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Over the course of this semester, our class has studied, discussed, and
debated numerous topics that deal with social constructs and how it relates to us as
future teachers. I can honestly say that I have taken a much larger perspective on
certain issues throughout this class, due to the in-depth topics that will prepare me
in the classroom. I have compiled various sources that relate to my subject area of
teaching, as well as involving the information learned throughout this class.
My first source is a video found from teachers.tv. This video is great for
elementary teachers because it provides successful approaches to engage boys in
their writing skills. Because gender gap is greatest in writing in elementary schools,
this video is particularly useful to keep in mind for my teaching techniques in the
near future. For example, one of the strategies to get boys interested in writing is to
incorporate an engaging video with things they are already familiar with. Then, they
can express their ideas more easily when writing about the video, as well as actually
enjoy what they are writing. The next strategy I will incorporate into my lessons for
writing is to allow use of computer games, websites, and email to expand on
different writing utensils. Using technology offers a wide variety of different reading
and writing skills, which will most likely interest young boys. Another strategy has
to deal with how boys thrive on competitive tasks. This is where, in the video, the
teacher gives a small award to the “writer of the week”. I feel this is an awesome
idea because it really allows students to feel a sense of accomplishment and want to
strive to do well. It pushes boys in a positive way to work hard in their writings. The
last strategy I found to be helpful is having the students do “peer marking”. This is
where the students look over one another’s papers and help them add to their ideas
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or correct punctuation. Doing this definitely helps boys work on their grammar, as
well as making them more apt to check their work when they’re done. Sometimes
boys get into the habit of just letting the teacher edit the paper for them, rather than
going back and checking it for themselves.
Moreover, this video relates to the chapter called “Misreading Masculinity” in
our book Gender in Education. Thomas Newkirk (2002) states, “Boys’ preferences in
reading and writing narratives are more closely aligned with visually mediated
storytelling—film, TV, video games, computer graphics.” (p. 317.) This video proves
Newkirk’s statement to be true because it definitely showed how integrating all of
this technology into a writing lesson can actually get young boys excited to write.
Being familiar with these boys’ up-to-date interests can make them that much better
of a writer, even if it means seeing movies or TV that you might not normally watch.
As future teachers, we need to help these boys struggling to overcome their negative
perceptions of themselves as writers. Allowing them to express their ideas in
different ways will encourage them to enjoy writing. By doing so, us teachers are
accustoming to standard five—motivation and management. This means that with
the different techniques used for lessons on writing, we have achieved by creating
learning environments that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement
in learning, and self-motivation.
The second source I have found is from the encyclopedia Gender and
Education. The section I am closely looking at is called “Writing”. This section is all
about how gender roles play a role in how elementary students write in the
classroom. As a communication arts and literature specialty major, this information
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is very useful for me to know as a future teacher. One approach given by Barbara
Bank (2007) to support both gendered students’ writing is to “accept boys’ and girls’
writing topics, styles, genres, and other preferences”, as well as “bend student’s
writing away from recreating gender stereotypes” (p. 461). She also states,
“teachers need to be aware that the need for female and male students to present
themselves to their peers and their teachers as feminine and masculine will always
influence students’ writing processes, their views of themselves as writers, and the
content and style of their writing” (p. 462) This last quote by Barbara Bank basically
means that each gender is going to follow the social norms and write the way a
specific gender would “normally” write. Throughout the semester, our class
discussed how people are programmed to act the stereotypical way that a female or
male should act starting from birth. When people don’t act “normal” for their
gender, they are considered to be less feminine or masculine. In our book Race,
Class, and Gender in the United States, Judith Lorber (2007) states, “Children learn to
walk, talk, and gesture the way their social group says girls and boys should” (p. 57).
This is why gender influences students’ writings. Because they follow the social
norm of being female or male, it influences their writing processes and views of
themselves as writers, like Barbara Bank stated above. All of this information goes
with standard five – a teacher must be able to use an understanding of individual
and group motivation and behavior. Not only should teachers understand that their
students are going to most likely follow the stereotypical approaches to writing, but
they should also encourage student’s to accept others, as well as the topics for
writings that they are most interested in. Gender definitely affects the way students
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write, so being aware of this, as a teacher will improve my motivation and strategies
used in the classroom.
