Critical Conversations create a better classroom: Blog #2

 

To create instruction that composes experiences for a wide range of audiences we first have to create a classroom that can bring about those experiences. The first step in that process comes from listening and speaking. The big question how we form critical conversations and how do we teach those to create those conversations? A big step forward is to create a classroom where students are not hindered by their own biases and the biases of their educators. There is no formal way to absolutely get rid of our biases, but we can most certainly teach our students how critically think on those biases to make way for a place where all of them can feel safe and enlightened. On page 151 of Tricia Ebarvia’s book Get Free she says that a quiet room doesn’t guarantee listening, just like a loud room doesn’t mean chaos. I believe that in the right circumstance every classroom can become a place where critical conversations can become the center of the classroom where each student is heard, and each student has the turn to speak.

That said it is up to us as teachers and educators to lead an example of what good conversations are and to help guide our students in a direction that leads to respectfulness in their conversations with their peers. Problems can arise where people can mistake debates as conversations, but debates most of the time don’t turn out to be conversations. It mainly turns into people shouting and rambling about why they are right and vice versa. In order to apply an antibias lens  we must first lose the rose-colored glasses and seek out knowledge in ways where our thinking can be limited or wrong (p.153). Ebarvia mentions five values that can be helpful guides in teaching authentic, meaningfulness, and rigorous conversations. Those three values are open-mindedness, flexibility, curiosity, care, and humility. As an educator I can see how these five values can be useful in the classroom, but for me personally curiosity and open-mindedness are the biggest values that can be taught.

That being said, having rules and boundaries can bring order and help guide students from opinion and informed knowledge. In the classroom there will be students who talk, those who stay quiet, and those who don’t get the chance to speak. That’s why when starting a unit that requires a lot of class discussion as them first what they believe makes a good conversation. It starts with listening and navigating what others say. Reflect, revisit, and revise was mentioned on page 173 along with What I heard, think, and wonder. These two strategies show great potential when first introducing critical conversations in your classroom. With the reflect, revisit, and revise it allows the students to reflect on the text before discussion happens in class. When the conversations start, and the discussion kicks off different points of view are being shared. They then go back and revisit and see if what they heard changed their perspective on the matter which then brings in more conversations.

With the strategy what I heard, think, and wonder is an after the fact strategy. When the discussion has concluded the students reflect by answering questions of what they heard during the discussion. What they think about the discussion and what they wonder about in addition to what was being said. It’s s way for students to self-reflect and we don’t see that very much in the classroom. After they get done answering their questions, they talk to their peers about what they wrote further bringing in critical conversations into the classroom. However, these may be the Harkness method is the overall method into critical conversations. Because it brings in all the strategies that Ebarvia mentions in chapter four of the book. The fact that it ends with this method means that this is the overall collection of what critical conversations can be and how they can create an antibias classroom.

Ebarvia, T., Cherry-Paul, S., Johnson, A., Osborn, A., Parker, K. N., & Silvas, T. (2024). Get free: Anti-bias literacy instruction for stronger readers, writers, and thinkers. Corwin, a SAGE Company. 

We are Educators: Blog #1

 As an educator it is important to realize that we take ourselves into the classroom. With that we also take our biases with us. Though we may not realize it they are apart of us that help process our decision-making. As an educator we progress every day with our professional experiences, but often not it is our personal and social identities that can influence our teaching. As fresh out of college teacher our knowledge is limited with the curriculum that our school places on us, so we learn alongside the students. However, as we teach and gain knowledge over the years, we start to use our bias on the knowledge that is gathered throughout those years and start to question and feel discouraged on how much knowledge our students really know. Some will say knowledge is power but sometimes that power can cause harm to our students. We start to question their ability to fundamentally understand the information that is placed upon them and that makes them feel discouraged on wanting to learn. As teachers and educators, we need to learn that just because we know the knowledge from teaching that information over there years, we ourselves have to understand that the students coming into the classroom on that first day do not have the knowledge or the understanding of that material.

To the students everything is new so we must have patience and understanding that it will take time for them to understand the material in a way that we understand it. With that our experiences of being a student can bring in nostalgia as we teach something that was once taught to us. There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel nostalgic about teaching a certain curriculum or topic, but if we give into that nostalgia, it can harm the students and become counterproductive. We become trapped in what seems like a loop of feelings because one previous class had such excellent work, but the current class doesn’t meet that kind of expectations. That is when nostalgia becomes deadly because then we start to focus on what the current students lack instead of what their strengths are. We need to understand that not every class is going to be the same and not every sibling, cousin, or family member related to each other that comes into your classroom is going to act the same way.

There are so many ways biases can impact the way we teach and interact with our students. I, however, do not want my biases to impact the way my students learn. Each person has their own biases and their own experiences that they bring into that school building and into that classroom. I am aware that my biases make me naive in certain aspects of life. What I do have control over, and you as well, is how we use our knowledge on what we do know and what we don’t know. When it comes to my teaching in the English Language Arts, I want all my students to know that I will bring in knowledge that represents them. Reflecting and becoming aware of your biases is the first step in becoming a great teacher and educator for your students.

To help with teaching the impact I will have on my students it all comes down to what exactly I teach. Changing the texts every few years to get new insight on how students think will keep me in the position of a learn alongside my students. Implementing texts that resonate with students of all backgrounds can help improve their overall experience in the classroom, and it teaches other students about those experience creating new ones. Keeping work from students of previous years can help show students that not everybody thinks alike, and each one had their own opinion on the information that was given. It also shows them that they have that kind of ability within themselves as well. We need to understand that our own experiences can affect the way we teach and interact.

Ebarvia, T., Cherry-Paul, S., Johnson, A., Osborn, A., Parker, K. N., & Silvas, T. (2024). Get free: Anti-bias literacy instruction for stronger readers, writers, and thinkers. Corwin, a SAGE Company.