I am kind of running out of steam on these things because I feel like I am always saying the same thing, but, I feel like the idea of home visits is great, except for once again, it is very time consuming and difficult to manage. The thing that I think is more valuable to take from Amanti, and several of the other people writing about effective educating practices, is the importance of getting to know our students as people that exist outside the walls of our classroom and making connections with them.
Of course, we often forget how important role of knowing about a student’s home life is, if they have support from an educational standpoint, or if there are things that may hinder them from actively participating in our class, and sometimes a student won’t disclose some of these things to us as teachers. I am not saying that we need to know every little detail about a child’s home, but in this world of a constant search for other perspectives, we may find that meeting and talking to parents or guardians may give us a very valuable new perspective that will aid in more successful learning experiences for the student.
Making a segway on that note of perspective taking, I like the idea that English classes should really be more like cultural studies classes, and I think that they are slowly but surely getting to that point. I don’t know that it is necessary to rename them, although that may make it more apparent to outsiders what really is the purpose of the class. Finding and agreeing on that purpose and having clear objectives and reasons for why we are teaching the things that we do is really much more important than what we call it. Now if only everyone could agree on the purpose of our job, we would all be happy and everyone would agree on everything and we could get back to teaching the canon (because we would all want to teach and read the canon).
2 comments:
oh my...finding and agreeing on the purpose for teaching the way we teach...it gives me shivers just thinking about THAT department meeting. I think you are right in stating that it really isn't about the name; it's about the thinking. If we can incorporate some of the cultural context kind of thinking into the curriculum then we really are getting at the meat of the issue. I too am coming to the point of exhaustion in thinking about all the ways we can bring these ideas into the classroom. It would be a lovely day if we could all just get along...but, in reality we can only do our best to help our students become "real" people.
I agree that we have a responsibility to know our students as people. I also really value Amanti’s emphasis on connecting with families. While your classmates mentioned that some families might resist this, many more would welcome it, if it is done in a humble, open manner with a true desire to learn.
Now if you excuse me I need to go read some more dead white guys.
Post a Comment