Inverted Pyramid

       Having good questioning strategies is one of the most important parts of a teacher's pedagogical toolbox. If questions were literally a tool, I think they'd manifest as a hammer because a hammer can be used to smash some knowledge into place or like a particularly stubborn nail, it can be drawn out using careful maneuvering. There is the commonly held belief that there are no stupid questions, but I think that's only half true at the best of times. Teachers ask stupid questions all the time, but rarely do they get called out on being too vague or making the question too complicated to answer quickly and succinctly. Students of course need to ask questions. It's in their job description and getting the most clarity out of an educational experience is the only way that learning is going to stick in their brains and fit into the schemas they've previously developed or are newly forming about the topic being discussed.

    Asking the right questions is a lot like being handy; it's not very intuitive and you've got to practice it a lot before you get good at it. Putting together your first shelf is not going to be perfect. In that same vein, asking pointed questions is not something that teachers are born knowing because it's not something that people use in their daily lives. Sure, people ask questions to gain information, but the intensive brain stretching that teachers perform is a way of thinking that has to be trained. This is something that I have a difficult time with doing in the moment. I know I can create thought provoking questions with a little time, but right now it's very tempting to phrase ideas as statements rather than questions because it feels more accessible to me in a pinch.

    Bloom's taxonomy used to be represented as a pyramid with lower level questions making up the base. It was assumed that the majority of questions asked by a teacher would be in that knowledge and comprehension range but, like many educators, I don't think that's the most sensible way to go about looking for understanding. When posing something, I would prefer to start with the higher order question and descend until I get to the level where I can reach the student. The reason that makes sense to me is that I want to set a high standard for the students. It's condescending, especially if we're talking about a group of secondary students, to ask them for low-hanging fruit.

    I want them to know that I believe they can answer those complex open-ended questions eventually even if they can't right now. Plus by hitting all the rungs on the way down, the teacher is assessing approximately how many stages it's going to take to get the students to that place of deep knowledge. It also shows the students what the peak is. Kids want to succeed, but I think sometimes teachers forget to show them how tall the mountains they're about to climb are. Of course, if the student is still trying to remember the basic facts this can seem impossible, but most of the time students are closer to the top than they think they are.

    Again, talking about trusting students and providing the safety that it takes to have them freely question, it's important to have a mix of individualized and group questioning techniques. I think most teachers gravitate toward posing to a whole group, but there are also plenty of opportunities where teachers can really get into it with a student. As both an observer and a participant I've always found it delightful when a teacher will get a student to answer their own question by steering them with their own series of questions. Sometimes that can be really frustrating when you just want a quick answer, but it teaches a student patience and it also shows the student that the teacher knows them and has complete confidence in them and their ability to problem solve. Some students are not going to rally to bounce and pass in a conversation with other students, so it's important to find ways to connect them into the larger population of the class. If a teacher makes these situations low risk enough, any student will feel empowered to join in and if they're having a rough moment and they need to tap out of the individual attention, the ball can always be redirected back onto the court for someone else to pick up.

Self-Denial: Schools Devaluing Multilingual Approaches

   
      In an article I found called Translanguaging Practices and Perspectives of Multilingual Teens, the authors interviewed four students of middle and high school age and asked them about what their language practices and strategies are while they are in class. Overwhelmingly they said that they didn't see the point in using their home languages because English is the only language that's going to get you anywhere in that setting. These kids had given up on trying to make school work for them as opposed to them working for their school and that is very disheartening to hear. Early on in the document, Daniel and Pacheco show an excerpt of their interview with a student where she said this:

"Mr. Anderson, he is the English teacher, and he asked us to write an essay, and I had no idea what to write. And he's like, 'You have to turn this in by today!' And he's like, 'Write the essay!' So I don't know. I write all. I write with the Burmese language. And then when I turn it in, he's like, "Can you translate?" So I did translate, but it's kinda wrong 'cause I don't really know how to translate at that time," ( Daniel and Pacheco, 1)."

     There are many things that could have been changed in this example that would have assisted this student in getting the assignment done without adding the extra work of not only having to write the essay, write it in a rush, and translate it because the teacher couldn't be bothered to get the answers for himself. The simplest thing he could have done would be to extend the deadline for her. Just giving more time to organize the ideas can make a huge difference, but there are often pressures to keep moving so content gets covered. With this particular student, she mentions that she knows Karenni, Burmese, and Thai. She naturally translanguages in order to gain comprehension during class. She chooses to take her notes in Burmese, but her other languages are also in frequent use because she communicates with her family in different languages that she knows. That is a lot to be going back and forth between while trying to write.
 
