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Diversity of classroom
Diversity in the classroom
Diversity of classroom
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Schooltalk by Mica Pollock Book Review In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout …show more content…
Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School, which was her first published book, won the 2005 AERA Outstanding Book award. In 2008, Pollock wrote Because of Race: How Americans Debate Harm and Opportunities in Our Schools. Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School, which is a compilation of short essays regarding race and opportunity written by supporting teachers, won the 2008 Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center. Mica Pollock relies on experiences of working in teaching and civil rights, as well as, 20 years of research to communicate how to support our very diverse learning …show more content…
As Pollock states, “Equity efforts treat all young people as equally and infinitely valuable” (202). This book has made me realize that first and foremost: We must get to know each of our students on a personal level. Every student has been shaped by their own personal life experiences. We must take this into consideration for all situations. In life, I have learned that there is a reason why people act the way that they do. When people seem to have a “chip on their shoulder”, they have usually faced many hardships in life. “The goal of all such questions is deeper learning about real, respected lives: to encourage educators to learn more about (and build on) young people’s experiences in various communities, to consider their own such experiences, to avoid any premature assumptions about a young person’s “cultural practices,” and to consider their own reactions to young people as extremely consequential.” (3995) was also another excerpt from the book that was extremely powerful for me. Everyone wants to be heard and understood. I feel that I owe it to each of my students to know their stories and help them navigate through the hard times. On the other hand, even though a student seems like he/she has it all together, I shouldn’t just assume that they do. I must be sure that these students are receiving the attention and tools needed to succeed,
1) Carbone II, Steven A. (2010). Race, Class, and Oppression: Solutions for Active Learning and Literacy in the Classroom. Student Pulse, 2.01. Retrieved from:
Racism and ethnicity continue to affect the sector of education in most parts of the world. More often, it influences adults and children’s experiences in education at all levels and in various ways. These include professional employment, academic performance, parental involvement, social interactions, assessment issues, and curriculum development. Certainly, the terms racism and ethnicity identify as problematic and arise socially. Therefore, many people fail to recognize that racism is a perception about the color of the skin and traditions of a particular group of people. Racism and ethnicity exist in quite blatant and subtle forms. As such, racism and ethnicity usually lead to negative consequences for the group that does not belong to the dominant culture. The contemporary racism originated from various avenues, one of it being the society norms and upbringing. Indeed, as children grow, they exclusively rely on their parents or guardians to learn new things. Moreover, part of the upbringing involves teaching the children things about the society and the
Over the course of history, racism has become far more institutionalized and still affects people to this day. In the book, Uprooting Racism, by Paul Kivel the institutionalized racism and its effects are thoroughly discussed, as well as possible causes and ways to work toward ending racism. In the film, Walkout, by Edward James Olmos, the way institutionalized racism affects not only the adults but as well as the children is explored. In the film, Teenagers in the east side of Los Angeles fight for equal rights as well as equal opportunities in school. The book and film work together to show the situations that integrated racism places these young adults in. These situations can vary widely from simply having lower school budget, to being embarrassed in front of other students as punishment, not being allowed to speak spanish in school, and even being purposefully shied away from going to college.
1.)Stereotypes and racism have always been an issue in this and many other societies.Teenagers are commonly the most impacted by stereotypes, not unlike most teens at Point Loma High School. To further analyze this, my class read “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” by Shankar Vedantam, a science correspondent for NPR. In his informative article, Vedantam discusses how research proves that self-fulfilling stereotypes can drag down many individuals’ performance. He supports his claim by presenting statistics such as “When black people and white people answered 10 vocabulary questions posed by a white interviewer, blacks on average answered 5.49 questions correctly and whites answered 6.33 correctly”, and talking about how black students tend to score better on tests that are administered by other blacks, and finally explaining how all students’ performance increases when they are not reminded of their race/gender before beginning a test. Vedantam’s purpose is to inform the audience about the negatives of reminding students of their race before a test in an effort to prevent poor performance and boost test scores. Upon reading this, my class has decided to carry out a research project about the stereotypes at our school, and how they affect a variety of students.
...wed as young adults almost ready for the life in society almost unfit for high school at their age. Race is another important factor that influences student’s perceptions society. Asians are expected to be more academically distinguished and stuck-up. African Americans are expected to stand lower academically and more likely to get into trouble similarly to Hispanics. All of the sometimes imagined or overgeneralized assumptions greatly influence relations within individuals and groups.
...g of the struggle of poverty and subsequent educational barriers. Though extremely grateful for all of the privilege in my life, it was difficult to realize my fortune until working with the teens at RYP who often do not have two parents, have limited adult influences, and live below the poverty line, making education an afterthought. From the perspective of a tutor and mentor, the educational support that the teens require is unquestionable, just like the injustices they face daily. Through service, not only does one gain perspective into the needs of the local community, but also insight into systemic issues of racism, poverty, crime, education and more. By participating in service and trying to counteract the sources of need for others, one will undoubtedly change their perspective of the framework question, knowing that the very least one should help others.
