and parents, to make sure this does not happen.

Prompt 1

Driving to the school at 9:30 in the morning on my first day, I did not know what to think. All I knew was what was told to me in the previous class on what to expect. When pulling up to the school, I see it is directly off a highway. This is when I knew that the classroom would be a completely different setting than what I was used to. I went to school in a small quit suburban neighborhood. The building appeared to be in good condition, looked very well kept. I was very surprised when I thought of a city school, my first instinct was that it was going to be old and dirty; it was the opposite case in the school I was at. At the front office I was treated with great respect. I signed in and was off to the classroom, I had such butterflies in my stomach walking down the hallway. When I walked into the classroom the first thing I noticed was the diversity with the students. They were all front different cultural backgrounds. I noticed there were four groups of tables with roughly five students in each group. I could tell without being told that they were in groups based upon their skills in reading and writing. I caught on to this by noticing the way the different groups were sitting; there body posture, the way they were working or lack of working. At the far table five students say slumped into their chairs, staring off into space. At the nearest table students were diligently and reading a book. I also noticed the class room was very well organized. They had a word wall which I thought was very unique. This wall is words that are commonly used and or misspelled for students to look at when writing. They have classroom rules on the wall, these are basic rules that are expected, and nothing stood out about them. She also had a list of things to do when you finish your work. In the classroom the teacher seem like a very nice well put together lady but I could tell she was exhausted. This was easy to tell by the statements she made. “Are you sure you want o be a teacher” and “I will talk you out of it in 30 seconds. The students are all very nice, are greatly appreciate me there. I have connected greatly with the students who are struggling, and I feel I am really helping them. They have come up to me asking me for help instead of what they used to do which was sit there until the teacher came over and yelled that they have not completed any of the work. In the school I feel that the principle really values the know student left behind. This was shown when one of the students was suspended and he also is one of the students that are really struggling. The principle comes and works with him one on one for about an hour. This shows how she cares and wants him to succeed. In the classroom she values helping the whole class progress as a class. She does try to help those students who do not do as well on the testing. I feel she just helps them so they pass the test, but does not give them the overall concept. That they just do well on the test to make her look good. All though it is helping them, I do not know if they are getting the whole concepts she is teaching. After the three visits I have realized a lot about inner city school. Bye for now.

Hi and welcome to my blog, this just took me forever to find the create blog button. So anyway my name is Haley Lattinville, but my friends call me Haley Ryann or Haybee. I am eighteen years old and this is my second semester at RIC. I am studying early childhood and will go the extra semester for Special Education. I do not live at RIC so it was difficult to get involved first semester. When I was a senior at North Kingstow High School, the lacrosse coach contacted me asking me to come play at RIC. So I am on the lacrosse team here at school and absolutely love it and the girls I have met. Sports are a huge hobby of mine, I have played soccer my whole life, I did gymnastics from age 3 till 14 for Aim High Gymnastics Academy. I played them through high school and was a three season athlete. So the first semester showed me a whole nother lifestyle and how different it was from high school. I absolutely love it, and wanted to stay in college for as long as I can. I am looking forward to being in the classrooms to help children. I start on Friday. So bye for now!



Haley