 In this case, writing in a language other than Burmese is challenging for her. One way I think to help her out with this problem would be to instead of having her write out the essay and then inaccurately translate it, she could do an audio essay where she records herself. Then she can speak freely and use whichever language is necessary to get her point across. Then if the teacher needs her to clarify some points or write the essay out and edit it, she has her thoughts already organized and ready to be referred back to as she writes.

     One thing that was in the translanguaging readings for this week was the idea of giving different texts related to the same theme. I think this is a great idea for classrooms in general but this is particularly helpful for emergent bilingual and multilingual students. When students are given texts that match their processing abilities instead of a single curriculum mandated book, they can understand the concepts presented but on the level that they're currently at versus the level that they're expected to be. An example of this would be assigning Romeo and Juliet versus A Fault In Our Stars. One is obviously much more advanced than the other, but the gist is ultimately the same. Two doomed couples. By having more than one text to work with, students get to be an expert in the book that they're reading as well and can demonstrate their knowledge with pride to the rest of the class.
 
A Tovani strategy that I think could be easily adapted to suit the needs of a non-native English speaker would be marking up the text. When Tovani has her students highlighting each portion to explicitly show what the student understands and doesn't, that's how she is able to assess how much is getting through and what the problem areas are. For a student using more than one language, this does double the work because if you have one page with the student's home language and the other with English, then the student can distinguish between what misunderstandings come from content and language.
I also really like the idea of interviewing students to ask them about their coping strategies. Knowing which languages are their preferred ones for certain tasks can help cater to what they're comfortable with and that would optimize their learning.

Persepolis

 

      I was a freshman in high school when I discovered Persepolis it is hands-down my favorite graphic novel I've ever read. Written by Marjane Satrapi, the title refers to the capital of the Persian empire, which adds a severe gravity to a story that has a fair amount of comedy for something that's depicting the Iranian Revolution where freedom was sent down the chute and left to languish and die. Satrapi gives a moving account of her experiences under extremist oppression and how that shaped her both as an individual and as a person seeking social justice.

In many ways Marji is a typical child with typical wants and needs, but she lives under the constant threat of death and punishment. Because she is rebellious the reader sees her go through several close calls and you can't help but hold your breath for a moment wondering what's going to happen to her. Woven in around the secretive parties and the black market western goods is the simple truth that Marjane is a highly conflicted person. There are times where she wants to be a normal girl, but the way her life in Iran is structured makes it impossible for her to live the way she wants. 

Spoiler warning, but one day she rushes home after finding out a ballistic missile has leveled her street, she discovers the body of a friend and she is unable to contain her sadness and anger. Her fury causes her to act out in dangerous ways and her mother has to tell her that by being a rebel she risks execution. Meaning that because legally the Guardians of the Revolution were unable to kill virgins, she would be married to someone, raped, and then killed. That is when her parents decide they have to send her away and she goes to a French school in Austria. This is deadly serious. 

      The reason I think this book would be valuable to teach is because it raises a lot of questions the nature of war in our society and how we as Americans treat other people that are impacted by oppressive regimes or natural disasters when they have a different race and/or religion than we do. Americans have been spoiled a bit when it comes to conflicts like this because the acts of violence that we experience are domestic and not military. When it comes to things like the ongoing bombings and gas attacks in Syria it's easy for us to dismiss because it's happening to people that aren't like us and a lot of those feelings are wrapped up in racism. When refugees come crying to us for aid, our government answers indifferently or not at all. Look at what happened with Puerto Rico. Almost 3,000 people died and the president just doesn't care because they're not white and he also refuses to admit that he did nothing to assist them.

I addition to the graphic novel which in the English version is in two parts, there is also a film that has both English and French voice actors and it's very interesting to make comparisons between the two because there are subtle differences thanks to the translation but also I think because French and American culture and language lends something different to the work. Catherine Deneuve plays Marjane's mother in both versions and her daughter Chiara also does the voice work for Marjane in both. The rest of the main cast is very different since they opted for recognizable Americans for the English dub like Sean Penn as Marjane's father and Iggy Pop briefly appearing as Uncle Anoush.

