Increasing Consciousness & Implementing Culturally Relevant Strategies

Increasing Consciousness & Implementing Culturally Relevant Strategies Facilitator: Ammar Saheli, Ed.D, MS, PPSC Director, Student Support Services

Homework:Research the term Maafa & seek its connection to the Black & Brown student experience • Mock Class Agenda: • Review of the Day:Dr. Saheli (3:30-3:35) • Simulation & Review of Culturally Relevant Strategies:Dr. Saheli (3:35-4:30) • Questions (4:35-4:50) Do Now:1. Dialogue with your table mates the following question: What is critical pedagogy and how is it manifested in my classroom and approach to education? Standard:#1: Closing the academic Achievement Gap#4: Raising adult developed cultural awareness of self and students Required Materials: Pen/PencilWhiteboardReadinessPersonal Engagement AIM:Culturally relevant strategy introduction, community building & ease, surrounding the topic of equity & cultural competence

Readiness Supplies Strategies At A Glance document (?) Agenda Blank back page of agenda as whiteboard Writing utensil Personal & Additional Materials: Full version of Strategies At A Glance document

Dialectic Norms In dialogue, maintain a safe and protective platform for critical self reflection. Respond, explore, and comment without judgment, respecting all views and perspectives. With professionalism, be courageous and respectfully speak your truth. Remain engaged and stay present with the current process & dialogue. Expect views to be critically, yet respectfully challenged for the purpose of growth through healthy probes. Experience discomfort. Do not expect closure. Refrain from being defensive. Prepare to scaffold presentation material for your own personal context and dynamic.

Parking Lot FAQS Is there funding? Will I be paid? I am already aware of the problem. I have enough things to do already. Just tell me what to do! I treat all students the same. I do not see color. I am color-blind. Where are the strategies? What does this have to do with the standards? How does this impact bell-to-bell teaching? Why are we discussing the concept of race? This can’t be true We have come so far, why are we talking about cultural relevance?

SLZUSD Equity Definition Equity in the San Lorenzo Unified School district is acknowledging historical biases and changing the way they are addressed in terms of closing the achievement gap. We define our approach to the work of equity as providing for each student the academic, emotional and social supports needed to increase the achievement of underperforming subgroups at an accelerated rate while additionally increasing overall student performance.

Equity Initiatives Wheel

Equity In Pure FormThe Classroom EQUITY Intersection Until the three elements intersect in the classroom, equity work will continue to be viewed as merely another task, as opposed to a fundamental practice of all educators. Personal Critical Cultural & Racial Awareness & Praxis Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Refraining from Default) The Equity Classroom Refined praxis, with continual technique development & collaboration

A Quick Look at Critical Pedagogy

The Creation of Classroom Critical Pedagogy • The Defined Goal: “This [Critical] pedagogy attempts to engage learners in a process of education in which all assumptions are exposed, all arguments questioned, and all arguments evaluated by teachers and learners.” (Elias, 1984, p. 133)

bell hooks • “Making the classroom a democratic setting where everyone feels a responsibility to contribute is a central goal of transformative pedagogy” (p. 39, 1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Instructional Responsibilities from a Multicultural Perspective • “Connect students prior knowledge, life experience and interests with classroom learning.”(Teaching standard 1.1: California standards for the teaching profession) • “Another way to cause history to stick is to present it so that it touches students’ lives.” (Lowen, 1996, p. 301, lies my teacher told me)

“A great teacher is not simply one who imparts knowledge to his students, but one who awakens their interests and makes them eager to pursue knowledge for themselves. He/[she] is a spark plug, not a fuel line.” (p. 234) “The teacher must assume responsibility for addressing the student’s needs.” (p. 234) “The dictionary defines teach as ‘to cause to know a subject!’ Therefore, if the students have not been ‘caused to know the subject,’ has the person who taught them been a good teacher?” (p. 30). Quotes: The Seven Laws of the LearnerBruce H. Wilkinson (1992)

Quotes: The Seven Laws of the LearnerBruce H. Wilkinson (1992) • “Lead your class to leap past your principle and ‘prediscover’ their own applications.” (P. 144) • “Whenever the teacher believes that accumulation of content is the ultimate purpose of the course, his/[her] students will slowly lose interest, develop apathy, and eventually become critical and cynical. If the content is not used by the student, eventually it becomes an irritant.” (P. 189)

Framing (1) • Teachers are cognizant of themselves as political beings (p.118). In a study conducted by the California P-16 Council (1998), it was found that “To reach students, teachers need a cultural understanding of themselves, the students they teach, the families that raise them, and the communities that raise them (p. 31). Teachers recognize that they have preconceived notions of students and/or their cultures and that they need to unlearn those notions and relearn the cultures of their students in order to become culturally responsive. California Department of Education. (2008). Accessing High-Quality Instructional Strategies. Davis, CA.: Hamann, E.T., Reeves, J., Baurian, B., & Valenciano, G. • Ladson-Billings (1995) also states “students must experience academic success, develop and/or maintain cultural competence, and develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (p. 164). Culturally relevant teaching should promote African American students to choose to do well in school while also being able to identify with African and African American culture. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34(3), 159-165.

