You may remember that one of the “Funds of Knowledge” (the assets or strengths) that our students come through our doors with, specifically our students of color, is “Linguistic Capital”. As we discussed, the Critical Race Theory, describes Linguistic Capital as “the intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style” In addition, “These children most often have been engaged in a storytelling tradition, that may include listening to and recounting oral histories, parables, stories and proverbs.” I’ll focus today on that specific cultural asset as I think it may be a helpful one if you are noticing that students seem to be ‘checked out’ or you can tell your classroom management isn’t up to par and you find it's affecting everyone. Whether you're feeling some kind of disconnect or not with your students, listening to stories and honoring the storytellers is invaluable. Consider taking time to relationship-build in order to connect and share your classroom expectations once again. It is never too late to “pump the breaks” and intentionally take a step back from teaching the curriculum in order to build classroom connections. In fact, one step towards equity in the classroom, as suggested in an article published on Edutopia is to “KNOW EVERY CHILD using STORIENTATION. Telling stories! This should make you think of one of those ‘FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE’ we discussed: LINGUISTIC CAPITAL. Welcoming storientation-- paying close attention to people's stories-- to learn where students are from, what they love to do outside of school, what their family is like, what are their special traditions, and to understand which stories and experiences carry a strong emotional charge for them, is NEVER a waste of class time. "Don't subscribe to a single story about any child." The more you know, the more you can build trust and differentiate instruction. As educators, we need to pay close attention to the stories of our students and colleagues-- embracing storientation can transform your classroom and even your school. Storientation calls on educators -- and particularly leaders -- to notice and curate three types of story: stories of self, other, and organization. This article will unpack each of these: www.edutopia.org/blog/power-of-story-school-transformation-shane-safir Using a “circle group” is one way to share stories (if you’ve never done a circle group/restorative circle, I’ll happily come help you with this) but also through cogenerative dialogues, writing, drawing, movie-making, poetry, or a combination of these--or maybe none of these, as your students will find ways that work for them to document/create their story. Allow them to be shared and heard now and throughout the school year! Be sure to open up about your story too. What are some things you can share with your classes to help humanize yourself? How can you make yourself vulnerable with your students? Where do you have similarities to your students’ stories that you can find a connection with them? "Respecting the power of story will help you to create the conditions for classroom and school transformation." .Let me know how I might help you with this ~ Cindy
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorEducator Archives
March 2020
Categories |