Teach Out Presentation

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1icSfNzY3hgkR2om0aq1_Bx5Ug_GRJx_LJfDLzfZowPY/edit#slide=id.p

Ableism in Education

 

"Eliminating Ableism in Education" by Thomas Hehir is an article that talks about the importance of creating inclusive environments in schools for students with disabilities. Hehir emphasizes the need for schools to address ableism, which is the discrimination against people with disabilities. It discusses how ableism can affect the educational experiences of students with disabilities, making it harder for them to learn and succeed in school, which leads to less successful outcomes later in life. Within the article, Hehir focuses on ableism in the education of deaf students, blind students, and students with learning disabilities like dyslexia. With each of these disabilities, the student’s education is impacted by the limited thinking of educators who believe traditional methods of communication are one size fits all.
In the section titled “Education for the Deaf”, Hehir lists a great deal of research supporting the use of ASL or manual language and its positive impact on intelligence and literacy. Despite the research, Hehir reveals that it is not as commonplace as it should be in specialized special education to teach and/or communicate in ASL. 

  So much of this article reflects the daily struggles that can be seen in the elementary school I work in. As the school nurse, I am involved in and witness to, much of the way special education works within a school. I am often astounded by what we deem acceptable for students with disabilities. From the bare minimum ‘quick fixes’ to meet ADA requirements in a 60-year-old school, to the severely limited options for students to receive specialized education time and the lack of qualified educators, it is no wonder that our education system is in the shape it’s in.
In the section about learning disabilities and Hehir’s discussion about how students aren’t receiving the appropriate support services, I couldn’t help but think about a conversation I recently had with a Kindergarten teacher. She was telling me how behind the students are in reading and how difficult it has been to make progress. She thinks this is because she had double the number of students who entered Kindergarten without the basic skills of letter and letter sound recognition this year. None of her students receive any support and she teaches alone all day. To cover the necessary material, she needs to move at a pace that doesn’t allow for a lot of remedial assistance. The teacher has just now recommended several students for the MTSS/RTI process, 6 months into the year. Those students will eventually receive Tier 2 support, but when? How much further behind will they be by the end of the year?
As the article states, literacy is one of the biggest predictors of long-term success, why are we not doing more to support the students at the most basic level? I wonder how much more successful the students would be if there was a second teacher in the kindergarten classroom to support students daily? Too often, the teachers don’t recognize struggling students until they are significantly behind and it takes twice as long to catch back up.

  Hehir suggests many different strategies for eliminating ableism in education, such as including disability as part of the school’s diversity efforts, and encouraging disabled students to develop and use skills and modes of expression that are most effective and efficient for them. He also highlights the importance of specializing in special education. Certain disabilities require specialized skills, which are often not part of the standard special educator curriculum. He also suggests that we move away from obsessing over the placement of students and instead focus on the best way to get positive results. Lastly, he advocates for promoting high standards and not high stakes in the way students are evaluated, and the concepts of universal design in schooling- the idea that education should be accessible to all disabled students, without extraordinary means.
Ableism, like other forms of oppression, requires conversation and awareness. As Alan Johnson states in “Power, Privilege and Difference”, …” you can’t deal with a problem if you don’t name it… once you name it, you can think, talk, and write about it. When you name something, the word draws your attention to it, which makes you more likely to notice something as significant. ” Looking around, there is evidence of ableism everywhere. I think our job now is to be aware, and when we can, point it out to others. 

I found this document from the Oregon Department of Education and thought it was a worthy read Understanding and Addressing Ableism In Schools

Literacy With An Attitude

Chapters 1 and 2 in “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J Finn, introduce Finn’s argument that recognizing, and incorporating students' cultural backgrounds into their education, empowers students to be successful. Chapter 1 discusses how society often views certain groups as inferior due to their language or cultural background. Finn argues that these views can impact educational opportunities for these students. This reminds me a bit of Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue” and the importance of respecting and valuing students’ cultures to be an effective teacher. Both Delpit and Finn express the importance of incorporating students’ culture into learning and literacy. 
  At the end of the chapter, I liked Finn’s comments about the “hard-bitten” teacher. The idea is that teachers who are out there “in the trenches” aren’t willing to take advice from those teachers, academics, and, professionals who are not struggling with them in the daily grind. On some level, we can all identify with this feeling. We have all had the infuriating moment when someone gives you advice without ever experiencing your struggle. 
In Chapter 2, Finn discusses Jean Anyon’s research on teaching and learning in schools based on socioeconomic class. Finn goes on to discuss how teaching literacy in schools is often based on teaching only the necessary skills that the students will require to maintain, not improve their status in society. Finn believes that if we teach only the skills of reading and writing, without taking into consideration money, race, and power, we are doing a disservice to the students by not teaching to their full potential. I found Chapter 2 to be very interesting. The idea that our education system is set up to teach literacy in a way that keeps people within their social class is a lot to wrap your head around. 

Social Class in The Classroom Study about having students raise their hands in class. 

Teach Out Summaries

I will be using Lisa Delpit's "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" and "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez to discuss the importance of making the nursing office and all health documents accessible to MLL students and their families to the school nurses in my district. 

A summary of the chapter "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit, discusses how power affects education, especially for marginalized students. Delpit explains that teachers, often from privileged backgrounds, might unintentionally favor certain students. She also points out that what teachers teach and how they teach might not consider the experiences of marginalized students in their classrooms. Delpit recommends that teachers listen to and respect the ideas of these students while also teaching everyone about how power works.