A Good Lesson Plan is Hard to Find

   

      Initially I was having trouble with how to start this blog post, but I started thinking about the words good lesson plan, which then morphed into the pun A Good Lesson Plan is Hard to Find. Like the grandmother in that Flannery O'Conner story , as a student I did not necessarily want to be going along on the educational journey set before me, but it was a trip that I couldn't afford to miss. The grandmother finds herself going to Florida with her son and his family despite having a murderer dubbed The Misfit being on the loose. She's plunked in the back seat between her two bratty grandchildren who are slap fighting each other over her. This is not the most enjoyable of car rides. Her clothes are described as being very fancy and that, "her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady." I too wanted people to know that I was serious about learning, but not everyone rolls at the same pace in a classroom. This is going to be the range of feelings in the audience you'll have as a teacher. It's a mixed bag, but if a teacher is prepared well, they can handle even the greatest of disasters.

     One thing that I think is critically important is considering the group size and the variety within those groups when doing cooperative segments in a lesson plan. I find that I work best in the smallest available group possible. Even when it's a group of five versus having a discussion with an entire class of 30 people, there's a noticeable difference in participation. That methodology of keeping it manageable and intimate can prevent students who are reluctant to talk from being overwhelmed because the stakes are too high. Also lesson plans require smooth transitions between activities. If students have unclear instruction or there isn't enough time taken to clarify and ask questions between actives, chances are good that the lesson is going to flop. Time and behavior management are important things to keep in mind too. If a lesson is well constructed and students are being held accountable for their actions at all times, there won't be room for problems. See the dad's elegant solution to baby mayhem above. All three children have dividers between their car seats to prevent fights. Naturally we can't have out students in their own study carrels or wearing blinders all day, but steps need to be taken.

As far as the content of the lesson plans is concerned, factoring in the strata of thinking that Bloom's Taxonomy and Vygotsky's ZPD provides, there needs to be an appropriate blend of higher and lower level thinking tasks that are relevant to the task and relevant to student needs. I know that the best lessons are the ones that strive for things beyond memorization and look to analyzing and creating to demonstrate knowledge, but the foundation skills have to come first or the house comes crashing down. According to most people I've encountered in the education department, the best and easiest way to start a lesson plan is to come up with an end goal or assessment and work backwards. I find that planning is so much easier this way because I don't stress out about how much time I'm going to be allotted or what the objectives are. Those are answers that come to me through working over the material. Sometimes of course that means changing things because of certain limitations, but Understanding By Design helps a teacher to see the holes in their thought processes and course correct to arrive at that destination with little to no trouble.

The Sneetches

This is adapted from some lessons I found for elementary school students, but The Sneetches can be used to scaffold the concept of racial privilege and discrimination based on differences or perceived differences. The Sneetches is a lesser-known Dr. Seuss tale where these Big Bird-looking creatures called Sneetches (who live on beaches because of course they do) live in a segregated society where privilege is given to the star-bellied Sneetches and those that have none are excluded from fire pits, weenie roasts, and are completely ignored by the favored Sneetches. Needless to say this makes the starless Sneetches depressed so they sit all day moping trying to figure out what to do about this inequality. What happens after that is complete chaos since a stranger comes into town and (for a modest fee) offers to give the starless Sneetches what they've always wanted. See the above link to watch a video of the whole story, but the conclusion is that the Sneetches eventually learn the valuable lesson that it doesn't matter at all what their appearances are since they're all Sneetches. 

On Teaching Tolerance.org there is the initial activity which is like a modified version of the Jane Elliot blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment which is highly problematic because if the goal is to guarantee a random assortment of groupings. It makes much more sense and it's not ethically questionable to do as this lesson plan says and have them count off and give them stars. By having students compose a list of class privileges that the stars are allowed to benefit from, it gives students a chance to consider the things that they value and creates an exciting generative environment. After that I would want the students to each experience the dual benefits and consequences of each group. If you wanted to, you could give the students a couple of days to struggle and succeed. Let's say that the starred are allowed to have pencils with erasers but the starless are only allowed pens so they can't afford to make any mistakes while writing or their work will be messy. How frustrating would that be? You'd definitely hear a lot of feedback about that. 

After whatever allotment of time seems appropriate inhabiting each role, the students can then either in class or for homework complete a custom Google Form which allows the teacher to create a survey from scratch. Some of the questions could be multiple choice and others would be more long form questions describing what they were feeling as both the dominant and the subordinate groups. Then when you come back together as a class, you can ask, "What was this really about?" and make connections between the Sneetches and systematic oppression based on physical traits. 

