Raising expectations for other peoples children.
By Lisa Delpit
The effects of stereotyping:
stereotype threat - the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about the social group to which they belong.
Stereotype threat (ST)appears to function in most settings in which a group feels stigma potentially related to its performance.
Research indicates in settings of high ST - situations where participants believe that their performance might support negative stereotypes attributed to groups to which they belong - are likely to disrupt working memory, increase self-consciousness about one's performance, & cause individuals to suppress negative thoughts & negative emotions such as anxiety. Physically, heart rate & blood pressure increase!
Caring about the outcome increases the underperformance effect! Worse, this can lead to individuals dis-identifying w/ the domain in which they are experiencing the threat. I.e. an African American student may stop believing in his/her potential to be a scholar (coping strategy).
See p. 76 for actual student descriptions of good & bad teachers (fascinating)
Schools that under perform have many instances where teachers simply aren't teaching. Instead occupying students time w/busy work and not caring when students don't do it provided they're quiet.
Delpit was shocked at how little teaching was actually occurring in many classrooms.
Relationships matter.
Successful teachers are Warm Demanders.
Students who are underserved in schools believe they just aren't smart enough. When teachers don't express belief & approach instruction as though all students can achieve, their negative educable image of themselves is exacerbated.
"Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality."
Introduce yourself to students and refer to them as your prodigy.
Students of color don't learn from a teacher as much as for a teacher. They don't want to disappoint a teacher that cares for them.
Expect student to push-back to continuous high expectations. They've been given up on b4 and may make you earn their trust! In the end they'll appreciate your tenacious belief in their ability and your consistent standards for excellence.
must be willing to "mean-talk" or even holler about the level of completed (or missing) work. Show your emotion to help express the extent to which you care!
All children do learn - its just that some of them learn that we expect them to be successful, and some learn from us that they are dumb.
Educ for all children should be special. That is, specially designed to discover the strengths & accommodate the needs of each child.
In 1954 about 82,000 black teachers taught 2 million black students.
After brown v. Board of Educ, 38,000 black teachers & administrators lost their jobs in 17 southern states.
pedagogy of poverty - seat work to control classrooms teachers otherwise don't think they can control.
Critical thinking strategies:
Whenever students are involved with issues they regard as vital, good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are involved w/ explanations of human differences, good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are being helped to see major concepts, big ideas, and general principals and are not merely engaged in the pursuit of isolated facts, good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are involved in planning what they will be doing, it is likely good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are actively involved it is likely that good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are actively involved in heterogeneous groups, it is likely that good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are involved in reading, polishing, or perfecting their work it is likely that good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are asked to think about an idea in a way that questions common sense or a widely accepted assumption that relates new ideas to ones learned previously or that applies an idea to the problems of living, then there is a good chance that good teaching is going on.
Whenever teachers involve students with the technology of information access good teaching is going on.
Whenever students are involved in reflecting on their own lives and how they come to believe and feel as they do, good teaching is going on.
Workshop week PD idea:
Imagine a little black boy, like millions around the country, who goes out to the local playground after school to shoot hoops. The first time he shoots 20 times and misses 20 times. Still, he comes back every day. The next week he might make a few baskets. After a few months of daily attempts, some days he makes 7 or even 10 out of 20 attempts. Other days he makes only 3. After a year or so, he makes more shots than he misses. Despite week after week of relative failure, he continues to try, until he eventually finds success.
Discussion in sm. groups:
Easy question:
Why did the boy become better?
A: what drives excellence is not soley genes but a combo of innate ability, cultural environment, drive, and practice. Of these practice and the belief that practicing hard will improve performance top the list!
Harder question:
Why in the face of failure does the boy come back day after day,meek after week,month after month to improve his shooting abilities? -- What is it about basketball that makes him so willing to work so hard to put in the long-term commitment necessary for success?
Thought provoking question:
How do these elements relate to school? Why don't our basketball boys persevere in the classroom? Why do they give up as soon as they encounter any academic difficulty?
Most critical question:
If we want students who engage in the practice necessary to achieve, if we want students who persist in the face of failure, if we want students who want to come to school, then what do we need to do to make school more like basketball?
Rhetorical questions:
1. Are we connecting in positive ways to the culture that our African american young people bring to school? (utilize the culturally embedded gift of caring for others)
2. Are we ensuring that our students know that people who look like them, both past and present, have produced and are producing phenomenal intellectual accomplishments?
3. Are we making connections between young people's lives & the content that we attempt to teach? Do they feel welcomed in the school environment or do they feel that they must change who they are to be accepted?
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Thanks so much for continuing the conversation!