A summary of the reading “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez, tells his own story, describing how it felt to grow up speaking both Spanish and English in the USA. He talks about adapting to American culture while still holding onto his Hispanic roots. One significant change was when his family started speaking more English at home, which made him feel distant from them. This made him feel torn between fitting in outside and feeling connected at home. Rodriguez struggles with his identity as he tries to blend into American culture while staying true to his Hispanic background. Language plays a huge role in shaping who he is and where he belongs in society. Through his story, Rodriguez shows the emotional journey of adjusting to a new language and culture.

Queering Our Schools

        

     While reading “Queering Our Schools” and watching the Woke Kindergarten episode “Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC”, I had so many thoughts. In The Queering Our Schools article from Rethinking Schools it discusses Sasha, a 16-year-old agender student who was burned when another student set Sasha’s skirt on fire. Sasha’s family encouraged education, instead of criminal punishment for the student who committed the crime. The article asks, “How do we create classrooms and schools where each child, parent, and staff member’s unique, beautiful self is appreciated and nurtured?” The article states that building safe LGBTQ communities within schools for adults and students, while incorporating LGBTQ people, their accomplishments, and struggles, into the curriculum are ways to create a more inclusive, empathic school. 

My first thought after reading this article was how far we are from having open LGBTQ discussions in schools. These conversations need to begin in elementary school, normalizing the idea of pronoun choice, and accepting everyone for who they are. The backlash from parents would be overwhelming. I think that gender identity is highly complex and misunderstood by most, making it an even more difficult topic for discussion. Sexual orientation, still a difficult conversation in school, seems to be more easily accepted. One thing from the article that I did find interesting was the discussion about ‘bullies’. I agree that focusing on bullying and not the underlying issues- fails to address the cause. Schools deal with bullying reactively, as situations arise.  It’s time we become proactive, not just talking about what a bully is, but by addressing the social issues that spark bullying and challenging those ideas. 

The video “Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC”, addresses the importance of respecting and honoring others by using their preferred pronouns, asking questions, and accepting people as they are. I really like the idea of the book and the conversations that it could promote. However, I’m not sure it would be easily accepted by parents in the school district I work in. 

Lastly, the document on Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Guidance for Rhode Island Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students is a great resource for schools to use to navigate this very difficult topic. I am pleased to see that RI has taken a progressive stance on LGBTQ rights in schools. This progressive guidance provides a supportive atmosphere for future LGBTQ discussions between schools, families and students.

Ready to begin the conversations in school, great resource here: Be Prepared for LGBTQ+ Questions and Concerns

Teach Out Proposal

 The Teach Out Project Proposal

This is the first step in brainstorming your final project in this class.  Please bring this document to class on March 4  and we will spend the day talking about the projects. This is just the planning stage – no formalities!

CHOOSE A TEXT: Review your whole blog to remind yourself about what we have read so far in class. What texts have stayed with you so far? What articles inspire you?  What topic matters most to you in terms of your own work? Are there any of these texts that you would like to share with others in your life?  I am most interested in using Lisa Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue” and Rodriguez, “Aria” and Collier, “Teaching Multilingual Children”. Recognizing the culture of power and how it affects Newcomers and their families ability to access healthcare, and  begin school.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH? Are there people in your life with whom you would really like to talk about these texts? Colleagues? Students? Family members? Friends? Children? I’d like to have this discussion with the other nurses in my district. Many Newcomer students have a delayed start into school because their families don’t have clear instructions on how to access our healthcare system and what medical documentation is needed to begin school. I

WHAT FORMAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU? Individual interview? Small group discussion? Art activity? Professional development workshop? Etc? I’m not sure yet what format - but I think either a small group discussion or a professional development workshop.

What's In A Name? Cultural Assimilation

 

This week's readings included excerpts from “Teaching Multilingual Children” by Virginia Collier and “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez. The most important message that I took from both of these excerpts was the importance of recognizing and honoring the cultural identity of students. In Teaching Multilingual Children, Collier uses 7 guidelines to discuss how important a child’s native language and culture is for teaching and learning English as a second language. In the excerpt “Aria”, Rodriguez writes about the difficulties of assimilating into a new culture and learning a new language, as well as the sadness and loss that came from leaving behind his native culture to fit into a new one. 

What’s in a name? Few things are more important and thought-provoking than choosing a name for your child. It is one of the most identifying pieces of information that your child will carry for the rest of their lives. In many cultures, names are chosen and combined to represent the melding of two families. Before the birth of my first child, I spent months searching/ discussing/debating with my husband over the name of our first daughter. Do we choose a family name? Something to honor our culture? A meaningful name from my childhood? A name that brings me joy? So many thoughts and ideas to consider, undoubtedly a huge task. Finally, you settle on the perfect name for your beloved child, a name that means a great deal to your family, one that both you and your child are proud of, and you move to a new country. With heartbreaking sadness and frustration, the name that you’ve chosen with such care, is now mispronounced, shortened, and unrecognizable. Worse, your child wants to fit in so badly, and/ or doesn’t have the English language skills to correct the mistake, that they allow others to “Americanize” their name. Talk about losing a piece of your cultural identity! This happens every day in the school I work in. 

Although the readings for this week focused more on learning English as a second language, they kept bringing me back to the importance of saying our newcomer’s names correctly. I think about how good I feel when someone I’ve just met remembers my name at the end of our conversation. I feel seen, heard, accepted, and important. Imagine how amazing these students feel when we make the effort to learn their names, learn to pronounce them correctly, and then use them. In a school that has a high population of newcomers, the least I can do is make it my goal to learn and pronounce all the students’ names correctly. 

A worthy watch: Getting it right; why pronouncing names correctly matters | Gerardo Ochoa | 

Video: Your name is your crown, so wear it | Toluwanimi Obiwole