In order to reduce the “white privilege” concept, parents, teachers, coaches, etc. Need to talk with their children/students about racism. According to Copenhaver-Johnson (2006) the reason we do not talk to our children about racism is for several different reasons. One reason that...
D’Angelo, Raymond and Douglas, Herbert. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Race and Ethnicity (8th Edition). New York: Contemporary Learning Series group within the McGraw-Hill Higher Education division, 2011.
During most meetings this fairly homogeneous group of people eloquently and thoughtfully engage in passionate conversations about children of color and their inequitable schooling experiences. Dialogue in the room turns into subtle conversations about students’ academic traits, neighborhoods, language, parents, and poverty levels as they relate to the educational misfortunes of students of color. And then it happens, a white colleague or group of colleagues ...
For my summary, I am writing to teachers who will relay information back to high school students through the addition of racism to their cirriculum. My purpose is to convince the teachers that racial identity is a crucial topic that high school students need to be more aware of. The advantage of informing high school students of the role that racism plays throughout society is to assist the students in being less racist and treating non-whites fair. Racial identity is a very secluded topic among people today. For this reason, many students are not aware of racism or the effect it may have on the relationships between blacks and whites. Through my summary I am hoping to be able to help my audience talk about racial identity in the least offensive
Importantly, if individuals, especially school officials, took this article into consideration, schools would become a more welcoming and assimilating environment for multiracial adolescents. Contradictory to that, if individuals don’t take this writing seriously, society will continue on a one sided path to viewing multiracial individuals and racism in societies will not make that one step closer to being
James Baldwin, author of “A Talk to Teachers,” argues that a future of equality in schools cannot be created unless past acts of racism are recognized. He writes “... as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (Baldwin 1). This statement argues that it is impossible to be American and black at the same time. Baldwin explains that the American side advertises equal opportunity, whereas being black implies that he has contributed nothing to society, and his sole purpose is to serve white people. Challenging the American view on race is what pushes society forwards. On the contrary, students who are uneducated may unknowingly perpetuate the same racism that hold back education. In a study conducted in 2016, Maureen Costello commented that students who cannot connect or comprehend important policy, they are more likely to make an uninformed decision. One teacher commented that “’The white students ... say terrible things about immigrants, while sitting next to their immigrant friends...the others[immigrants] are quiet and afraid’’’ (Costello 12). The ignorance of students perpetrates an unsafe and uncomfortable learning environment. Immigrant students are aware of this tension because they are not only being targeted, but in a way that is not legitimately supported by facts, but rather propaganda and ignorance. Because of situations like these, administrators in some school districts have created protocol for situations for extreme intolerance built on a platform of
Race relations are always a scary or uncomfortable topic for people to discuss amongst groups of different ethnicities and racial identities. It is a long standing tradition in the United States to walk a fine line and use politically correct terms in the above mentioned setting but to feel perfectly comfortable to speak freely when in a setting surrounded by likeminded people who share similar political affiliations and race. This is the main reason discussions surrounding the idea of race are too often avoided in today’s school systems and in society in general. If we are to encourage our students and children to be free thinking future citizens of our global society, we must first become one ourselves. The only way to accomplish this
“An array of knowledges, skills, abilities and contacts possessed and used by Communities of Color to survive and resist racism and other forms of oppression” encompasses the main idea of Community Cultural Wealth. It is vital to understand that students will step foot into the classroom with a variety of cultures zipped up in their backpacks, and it is our job as educators to make sure that equality is instilled/taught in our classrooms. The second a student feels a sense of discrimination, whether from ourselves or their fellow classmate(s), is when the safe and comforting environment of the classroom begins to diminish. Here I will discuss just how important it is to see the differences amongst students as an advantage
Even though classrooms today are filled with diverse students and faculty, education was only available to the upper and middle class when schools were established. Moreover, they set the standards for schools across the country, as well as regularized the use of SE in professional settings. While the expectations in schools have remained the same, the demographics occupying classrooms across the country has expanded to groups other than those who regularly use SE in their communities. Every student comes with their own unique background and culture, as well as their own difficulties in school language. However, the language used in school matches that of SE speaking students and not non-standard dialect speaking students. An estimated 80-90% of African American students speak African American English (AAE), coming from communities where SE is unlikely to be spoken (Redd &Webb, p.78), where as the majority of their peers speak SE regularly in their homes. As a result, non-mainstream students have had different social and learning experiences than mainstream students have, causing a gap in academic achievement (Zwiers, p.3). It’s the teacher’s job to close the achievement gap for non-standard dialect speakers, beginning with teaching them