Strategies in Context • Question accountability cards/system: Every student or the teacher is to generate in each class, an individual name card for each student. In the past some teachers have used Popsicle sticks or other signature items. As question and answer sessions begin, students are to be informed that cards will be selected randomly, holding all students accountable. Before the process of inquiry begins, students should have an opportunity to have their questions answered. For Special Education and 504 students (when needed), a plan can be developed so they know they will be asked the 2nd, 4th, or 6th question. The goal of the strategy is student accountability, engagement, and assessment.

Question • As we have already discussed, in your own words, What is Critical Pedagogy? (two minute table share & quick write)

Strategies in Context 2. Call & Response: Using relevant phrases from popular songs and Bay Area urban language, call out the phrase and instruct students to rhythmically respond. From a cultural perspective this practice is more pedagogically appropriate than turning off the lights, clapping, ringing a bell, holding up a finger/hand, or voice elevation. Allow the students to have a voice in selecting the culturally appropriate call and response phrases. The goal of this strategy is to re-capture class attention after transitions, group assignments, or disruption. It also builds classroom community

Strategies in Context 3. Whiteboard Response System (Whole class): This strategy requires each student to have a small whiteboard or a sheet of paper to document responses. As the question and answer session begins, students are expected to write their single answer on the whiteboard/paper, large enough for the teacher to view from the front of the class. When prompted, each student is to hold up their whiteboard/sheet of paper, depicting their answer. Each student is to be instructed to keep their eyes focused on the instructor and not look or comment about other student answers. The goal of this strategy is to increase engagement, accountability, and assessment. This process (at a glance) informs the instructor of where review may be needed and who also may need individual attention.

Question • Our district equity initiatives wheel consists of how many components? • Keep your eyes on your paper and when directed, raise your paper high enough for the instructor to see your answer.

Strategies in Context 4. Use of Music Within the Classroom: During the first three days of school, poll students regarding the types of music they enjoy. Allow them to bring CD’s and tapes. As students enter the class, they should lightly hear (in the background) the music they recommended. During various times of the class period or instructional day, play the music (transitions, non-standardized exams, free-writes, etc.). As students hear their music in the classroom, the space becomes their own. The goal of the strategy is to build relationship, community, connection, classroom, and academic ownership.

Classroom Climate • It is not just about curriculum content, it is about creating a classroom atmosphere of readiness, exploration, and safety. Such a climate engenders healthy educational vulnerability, regardless of culturally relevant content.The teacher is the real curriculum and the book is a tool.

Strategies in Context 5. Teaching for the development critical consciousness (“Connect student’s prior knowledge, life experience and interests with classroom learning.” Teaching standard 1.1: California standards for the teaching profession): Ensure that students are aware of the concept of critical consciousness: The essence of knowing who they are on the deepest level and how they are perceived by others & the world. Paulo Freire calls it “Reading the world.” It is not enough for them to simply know who they are. They must know what others potentially see when they see them. The goal of this strategy is the increase of educational ownership and decrease of behavior requiring discipline.

What Is Critical Consciousness? (2 Minute table share & prepare to respond to the larger group)

Critical consciousness defined: “A process through which men/[women] develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves.” (Freire, 1973) Critical consciousness operationalized: “The mental turning point where African American men, women, boys, and girls begin to critically recognize oppressive elements in society and fight against them for social change and justice.” (Saheli, 2003) Guiding Concepts & Definitions

An Approach to Mental Liberation in Education • The Difficult Dialogue:“Men are defeated and dominated, though they do not know it; they fear freedom, though they believe themselves to be free. They follow general formulas and prescriptions as if by their own choice. They are directed; they do not direct themselves. Their creative power is impaired. They are objects, not subjects. For men to overcome their state of massification, they must be enabled to reflect about that very condition. But since authentic reflection cannot exist apart from action, men must also act to transform the concrete reality which has determined their massification.” (Freire, 1973, p. 19).

