Four fine hours of the Goshen College Anti-racism Workshop led by the wonderful Dr. Regina Shands-Stolzfus opened reminded me, yet again, of the impact of being biracial has on my life and my own perception of the world. Growing up with a white mother and African-American father, I heard about how it "used to be". Sundown towns, red-lining, and forced school integration exploded tensions during my grandparents' generation, spread down through my parents', and has its hooked claws beneath the skin of my own generation--regardless of the color. It shows in the higher numbers of people of color living in poverty, off of government aide, incarcerated, high school drop-outs, and students labeled as "disabled".
During the workshop we ( my education major peers) and I discussed in groups our particular experiences with race in school. Isolation, anger, fear, and confusion bled through each of our stories in forms of witnessed violence. Not belonging to any group because we we're biracial, or came form multicultural backgrounds left us feeling alone and frustrated. Dealing with the adults in our lives saying things about "others" that made us feel uncomfortable soaked into our inner psych and tainted our initial perception of persons who look and act in different ways than from our own. We even forced ourselves to open the dark door inside of us that believes in certain stereotypes related to the social construct that is "race".
It is the acknowledgement that we live in world permeated with racism and prejudice of all stereotypes, and the self-awareness that we as future educators are also tainted, that is crucial to combating racism when we face it in our future careers and personal lives. Saying "I know I have prejudice towards _____ perceived individuals." is necessary in stopping thinking in that direction, as well as keeping it out of our future classrooms.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Why I Learned Just as Much as Cassie
As you can tell, Cassie and I strayed off the subject of English quite a bit during our twelve hours together. I was a tad bit nervous at first, but concluded that it opened venues that working on reading and writing alone would have left closed.
For example, on Valentine’s Day we baked cookies and had to refresh our conversion and fraction skills (not exactly my strong point I might add…but ssshhh, don’t tell Cassie that), since we made 2.5 recipes worth of pink chocolaty-divine gooeyness.
I was able to bring in materials that were both entertaining enough to keep us both motivated to give 110% to the task at hand, and relevant to the paper/project.
For example, during the sessions where we worked on her science ecosystem, we watched an educational show that aided Cassie by providing both accurate information and visual models to base her work on. I wish I had done the same with our session pertaining to poetry; I would have brought The Dead Poets’ Society.
A note for using media in the classroom: be sure to keep the material relevant, and to take several breaks in order to discuss what the student(s) have learned and what that means to them and their learning process. This tactic will also keep the student(s) on track and focused on the primary object.
My favorite parts of my sessions with Cassie were when we focused on writing, especially creative. They allowed me to see where she was at, and let me draw on my own learning experiences as a student to implement lessons that worked for me.
For example, when Cassie was working on her persuasive speech, she knew she needed to catch and keep her audience’s attention. I asked her questions that drew on her prior knowledge that enabled her see how and where she captured her “new” knowledge. Essentially, she already knew what she could say; she just need a little nudge in the right direction.
A note for the classroom: It is very important to utilize metacognitive techniques, such as this example. Be sure not to just hand out information, without the “direction manual” to aid the student(s) in seeing where and how they can make connections to prior knowledge; be sure to let them know that it was they who already had the information. This will help to foster confidence in their abilities as successful students.
I myself achieved confidence in my ability to pass on and communicate my love for words and hands-on activities. My next step is to up the scale to a group of students, in order to see what correlates and what is different.
For example, on Valentine’s Day we baked cookies and had to refresh our conversion and fraction skills (not exactly my strong point I might add…but ssshhh, don’t tell Cassie that), since we made 2.5 recipes worth of pink chocolaty-divine gooeyness.
I was able to bring in materials that were both entertaining enough to keep us both motivated to give 110% to the task at hand, and relevant to the paper/project.
For example, during the sessions where we worked on her science ecosystem, we watched an educational show that aided Cassie by providing both accurate information and visual models to base her work on. I wish I had done the same with our session pertaining to poetry; I would have brought The Dead Poets’ Society.
A note for using media in the classroom: be sure to keep the material relevant, and to take several breaks in order to discuss what the student(s) have learned and what that means to them and their learning process. This tactic will also keep the student(s) on track and focused on the primary object.
My favorite parts of my sessions with Cassie were when we focused on writing, especially creative. They allowed me to see where she was at, and let me draw on my own learning experiences as a student to implement lessons that worked for me.
