Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change By Ira Shor

"In a curriculum that encourages, student questioning, the teacher
must avoid, a unilateral transfer of knowledge. She or he helps students' develop
their intellectual and emotional powers to examine their learning
in school, their everyday experience, and the conditions in society. Empowered
students make meaning and act from reflection, instead of
memorizing facts and value, handed to them."
This defines what true learning can develop from. A traditional pedagogy requires students to sit, listen and take in information that is expected to form an impact on the student. When a student can challenge information and teaching in the right way and form connections with material in class they form a better understanding of the curriculum and it will stay with them for a lifetime.  

"School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class
children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from
lower-income homes and in community colleges, Moreover. testing policies are political choices, whether to use student- centered, multicultural, and portfolio assessments or to use teacher-centered tests or
standardized exams in which women and minorities have traditionally scored lower than men and whites"
This quote from the texts reminds me of the beginning of class when we learned about the culture of power. I believe that the traditional pedagogy was created by the culture of power to help guarantee success for those specific individuals and hold back the other individuals who were not a part of that culture. As time went on, the creation of this culture was forgotten in the sense that it was intended and instead of trying to implement a new pedagogy we became ignorant to the very means that it was intended. To hold back the other cultures and make it harder for them to succeed in the academic and professional world. 

"The educator cannot start with knowledge already organized and proceeded to go out in doses. Anything which can be called a study whether arithmetic, history, geography, or one of the natural sciences must be derived from materials which at the outset fall within the scope of ordinary life experience.
When education is based in theory and practice upon experience, it goes without saying that the organized subject matter of the adult and the specialist cannot
provide the starting point. Nevertheless, it represents the goal toward
which education should continuously move."
This part from the text discusses the traditional pedagogy again and describes the relay of information to be unhelpful to the student when they cannot relate it to their own personal experience. When education holds relevance to the student it is instilled in them in a relatable way in which they value the information to real world practical relevance. 

Here is a video to speaker Donald Clark who describes that there has been more of a change in pedagogy in classrooms in the last 10 years than the last THOUSAND years. 

Albert Einstein

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. 

Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilised in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. (Albert Einstein, 1949, On Education)

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

This author argues that the school system has had problems with determining the realm of achievement for certain individuals within the mathematical and linguistic areas.
It is said in the reading that students who are labeled as "low functioning" are ofter too harshly criticized as such.
Children with disabilities can learn and have a full and rich life. The challenge is not in educating them as much as it is in erasing the negative attitudes and connotations associated with the predetermined beliefs based around "low functioning" and disabled students.
Having more teachers like Shayne Robbins will further progress the achievements of students with disabilities.
In Shayne's class, she had students who were down syndrome and one of which Isaac Johnson who had a wonderful experience of an enriching learning environment through her teachings.
Isaac loved the book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak and Shayne created an opportunity to delve into the book through learning with this in mind.
She allowed the students to create their own play surrounding this book and let Isaac be Max. Isaac always made a lot of noise in regard to this book and where other teachers would describe the noise as a distraction to circle time, his teacher described his noises as excited responses to the curriculum.
With teachers like this, we can advance opportunities for students and the silly attitudes that we have for people with disabilities being low functioning or not able to learn and enrich their lives.
Schools have taken a very narrow attitude in determining student intellect.
The belief of a "thoughtful mind" has been through successes in testing in areas of linguistics and mathematics.
When children score low in these areas they are rated by those scores in their capabilities.
When teaching methods are changed, these abilities may thrive and when predetermined marks become the consensus in determining a child's capabilities it is a disservice to the student.
Shayne disregarded the determined ability of the student by that of these tests and instead regarded these tests are a failed attempt at understanding the needs of the student and their other abilities. She took the time to get to know her students and based their curriculum around the individual.
Because she understood that education was not that of conformity and masses but on the individual person.
This to me is a successful teacher.
This video shows "disabled artists" who have created beautiful art pieces and show true innovation and ability.

