The Cultural Contexts of Teaching and Learning

1. The Cultural Contexts of Teaching and Learning Stuart Greene Associate Professor of English Director of Education, Schooling, and Society Co-founder of No Parent Left Behind University of Notre Dame

2. Research on Race • Bedtime Stories and Book Reports: Connecting Parent Involvement and Family Literacy. Teachers College Press, 2010. • Literacy as a Civil Right: Reclaiming Social Justice in Literacy Research and Teaching. NY: Peter Lang, 2008. • Making Race Visible: Literacy Research for Cultural Understanding. Teachers College Press, 2003.

3. Culture and Student Learning • Students each have a unique culture influenced by family, peer groups, community, faith, social class, race, ethnicity, and gender • We can learn about students’ culture by having authentic conversations about the contexts of home, community, and school that motivate students • Students’ life experiences and culture can serve as the basis for teaching and learning • We can validate students’ culture as sources of learning to foster ownership, engagement, self-esteem, and learning

4. The Goals of the Workshop • Develop a complex understanding of culture • Translate this understanding into things we can do as teachers

5. No Parent Left Behind • Build relationships among families creates the basis for active participation in community and school • Focus on developing capacity and leadership among families • Bridge the gap in culture and power between families and educators

6. NPLB Study of Family Culture • Who are the families whose children attend school? • Where did they grow up? • What were their own experiences in school? • What roles did their own families play in their education? • How do families define what it means to be engaged in their children’s education?

7. The Culture of Families • Families bring different needs, assumptions, beliefs, aspirations, and desires to their children’s education. • Family members interpret the roles they can play in their children’s education differently, including the ways they relate to teachers and organize activities for their children in their communities. • Families also vary in what they give priority toand the extent to which they have access to resources to help their children succeed in school.

8. Literacy as a Cultural Practice • Teachers in language arts often encourage families to read with their children for 20 or 30 minutes each night. • Take a few moments and write down your reflections about how you would carry out this assignment. • Let’s discuss similarities and differences and the sources of our knowledge about how to approach this assignment.

9. The Role of Culture in Shaping Identity • Encompasses ways of viewing the world and navigating one’s place within it • Influences what we value and believe • Informs the ways we process information, solve problems, and communicate • Is shaped by the interactions with we have with others in developing our cultural repertoires • Requires that we understand different cultures

10. For Reflection • What do I know about my students’ home and community life? • Who are the individuals who influence my students most? • What are the contexts that seem to motivate my students to learn? • What are the topics, issues, and themes that generate high levels of engagement, effort, and interest? • How do my students learn, process information, and organize the information I want them to learn?

11. Sources for Learning about Our Students • Meetings with Students and their Families • Questionnaires on the First Day of Class • Literacy Autobiographies • Photographic Journals • Authentic Conversations Inside and Outside of Class

12. The Role of Teacher Expectations • Our beliefs as teachers have powerful effects on students, especially deficit-notions of teaching based on race, class, gender, ethnicity • Students will perform at the level of our expectations • Our expectations will affect self-concept, motivation, levels of aspiration, classroom conduct, and interactions with students have with us • As our expectations and caring increase, so does achievement

13. Culture and Language Variation • The greater an individual’s range and use of communicative abilities, “the more capable he or she is of functioning in various relationships and interactions . . .” (Gay, 83). • Use of a non-mainstream dialect does not interfere with learning or mastery of English

14. Strategies for Teaching Language • Determine if a particular variety of language is appropriate to a given situation, purpose, and audience • Provide authentic opportunities to practice language skills • Insure that students understand the language of power (the style, register, and vocabulary of Standard Written English)

15. Curriculum and Students’ Lived Experiences • Build on what students know and are familiar with • Identify issues that enable students to use their experiences as a basis for learning problem solving skills, critical thinking, and academic content • Select texts that connect with students’ everyday lives as well as more canonical texts

16. Focus on the Local in Teaching Math • Count different types of stores, places of worship, service providers, billboards • Calculate the total number of stores and proportion of different types of stores • Create a graph • Calculate percentages in a 4-block radius • Compare different neighborhoods

17. Assessment of Student Learning in Studies of Math • Increase in academic efficacy • Improved inference making, comprehension • Improved clarity of explanations and audience appropriate communication

18. Study of Language in Mass Media and Canonical Texts • What do canonical texts such as Shakespeare and students’ choices have in common? • What do we learn about ourselves by studying differences? What does this say about “taste,” conceptions of beauty, and aesthetics?

19. Assessment of Student Learning in Studies of Literacy • Better reading comprehension, increased writing quality, and better able to draw inferences • Increased knowledge about various forms, structures, functions, and used of language • Expanded vocabularies, sentence pattern • Improved self-esteem and self-confidence

20. Student Perceptions of Their Most Effective Teachers • Provides social support inside and outside of class • Relates the subject to their personal interests • Listens to what they say • Knows them well • Believes they can do well in school

21. Student Perceptions (con’t) • Sets high standards • Expects them to do their best all of the time • Thinks it is important for them to complete their homework every night • Believes it is important to do well in class • Organizes the day to maximize student learning • Focuses on what is best for student learning when making important decisions • Encourages them to do extra work when they don’t understand something