For example, when Cassie was working on her persuasive speech, she knew she needed to catch and keep her audience’s attention. I asked her questions that drew on her prior knowledge that enabled her see how and where she captured her “new” knowledge. Essentially, she already knew what she could say; she just need a little nudge in the right direction.
A note for the classroom: It is very important to utilize metacognitive techniques, such as this example. Be sure not to just hand out information, without the “direction manual” to aid the student(s) in seeing where and how they can make connections to prior knowledge; be sure to let them know that it was they who already had the information. This will help to foster confidence in their abilities as successful students.
I myself achieved confidence in my ability to pass on and communicate my love for words and hands-on activities. My next step is to up the scale to a group of students, in order to see what correlates and what is different.
The Awesome Learning Adventures of Cassie, as assisted by Jenica
Student Tutored: Cassie N., grade 8., attends Fairfield Middle School, sessions done at her house.
• (2/5/12) 6:00-8:00 pm
Today Cassie and I worked on her outline and rough draft of her persuasive essay on banning smoking in public places. I showed her an economic form of an outline and prompted her to clarify her thesis statement. I used phrases such as: “What does this mean?”, “Now what?” , “Explain it to me.”, and “Let’s unpack this.”. She got the hang of it and started to say them when I asked her if she knew what I was going to ask her next. She is nervous about speaking in front of her English class, and wants to practice later in the week. I recommended that she create note cards and practice saying her main pathos and logos in the shower and in the mirror before bed, in order to really know her argument enough to sound convincing.
• (2/8/12) 6:00-8:00 pm
Today Cassie and I worked edited her final draft of her persuasive essay on banning smoking in public places, and I helped her with her twelve citations in MLA format. We spent the last hour with her giving me her speech and I giving her feedback. We worked on voice projection, eye contact, and avoiding rushing through her lines (especially during her conclusion). She told me she was particularly nervous about forgetting her lines, so we worked on dramatic pauses so a gap in her flow would seem natural. She is very petite and below five foot, so I suggested she use a podium that has a foot stool to help with her bodily presence (which she thought was hilarious, until I had her go through her speech while standing on a chair for practice).
• (2/12/12) 6:00-8:00
Cassie successfully achieved a 98% on her written and oral persuasive presentation. Today I helped her with a science project in which she needed to construct an ecosystem within an ecosystem that included 2 symbiotic relationships. We spent about 90 minutes doing research online. She wanted to do 1 plant and animal relationship, and a host and parasite relationship. She decided upon honey bees and an apple tree, and a parasitic mite that lives in the intestines of honey bees. We then spent 30 min. watching the Animal Planet show about parasites Monsters Inside Me, compiling a list of materials she’ll need for her diorama.
• (2/14/12) 6:00-8:00
Today we baked chocolate chip cookies we dyed pink for Valentine’s Day, and then she started constructing her diorama while I gave what advice I could. Cassie had gone through her printed sources and highlighted main points for her to remember. I had stopped by the Public Library and picked up a season of Monsters Inside Me that included the parasite she was putting in her bee. Apparently sometimes it finds its way into honey and can make people really sick, especially young children, if it isn’t pasteurized. Materials she used were a cardboard box, constructions paper, mat board, hot glue, pipe cleaners, colored tissue paper, chocolate chips, paint, fishing line, paperclips, real tree bark, and real dried grass.
• (2/18/12) 6:00-8:00
Today Cassie and I worked on diagraming sentences. She had some difficulties defining a preposition and predicate, so we spent roughly an hour coming up with silly sentences to diagram. She would write and diagram them, and I would check her work. I gave her feedback by asking her questions about her work, so I wouldn’t just be telling her. We spent the last hour on her Spanish flashcards for her upcoming test.
• (3/4/12) 6:00-8:00
Today Cassie and I worked on poetry. I used some exercises I had enjoyed using in my classes with her, and she seemed to have fun with them too. One of the exercises was to have us both write down things like: favorite place, favorite 3 word line, what your mom smells like, draw a picture of your first pet, etc.; we them switched papers and wrote a poem containing all of the items on the paper ( we did about four of these kind of exercises).
• (2/5/12) 6:00-8:00 pm
Today Cassie and I worked on her outline and rough draft of her persuasive essay on banning smoking in public places. I showed her an economic form of an outline and prompted her to clarify her thesis statement. I used phrases such as: “What does this mean?”, “Now what?” , “Explain it to me.”, and “Let’s unpack this.”. She got the hang of it and started to say them when I asked her if she knew what I was going to ask her next. She is nervous about speaking in front of her English class, and wants to practice later in the week. I recommended that she create note cards and practice saying her main pathos and logos in the shower and in the mirror before bed, in order to really know her argument enough to sound convincing.