Promising Practices- Christopher Emdin

During this lecture, Christopher Emdin spoke to us after the workshops we attended.
He told us about the way the pedagogy in schools is not helping the youth of today.
He introduced his idea of hip hop education and called upon people in the audience to come in a circle and start a rap session. He would go on and start eloquently forming rhymes and words that went together and were detailed, flowed and were well articulated. He integrated words I had never heard before but the message was there.
He showed videos of classrooms from the beginning of education to current education and it had not changed at all.
The way that we teach children has been the same since we segregated schools.
it's no wonder that the urban youth doesn't feel compelled to learn- we separated them and told them a long time ago that they weren't allowed to be educated to a certain extent and now we want them to sit down, be quiet and listen to us?
Especially when we have two different ways of listening we cannot expect children to thrive in a schooling system that is rigid, dry and unrewarding.
Christoper said "post secondary education is racially determined" during his speech.
I think this speaks to the way the pedagogy is in school and how it doesn't speak to everyone not just the urban youth. But the big focus was on "hip hop education" and how we do not have a current system that speaks to kids.
This speech reminded me of three readings we have done in class.
The first one is "Why can't she can't she remember that" because the author Terry Miers talks about how implementing an important relevance with kids and characters help form an understanding of what and what not to value in life. If we teach kids young that people of color, men, women, and disabled individuals are all of equal importance for the advancement of our culture it would help the future teachers that are being read these stories to change the pedagogy of their future. By breaking the mold of an old stereotypical pedagogy we can create a new world, as the keynote speaker says.
Another reading this speech reminded me of was The Silenced Dialouge by Lisa Delpit.
She also talks about the importance of addressing the culture of power and the ignorant stereo types places in publications and stories. By reassesing value and importance we reassess and change education. By understanding that all students need to be taught their own way (we are not teaching one culture, we are teaching many) we can change the pedagogy to be more engaging, interesting, and speak to all individuals. 
The third reading that this speech reminded me of was by Ira Shor "Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change" who additionally talks about changing the current pedagogy. Students should not to be expected to be sponges for mass implemented state regulated information, but for information that will transform their way of thinking. If we teach children something that is true, they will value it and keep it with them forever. If we speak to the children who feel like they've been forgotten from the education system and it's labeling, standardized testing and boring lectures then we can spark a change in a pedagogy that does not currently excite students to their greatest ability.
"The mind is a terrible thing to waste"
This quote is derived from the advertising agency Young & Rubicam and goes back more than four decades. 
I believe the key note speakers point was that race is still a barrier and there is a system of segregation in schools still by catering to the culture of power.
Here is a ted talk by the keynote speaker.

Here is a link to a webpage about old ads about the mind being a terrible thing to waste : link.
Here is a video of someone labeling our current pedagogy as an ingrained DNA of teaching.

Here is a link to helping change the fundamental building blocks.

Literacy with an Attitude

This author argues that the difference in pedagogy between high performing learners and low performing learners is significantly different and that those students are treated differently in the classroom when they are separated by said biases. The reading suggests that the low performing students are declared as such in secondary school and the cycle of bad teaching continues. By tracking students with state tests and assessments and declaring them low performing, the pedagogy of the school system implements different methods of teaching in the school system by the separation of classes. The lower performing students will have teachers who spend most of the class time trying to regain control over their room than helping students learn and implementing new teaching methods to inspire them. The higher performing students are held to an obvious higher standard and it is suggested in this reading that the state assessments could be implemented to track these students and prepare them for jobs of power and further implementing the role of pedagogy we face today.
The title "Literacy with an Attitude" is described by the author as a result of what happens with students who meet the right teacher, pedagogy, and resources and gain the power of knowledge. This enlightenment gives us a new literacy from a student. The power of knowledge becomes something beautiful to a student who may have been tracked and stuck into a cookie cutter assessment. When they gain the right teacher and tools they become a new force- maybe a future teacher or political power who can break the strict and harmful tracking pedagogy that is implemented within the culture of schools.
Comments:
This reading reminded me of the movie we watched in class. Freedom Writers  was a wonderful example of how empowering students could make them feel so excited and energetic to learn new things and implement change.
If we could do this more and more I'm sure there would be a lot of good to come from this.
Here is a video from the real teacher, Erin Gruwell who does a Ted talk on implementing change.

Becoming Something Different -- Fairbanks, Crooks and Arial

Becoming Something Different -- Fairbanks, Crooks and Arial

These authors argue that the pedagogy for an english speaking native is a very particular form of schooling and they followed six girls- the one in the story being Esme who had a difficult time adapting to the culture and schooling.
These authors followed Esme from sixth to eighth grade and documented her struggles as a student.
When she was actually helped in school it was under the wrong reasons.
For example, when she got extra help in school it was because she was identified as an underachiever or someone who was academically a low performer.  This was not to say that she was not smart but the perceptions she formed of herself was in direct relation to the school's approach in schooling her.
By labeling a student as a "low performer" because the pedagogy of the teacher does not translate to the culture of the student, they are hurting the student's perception and confidence in themselves.
Throughout school Esme formed social bonds and eventually started becoming a well performing student. She was eventually enrolled in an honors social studies and even helped other students in her class. She still however described herself as "kind of smart". The cultural norms that were within her family were described as limitations to completing high school and Esme voiced her concern and anxiety about being afforded to attend college. She says that she would not want her parents to be concerned with raising money for college and that it seemed out of her reach. Her parents were working class and had never been to college themselves- she would be the first of her family to enroll. Esme's wishes for herself ended at a high school education and becoming a working class individual as well due to the social strain of obtaining a college degree.
This reading made it apparent that these social conformities exist and that certain pedagogies label students as "low performing" when they should not be labeled at all. At times Esme voiced her frustrations in asking a question and it being answered in a way that did not make any sense to her.
There is no growth in this and during a whole year of schooling Esme did not understand her teacher and was placed to a lower level where she was led by the hand. When she finally understood the schooling at a lower level her frustrations became "the work was too easy" and she started helping others.

Comments: I believe that there is a larger change that should happen in the classroom with people who are assimilating to the English speaking culture. When this happens students should not be placed in a lower level labeled class but the education system should be implementing an area where they are taught in the right context.

