Prompt #6

Each student comes to school equipped with a slightly unique set of vocabulary. Their early childhood surroundings shape the way they process information, how they express what they have learned and where they are have difficulty. In order to be able to respond to and reach each child the way you communicate needs to be altered.
I hate to keep quoting Lisa Delpit, but her article “The Silenced Dialogue” continues to be oh-so relevant to my service learning experience! When she explains that authority is expressed in different ways for children from African American homes than from White homes, I began to think about how a teacher might address both forms of communication. Ms. Apple*, the teacher in my classroom, uses a firm, direct command when she wants a student to get to work or stop their bad behavior. I think it is a successful way to communicate, because every type of student can comprehend a direct demand. Even though a white student may feel like the command is harsh, because they are used to indirect commands (as Delpit notes), they are still very capable of following the concise direction.
Sometimes Ms. Apple* uses students who are working quietly as a positive example to get her other students to behave. Pointing out and rewarding their good behavior by saying “Wow, I love how Billy* is working independently and quietly” sends a message to the other students that they should be doing the same. This type of communication may be indirect, but it is common in the Elementary school setting and is an important concept for each of the students to understand. They quickly learn that they should be doing the same thing as the “good” student if they want to earn the teacher’s praise.
Ms. Apple* uses another form of communication that is easily understood by each of the students in her classroom. A stern and steady glare at a misbehaving student is often all they need to quiet down and jump right back into their seats to continue their work. It basically never requires an extra verbal command and is an interesting transfer to watch. It still amazes me that authority can be exercised through just a look!
Occasionally there are words that come up in books or other readings that may be familiar to one culture but are unrecognizable to others. Earlier today, while I was monitoring the classroom and answering questions, Billy* asked me what the word “prairie” was and what it meant (he was reading a book based around a boy and his farm). If he had been raised in the farmland area of the United States he would have already come across this word, but growing up in a city, such as Providence, meant that he had not yet had an experience with the word. Little instances like that are clear indicators that we cannot assume that every student enters the classroom equipped with the same bank of knowledge. Students should feel comfortable, like Billy was, with asking questions about words or concepts they don’t recognize, even if their fellow classmates already know it.