• (2/8/12) 6:00-8:00 pm
Today Cassie and I worked edited her final draft of her persuasive essay on banning smoking in public places, and I helped her with her twelve citations in MLA format. We spent the last hour with her giving me her speech and I giving her feedback. We worked on voice projection, eye contact, and avoiding rushing through her lines (especially during her conclusion). She told me she was particularly nervous about forgetting her lines, so we worked on dramatic pauses so a gap in her flow would seem natural. She is very petite and below five foot, so I suggested she use a podium that has a foot stool to help with her bodily presence (which she thought was hilarious, until I had her go through her speech while standing on a chair for practice).
• (2/12/12) 6:00-8:00
Cassie successfully achieved a 98% on her written and oral persuasive presentation. Today I helped her with a science project in which she needed to construct an ecosystem within an ecosystem that included 2 symbiotic relationships. We spent about 90 minutes doing research online. She wanted to do 1 plant and animal relationship, and a host and parasite relationship. She decided upon honey bees and an apple tree, and a parasitic mite that lives in the intestines of honey bees. We then spent 30 min. watching the Animal Planet show about parasites Monsters Inside Me, compiling a list of materials she’ll need for her diorama.
• (2/14/12) 6:00-8:00
Today we baked chocolate chip cookies we dyed pink for Valentine’s Day, and then she started constructing her diorama while I gave what advice I could. Cassie had gone through her printed sources and highlighted main points for her to remember. I had stopped by the Public Library and picked up a season of Monsters Inside Me that included the parasite she was putting in her bee. Apparently sometimes it finds its way into honey and can make people really sick, especially young children, if it isn’t pasteurized. Materials she used were a cardboard box, constructions paper, mat board, hot glue, pipe cleaners, colored tissue paper, chocolate chips, paint, fishing line, paperclips, real tree bark, and real dried grass.
• (2/18/12) 6:00-8:00
Today Cassie and I worked on diagraming sentences. She had some difficulties defining a preposition and predicate, so we spent roughly an hour coming up with silly sentences to diagram. She would write and diagram them, and I would check her work. I gave her feedback by asking her questions about her work, so I wouldn’t just be telling her. We spent the last hour on her Spanish flashcards for her upcoming test.
• (3/4/12) 6:00-8:00
Today Cassie and I worked on poetry. I used some exercises I had enjoyed using in my classes with her, and she seemed to have fun with them too. One of the exercises was to have us both write down things like: favorite place, favorite 3 word line, what your mom smells like, draw a picture of your first pet, etc.; we them switched papers and wrote a poem containing all of the items on the paper ( we did about four of these kind of exercises).
Tutoring Unleashed
Hi all! My name is Jenica Corbett, and this is a blog for my Ed. Psych. class at Goshen College, IN. I am a sophomore, and an English Secondary Ed. major. Some quick facts about me and why I chose this career choice:
A.) I had found that I was a parody in middle and high school, as I was both a jock (I run...a lot), and had an aptitude for reading and writing (as long as the books we not dry)to a fault (I would get my in trouble during Math class for reading or free writing when I was supposed to be learning about fractions).
B.) I love learning interactions and figure I might as well pick a career that I will most likely enjoy.
So, these are a few of the reasons why I landed in Educational Psychology where a requirement is to tutor student for 10-12 hours. I decided to tutor Cassie, an 8th grader whom I have known for about six years, because I knew she would be comfortable with me and that she had some big projects and papers coming up that I knew would lead to opportunities for growth in both her and I.
I will disclose summaries of our sessions and juxtapose further analysis on this growth, as both the tutor and tutee.
A.) I had found that I was a parody in middle and high school, as I was both a jock (I run...a lot), and had an aptitude for reading and writing (as long as the books we not dry)to a fault (I would get my in trouble during Math class for reading or free writing when I was supposed to be learning about fractions).
B.) I love learning interactions and figure I might as well pick a career that I will most likely enjoy.
So, these are a few of the reasons why I landed in Educational Psychology where a requirement is to tutor student for 10-12 hours. I decided to tutor Cassie, an 8th grader whom I have known for about six years, because I knew she would be comfortable with me and that she had some big projects and papers coming up that I knew would lead to opportunities for growth in both her and I.
I will disclose summaries of our sessions and juxtapose further analysis on this growth, as both the tutor and tutee.
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