When using this technological solution, the students have a degree of anonymity and the teacher is able to collect and display data as long as it doesn't breech that anonymity to prove a point about what the students have taken away from the activity. Students then can keep a log of Sneetch-like behaviors they observe or relevant current events that are examples of exclusionary and racist actions. Given how the Sneetch exercise impacted them emotionally and practically, students can then strive to keep their school environment Sneetch free and monitor the problematic behaviors they witness. 

In the Sneetches 2 political cartoon pictured, the star-bellied Sneetches are pictured in red and blue varieties that have been pummeled by the opposition. This is very obviously supposed to represent Republican and Democratic feuding and how destructive party politics can be. The non-partisan Sneetches are calling themselves problem solvers and looking very smug as they pat themselves on the back since they have remained out of the skirmish. They ironically labeled themselves as having no labels and I think that is a very important lesson in mindfulness. It's foolish to say that differences don't matter in a world that they so clearly do, but there are things that can be done about to adjust for those differences to create a stable and thoughtful classroom space. 

Animated Critical Literacy

      When Ira Shor speaks of critical literacy, he says that there must be a "moral core" within the teaching of it so that it does not become simply food for thought, so that it becomes the springboard to real food in real bellies, actual wage increases, and ethical treatment for marginalized groups. This is not to say that morality is such a simple thing to talk about, but through critical literacy the societal reasons for these internalized moral codes that are carried within us can be unpacked and analyzed so they can be seen for what they are. Shor mentions that as a child he and his friends would pay, "40 cents to see a John Wayne cowboy or war saga along with 20 cartoons and devoured teeth-destroying candy," ( 283). When it comes to entertainment, it's easy to overlook some inconvenient truths in the content that's being displayed. John Wayne cheerfully gallops across plains murdering countless native people, but he's framed as being the good guy and it's really cool, so it's perfectly acceptable.  Like overindulging with candy, swallowing pop culture and literary presentations without chewing through them has a cost.

Villains are a staple in narratives. In order for there to be a narrative, there has to be conflict and the conflict has to come from some kind of antagonist. Of course, who the antagonist is depends on the perspective of the audience.  This is a spin on the usual kind of Disney analysis that has been permeating educational circles lately, except instead of the princesses, we'd be critically examining their enemies. A way to turn this into an activity would be to create a chart or graphic organizer of some kind that can illuminate that very often creators of content intentionally or unintentionally portray those who are not in positions of power and privilege as evil. Though it's always possible that someone might say I'm being, "unfair to Disney."

This can be done with almost any work of fiction, but I think an especially easy type of movie to analyze would be Disney films which are produced for children and have a very blatant penchant for doing these types of one-dimensional characterizations based on stereotypes and fear of the other. What I could do as a teacher would be to create a chart or graphic organizer to list observable characteristics such as: physical appearance, things they say, or things others say about them. Even just examining superficially at how the villains in Disney's animated features look will reveal a trend that often these characters are grotesque. Maleficent has horns growing out of her head and green skin. Scar from The Lion King has a darker coat and is scrawny (also Jafar) and effeminate (Captain Hook and Ratcliffe as well). Ursula is fat and has tentacles. The Wicked Queen in Snow White transforms herself into a terrifying old witch.

To further expand on an activity where there's discussion around compelling antagonists, there is definitely room for an assignment about role reversal. Students could then do a RAFT assignment where they can choose to write a letter, a short story, a made-up news broadcast, etc listing all of the terrible or questionable things that the "hero," has done that would make them look bad. A good example of this would be like in The Lion King when Simba runs away after causing the stampede that crushed his father.

Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Manifesto

I AM a teacher who stands up for a student's right to a thorough and meaningful education and against a world that tells these same students that ignorance and thoughtlessness are the order of the day. I am a teacher who is in favor of schools against bullying. I am a teacher who is a supporter of those against gun violence so that students can live to apply the education they have had outside of a school building. I am a teacher who is a defender of all against exclusion, against the censorship of knowledge, and above all against the idea that anything is impossible. I am a teacher who favors the permanent struggle against boredom and against bigotry. I am a teacher who rejects the status quo because it is RESPONSIBLE for complacency. I am a teacher full of hope in spite of people who say, "You'll never be rich," and "Why would you want to teach in a public school?" It's that kind of attitude that makes me shudder. If I didn't do what I wanted to, if I didn't do what I'm passionate about just because it's hard, then I'd never get off the couch. I am a teacher who refuses to give up the pursuit of a dream. I am a teacher proud of the legacy of teachers in my family. If I do not struggle for the betterment of my students, then I would no longer be a teacher. If I were not a teacher, then what would I be?