The third source I found interesting was from the book What Successful
Teachers Do in Diverse Classrooms. This book gives seventy-one strategies to use in
the classroom for new teachers coming into the field. The strategy that I found to be
valuable was “use a variety of print materials to inspire student reading and
writing”. Many students get bored and unengaged with a standard classroom book,
but by using outside resources like newspapers, magazines, Internet, community
members, etc. students will become more enthusiastic and much more willing to do
their school work. These resources can also provide more opportunities for better
reading and writing in the classroom. This article (2006) states that, “in the highsocioeconomic status classrooms, poetry, magazines, newspaper articles, and text
materials were displayed prominently with student-authored work on specific
topics. In the low-SES classrooms, worksheets are the primary form of print
material and few examples of extended student writing occurred” (p. 102). This
information brought me to thinking about the social construct of social class and
how low and high-socioeconomic schools can differ for us as teachers. It is
important that no matter what school we end up in, we accommodate to that school
to provide the same opportunities. We have talked about how sometimes in these
lower socioeconomic schools, many of the students don’t seem to care as much, but
maybe it’s because sometimes the teacher’s don’t seem to put the effort in as much
to provide a good education. It could also be because there aren’t enough funds and
resources to provide for a good education; therefore, the student’s aren’t as
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enthused about school as the higher class schools. Like the book says, teachers can
find parents or community members, their own magazines or newspapers, or other
resources to accommodate to a better education, no matter what school we are
teaching at. It also doesn’t hurt to communicate with the administrator of the school
and try to get help with finding resources in a lower socioeconomic school. Standard
ten follows states that a teacher must be able to communicate and interact with
parents or guardians, families, school colleagues, and the community to support
student learning and well being. By communicating with people from the
community or within the school, teachers can find resources to further their
students’ education.
The fourth source is from a website provided by PBS Kids and is educational
for anyone from students to teachers, or parents to their kids. The part of the site
that I looked closely at is the lesson plans for teachers and parents. There are tips,
lesson plans, and activities that help young students learn more about cultural
diversity in the classroom. This is an awesome resource to have as a teacher because
it provides multicultural lesson plan ideas to accommodate into your own
elementary classroom, specifically to the subject area teaching. Some of the ideas
that I will without a doubt incorporate into my lessons for literature are: having the
students interview one another and write about their background and culture;
create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast each other’s cultures; provide
multicultural videos and have them write about it; read several different books that
include different cultures and diversity; bring in community or family members to
speak to the students on their cultural background; have the students write about a
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different country and explore with different resources; or and even having a
classroom pen pal from another country. All of these resources are a fun way for
students to learn about different cultures from their own. Additionally, I will make a
point to students that they need to accept others and their different cultural
background. As discussed in this class, we are going to face issues in the classroom
with children teasing others because of their culture and background. The problem
is if the class is full of almost all of the same race and ethnicity, the others who aren’t
in that category, the minorities, are looked at as being different. It is our job as
teachers to educate all of the students the different cultures and how everyone is
different. Furthermore, we need to resolve conflict. Adding the multicultural lessons
allows students to communicate and learn about each other’s cultures, leading them
away from all of the teasing and bullying. In our book Race, Class, and Gender in the
United States, Genaro Armas (2007) states, “in 2050, minorities will make up half of
the population” (p. 203). This is useful information to know because obviously there
is going to be a much larger group of the minorities in the future classroom. This
also leads to another discussion brought up in class – teachers being careful not to
judge their students before knowing them. This basically means that when teachers
receive a class list before getting to know their students, they notice names that look
“different”, in terms of ethnicity, and automatically assume them to be different.
On the whole, this source can help teachers educate students about all of the
different cultures and backgrounds. By doing so, they are following standard
three—a teacher must understand how students differ in their approaches to
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learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to students with
diverse backgrounds.
The fifth source I found is from the periodical Childhood Education: Infancy
Through Early Adolescence. The article “Talking to Children About Race: The
Importance of Inviting Difficult Conversations” is about how adults are always
avoiding the subject of race. The fact is, avoiding telling children about race only
causes racism without them even being aware of it. Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson
(2006) states, “For some children, the challenges of racism presented obstacles for
them on a daily basis” (p. 14). She then goes on to tell about her observations in a
first grade classroom. One story was about how at recess the white girls and black
girls segregate from each other automatically. Another story was when the teacher
read a story with a black Santa Claus in it, the white students unconsciously pointed
out that Santa Claus couldn’t be black. The steps they tell us as teachers to take are
to first talk about race to children and provide multicultural activities in the
classroom. If adults don’t talk to children about race, they will go through life
believing and following the stereotypes of different cultured people. They will
furthermore think that it isn’t wrong to discriminate against others because no one
told them it was wrong. Another way to deal with this as teachers is to read books
that deal directly and indirectly with issues of race and racism. These books can give
students an idea of the way other cultures work and afterwards take the children’s
interests, curiosities, and questions seriously and provide appropriate resources.