This link lists many different methods in supporting ESL students.
Here is an excerpt from the page....

Social, Emotional and Developmental Needs

1. Cultural Awareness

All teachers should take a moment to self-reflect about their own understandings and questions in regard to cultural differences. Take the time to learn about different cultures, gestures, and traditions and celebrate these differences with all of the students in the classroom. Encourage all students to share their culture with classmates.

2. Empathize

Try to imagine how overwhelming it must feel to leave your home country and family members while trying to assimilate, learn, and socialize in a foreign language. Be aware that ESL students will be in culture shock and feel highly alienated for some time. Garner patience and understand that it will take time for ESL students to talk, as a silent period is highly expected. Smile and show support to your best ability.

3. Provide A Comfort Zone

Assess where the ESL student's abilities are in relation to basic survival skills and needs. Assign a friendly and welcoming buddy to assist with common school locations, requirements, and routines. If possible, keep an extra eye out during busy transition times to assure the student gets to the correct location. If possible, find someone in the school, another classmate, parent or volunteer that may speak the student's language. Connecting the student with someone who speaks his/her native language will provide a great deal of comfort.

4. Spotlight Respect For All Cultures

Reaffirm the message about being supportive of one another, kind, understanding and patient. Encourage everyone to openly talk about his or her personal culture, traditions, and languages. Have parties celebrating the different cultures in the class, sharing music, historical family photos, dances, games, food and traditions. Hold discussions about the history of America, immigration, and the value of diversity and differences. Encourage students to share their own stories of immigration, passed down from generation to generation.

5. Community

If parents and/or guardians do not speak English, request an interpreter if possible for all school communication, including parties, conferences and special events. Invite parents to all school community functions to encourage and foster a sense of belonging. If possible, introduce other students and/or families who speak the same language as the ESL student. Sharing cultural commonalities will provide strong bonds for students, parents, and teachers.

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ESL Pedagogy, Methods, and Strategies

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6. Assess Student Informally

Assess ESL students on an informal basis when they first arrive to class, and ongoing during the school year. It is imperative to primarily check for understanding in regard to basic and social needs. Pay attention from the sideline to see if they know numbers, letters, and/or short English phrases. Continuously check for comprehension and growth informally, make notes, and never be afraid to raise the bar and challenge a bit.

7. Don't Discourage Native Language Use

With all good intentions, this is a common mistake teachers can make. ESL students who have a stronger foundation of their native language will have a shorter route to acquiring English. Don't discourage native language use, as this will result in negative feelings about the student's language, culture, and may cause delay in English language acquisition. Provide free time for the ESL student to read and write in their native language.

8. Use Manipulatives, Visuals, Games, Music and Hands-On Activities in the Classroom

According to William Glaser, we learn 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others. ESL students do exceptionally well when this theory is followed. Involve them in projects that will encourage them to talk as much as possible with their classmates. Some ideas for projects are the following: cooking (following easy directions), art (drawing, painting, sculpture), musical activities (music provides an amazing platform for learning), and acting (for example, charades).

9. Provide Various Opportunities For Talking and Consider Seat Placement

It is very important to consider seat placement in the classroom for the ESL student. All too often, ESL students are seated in the back of the classroom, which leads to a great lack of contribution, listening, and participation. Try and seat the ESL student close to the front, especially with other students who are inviting and enjoy conversation. Provide the most opportunities as possible for talking and listening to others in the class via group work. You will be surprised how much shorter the silent period will end.

10. Communicate with the ESL teacher

Maintain communication with the ESL teacher as much as possible. The sooner both teachers are working together, the quicker the student will learn English. Be open to the ESL teacher's suggestions, let him/her share in the modification of classwork, and invite the ESL teacher into your classroom. If there is a concern, a question, or if you simply need some advice, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Build this open communication bridge together, as both teachers are there to support and help the ESL student succeed.

Teaching After Brown v Board of Education

These speakers argue that the success rate of students with a different ethnicity vary drastically and that there are no real funding or implementations in helping to correct the gap post secondary education creates for the future of our generation. I agreed and disagreed with the speakers. Gloria mentioned that in the past it was feasible for a person to exit high school and go into the workforce or military and have it be financially stable in providing for a family or themselves. Now our culture and economic deficits require us all to achieve a post secondary education. With this being hard for the people in the culture of power I shudder to think what it is like to other people who do not have the opportunities provided to them that they so rightfully deserve. The "No child left behind" policy had to be pulled off the table because it was literally IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to achieve that notion. How sad is that? That a child will not be able to achieve an education because they are either unstimulated, unaccustomed or just from a low income family that cannot provide the child with the schooling they need to succeed. I agree that the pedagogy we have implemented in our culture is very wrong and very hard for anyone to achieve. We should be investing money in our teachers and boards of education to fire those who are NOT implementing change and hiring proactive people to take the place of those who continue to enforce our current flawed pedagogy. I agree with Gloria when she says that we need more people to teach us that are culturally different from the white student and that it would benefit everybody to show that those people should be respected and a model for changing the pedagogy and forming and implementing one that matched a different culture than just the culture of power. 

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