Strategies in Context 10. Introduce & Illuminate Transformative Literature. Through the lens of cultural relevance, students of color must be introduced to transformative and liberating literature that breaks potential psychological colonization (i.e. African American students can greatly benefit by being exposed to the writings of bell hooks, Cornell West, W.E.B. Dubois, Carter G. Woodson, Wade Nobles, Asa Hilliard, etc.). The goal of this strategy exposes students to critical concepts that can aid them in taking personal responsibility for current and future education.

The Argument for Classical Vs. Industrial EducationW.E.B. Du BoisFrom the Book: The Education of Black People (1973) • “Now I have said that in order to match the great demands of this age we need to throw off our indolence and use and develop every power that God has given us, and that the higher education is a method of developing these powers. (P.13) • “…just as far as the race can afford it we must give to our youth training designed above all to make them men [and women] of power, of thought, of trained and cultivated taste; men [and women] who know whether civilization is tending and what it means.” (P. 14)

Strategies in Context 12. Understand the Language Acquisition Device (LAD): As students respond/answer classroom teacher posed questions in their home language, structured opportunitiesshould be provided immediately for them to transition their responses in written and verbal form, into academic language or Standard English. It can be done verbally with an entire class, using the question card system (Strategy #1). Through the use of the strategy the home language is validated while enhanced forms of academic language and Standard English are promoted according to situational appropriateness. Example Assignment: Select a narrative that illustrates the display/usage of home language, Standard English, and academic language. Give students opportunities to read the narrative and identify sentences as home language or academic language. Have students convert home language sentences into academic or Standard English and the reverse. Providing opportunities to transform academic and Standard English sentences into home language sentences provides home language validation. The goal of this strategy is to increase literacy efficiency and usage, making students aware of the code switching dynamic, building community connection through home language validation.

Home Language & Academic English Translation Exercise • Through our classroom analysis and observation, the axiological structure of indigenous Mexican society is noted as supremely fascinating. (Translate into home language) • That supped up whip be smashin down the block with blinged-out twenty-foes. (Translate into Academic English)

Strategies in Context 6. Discuss agenda at the beginning of each class (specific clock times should be posted as well): At the beginning of each class, briefly review the agenda and entertain any questions about the direction of the class or day. This will help students become allies with the instructional plan as it proceeds. The goal of this strategy is increased accountability and responsibility to the flow of the class. It will prepare students for transitions.

Strategies in Context 7. Frontload the Big Picture: “From an early age we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole. When we then try to see the big picture, we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize all the pieces. But, as physicist David Bohm says, the task is futile-similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection. Thus, after a while we give up trying to see the whole all together” (Peter M. Senge, Educational Leadership, p. 3, 2007). Through the lens of cultural relevance, fragmented learning is not optimal. At the beginning of the class briefly discuss the complete project/assignment so students are aware of the beginning, middle, and end, before they begin. Some students grasp concepts faster if the big picture is frontloaded. The goal of this strategy is to provide students with a platform so critical thinking can commence along with teacher instruction on how best to arrive at the concluded product. It also allows for increased student critical inquiry.

Strategies in Context 8. Provide Models of All Assignments:While students are writing an essay the teacher can write an essay on the overhead providing visual stimulation and modeling, enhancing student engagement. Models of completed assignments should also be shared with students so they have a snapshot of the quality of the process completed. The goal of this strategy & practice is to provide a spark and springboard from whence to begin the assignment journey.

Strategies in Context 9. Verbal Affirmations, &Verbal, Physical and/or Written Positive Feedback: Provide relationship building and exhortative/encouraging feedback to all students on submitted assignments, tests, and report cards. What students read, see, and hear regarding teacher feedback has a powerful impact on their approach to education and stick-to-itiveness. Freely give public praise and verbal affirmations for participation, engagement, critical insight, etc. If a student furnishes an incorrect answer or response, they can still be affirmed for their attempt and encouraged to continue with their engagement. “Wow, you are so close. Stick with it.” The goal of this strategy is the building/ fostering of motivation efficacy, connection, confidence, and engagement.

Strategies in Context 11. Master Schedule: Students with the severest needs educationally and behaviorally must be afforded the best instructors, academically and relationally. Such students should be identified and intentionally placed in classes with the highest skilled teachers, maximizing success opportunities. Through trying to close the academic achievement gap, African American and Latino/Latina students should be assigned the best teachers categorically. The goal of this strategy is to increase performance of underperforming students.

Strategies in Context 13. Emphasize Academic Vocabulary: Within all disciplines provide lists of critical academic terms relevant to the course and hold students accountable for understanding, mastery, and usage. The goal of this strategy is to increase vocabulary and academic language mastery in speaking and writing.

Increasing Consciousness & Implementing Culturally Relevant Strategies