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.