The last suggestion for books being read is to include black characters in a range of
literature—not just literature about black history. Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson states,
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“The books deepened their sense of community and built the trust critical to open
conversations about race”, (p. 20) and that these approaches “have enabled children
to perceive school as a place where conversations about race are considered valid
and important.” In our book Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, Beverly
Daniel Tatum’s section “Defining Racism: Can We Talk?” gets to the point of how
there is still racism today without people knowing it. People today are constantly
being exposed to misinformation about others, or the typical stereotypes of others.
This information is the reason people have set in their mind the negative
perceptions of others who are of a different race. Tatum (1997) states, “The impact
of racism begins early. Even in our preschool years, we are exposed to
misinformation about people different from ourselves” (p. 123). Because even
young children are continuously being exposed to the stereotypes set by society, it is
important as teachers to talk about the social construct of race and educate them
what is right and wrong with this social construct. By doing so, teachers are
following standard nine—a teacher must be a reflective practitioner who
continually evaluates the effects of choices and actions on others. Making sure that
every treats each other equally is key to a successful classroom.
Lastly, the sixth source is from the Highland Council Education, Culture, and
Sport Service site. The main topic I found worthy of note was about self-esteem and
how learning and teaching should meet the needs of the whole learner. The site
offers advice to teachers for accommodating to students self-esteem to make it a
positive one. One advice is to encourage a variety of inclusive group activities. For
example, in a second grade class for English, I could have the students work with
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pairs on assignments dealing with prefixes and suffixes. They together can write
sentences using prefix and suffix words, using the dictionary to make sure the word
is being used correctly in a sentence. Another advice teachers to boost self-esteem
are to use circle time as a core strategy. A few more are: monitor bullying and take
affirmative action; provide trust-building activities; use outside organizations to
promote and recognize achievement of all types; use behavior and reward policy;
bring role models into classroom; encourage goals for every individual; and
exploring concepts around identity through a collage, timeline autobiographies,
scrapbooks, etc. All of these should be taken into consideration to positively
influences every student’s self regard. People don’t realize how much just these
small things and the way teacher’s present them can truly make a difference in a
child’s life where they are trying to find themselves. This closely links to the chapter
“Diversity in Girls’ Experiences” in our book Gender in Education. Although this
chapter only discusses girl’s self esteem, it relates to the site I found in many ways.
The authors state (2002), “low self-regard has been associated with low personal
aspirations (both academic and career goals, and in some cases, with low academic
achievement”, (p. 499). I feel this quote goes for both male and female adolescents.
These adolescents are going through a time in their life where they are trying to find
their self-identity. They are trying to fit in or just figure out what their main interest
are. Sometimes they are worried what others will think of them when they make
choices. As a teacher, it is critical to encourage both genders in ways to help them
make goals for themselves and build their self-esteem so they don’t have low
academic achievement. Teachers will have students who might not have the most
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encouraging home life or any one in life that really believes in them. Without that
positive encouragement in their adolescent years, it only pushes these students to
follow a negative lifestyle full of low self-esteem. By communicating with your
students in a positive way, you can only hope they understand that someone in their
life does believe in them. This follows stand six—a teacher must be able to use
communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive
interaction in the classroom. If teachers aren’t encouraging, the student may lack the
motivation to succeed, resulting in low self-esteem.
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WORKS CITED
Bank, Barbara J. (2007). Writing. In the Gender and Education Encyclopedia (Vol. 1,
p. 457-462). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Bartlett, Louise. (28 April 2006). Video from teachers.tv. KS2 Literacy – Boys’ Writing
1. Retrieved April 18, 2009 from http://www.teachers.tv/video/1443.
Copenhaver-Johnson, Jeane. (Fall 2006). Talking to Children About Race: The
Importance of Inviting Difficult Coverstions. Childhood Education: Journal of
the Association for Childhood Education International, 12-21.
Highland Council Education, Culture, and Sport Service 2008. Self-Esteem. Retrieved
April 18, 2009, from http://www.highlandschoolsvirtualib.org.uk/ltt/whole_learner/esteem.htm
PBS Kids. Arthur for Parents and Teachers 2009. Arthur’s World Neighborhood.
Retrieved April 18, 2009, from
http://pbskids.org/arthur/parentsteachers/lesson/world/
Rothenberg, Paula S. 2007. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States (7th Ed.).
New Jersey: Worth Publishers.
Jossey-Bass. 2002. The Jossey-Bass Reader on Gender in Education. San Fransciso:
Joseph Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Glasgow, Neal A; McNary, Sarah J.; and Hicks, Cathy D. (2006). What Successful
Teachers Do in Diverse Classrooms. In Strategy 45: Use a variety of print
materials to inspire student reading and writing. (p. 102-103). Thousand
Oaks, California: Corwin Press.