Prompt 4: Delpit

Becoming a teacher requires you to be aware of the diverse cultural groups that will be in your classroom. I think that each person’s cultural background and experiences can help them greatly in any environment. My personal history or sociocultural characteristics intersected with the students with its ups and downs in the classroom. The main thing I needed to take into consideration is that the way I do something isn't necessarily the only way. I needed to step back and observe the students before I jumped into it. Each person has different cultural backgrounds; we are all different when noticing that it's truly an advantage. By understanding the differences I feel it could help you as a teacher, especially in this classroom. There are so many different children in the classroom that you may assume the student know something when they don't. The misconceptions that I’ve been confronted with during this experience are assuming. I always think either they know what I'm looking for or they don't without being direct. I need to not only assume but ask questions.
I feel as though Lisa Delpit relates greatly to being a teacher. Delpit explains about the culture of power and how you need to be aware as a teacher of that. If a student comes into your class and starts sharpening a pencil as your talking they may not understand the codes of power. In other words you need to let them know they should not be doing that at that particular time. Without the student being aware, they will never know. This deal greatly with a classroom, not everyone is the same which in most cases they don't know the codes. This leads to the child giving up because they are lost. Delpit also says how without being told explicitly the "rules" gaining power becomes almost impossible. If the student is unaware of any of the codes they realize it, the teacher however may not which is a problem. With the simplicity of a teacher to explain the codes of power for his/her students will help the students as well. No longer will they be clueless and give up, but they will understand. This is why I feel Delpit truly understands what can happen to a group of individuals on different levels.

Prompt 3

In the classroom I visit my teacher tends to a variety of students who have different linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics. She uses different techniques that she incorporates in her teaching to accommodate those students that do not share similar traits. At the beginning of each class the rules or "codes" are stated and continue to be read if they are broken. For memorization of all the students the teacher uses part of the word, if they are able to finish the sentence of that rule they receive a ticket. This ticket is used to receive prizes and cookies if the class continues to do well. I see every time I'm there the students strive for tickets for acknowledgment of the teacher and the other students when they carry one. This class is very social and shows their emotions of frustration and excitement on their sleeve helping the teacher notice any students who may need help or just a "Great Job!". This particular teacher makes sure each student realizes the codes of the classroom; if something is being done wrong she stops and looks at the rules located at the front board. Another way this teacher uses techniques is by putting the student on the spot. When learning for example spelling the teach has all the students repeat the word as well as spelling it aloud. She then goes back and randomly picks students to do the same, only they do it by themselves. She makes sure that each student understands before moving along. One example is when the students are ready a story aloud. Each sentence they read with a simple error she stops them and has the student read that sentence over again until they have mastered it. I feel to an extent that these are effective methods in making sure each student is comfortable with what they are learning. Although this does embarrass some students, this teacher embraces their errors letting them know that "This is what learning is all about, you mess up but slowly you will get it". Within time each student seems to acknowledge and understand what they had trouble with. These teaching methods help students with different linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics because she is so direct with them. They are informed from day one to the last day the rules of the classroom and how to master situation they go through when learning is hard.

Prompt 2: Goldenberg

The elementary school that I go to has a strongly segregated group of students. After having looked on info works it shows that 71% of the students are Hispanic, 14% are African American, 10% are White, and 4% are Asian. I notice these percentages more and more as I'm in the classroom and being much more observant. Today I could the students in my particular class, there was 1 White child, and 2 Asian children, 1 Black student, and the rest were Hispanic. This shows how greatly segregated it is and how a teacher needs to cultivate different teaching methods for all children with different cultural background.
Everyday that I am tutoring I love hearing the kids talk in different languages. Although I only took three years in Spanish in high school I do still remember some of the words. The children usually talk to each other in their first language and always will laugh because they think teachers and me as well have no idea what they are saying. I found it extremely interesting when the teacher told everyone to please be quiet, everyone giggled as people disobeyed and talked behind her back. She looked around and heard two kids speaking in Spanish, as if she didn't know what they said they began cracking some jokes about her. The teacher spoke back in Spanish and apparently knew what they were saying, it was funny because I haven't heard them say joke about her, and she got them good! I feel as though teachers like this one, need to not discourage their students’ first language but to teach them other as well. The students in this particular class bring joy to their culture, they embrace it and it encourages their teacher to learn more about it.
Claude Goldenberg talks about effective teachers and what they need to do for students when English may not be their primary language; this is exactly what I experienced today. The teacher informed me that a student came here from China, I have no idea she couldn't speak English well so I was having a conversation with her as she just starred. I was confused and finally said "Do you understand?” she quickly nodded her head to me and looked almost ashamed. Goldenberg says how we need to look beyond the genetic teaching and to work with your students at their level. Of course this young girl was not at the level of the class yet so I went over words with her, I was absolutely amazed at how fast she caught on. He says how “Teaching students to read in their first language promotes high levels of reading achievement in English". He was absolutely right in that as I pointed to a new word she spelled out the letters and 80% of the time she was saying the work in English. This student was extremely bright and by including cooperative learning she promoted the other students to build their curiosity and to help as well. By the end of the class I had two students as well as myself helping this child learn English, as Goldenberg explains that students will benefit from challenging, motivating, and active engagement it clearly showed that she did. It wasn't a task for her but she was excited and more motivated than ever to hear encouragement from the students in the class.