MASTER INTERACTIONAL AND DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES

1. MASTER INTERACTIONAL AND DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES Lessons from L-TAPL for teaching African American Boys

2. Some characteristics of the classrooms • Solidarity in community or (”we-ness”) • Teacher-students interactions to build positive identities • Democratization of support, opportunity, and participation • Classroom as an artifact of children’s lives • Classrooms of integrity.

3. Community and belonging A sense of community refers to the teacher’s emphasis on group participation and students’ own actions mediated and influenced by each other in the group. The teacher cultivates within the children a sense of belonging to a group through her disciplinary practices. This includes getting the attention of all students to address the behavior of one or a few students), and through discursive practices such as the use of pronouns (e.g. we).

4. Community and belonging • -[Children shouting out, wanting to draw another picture]. Teacher: “We don’t decide things by saying same thing over and over… we decide by saying “Teacher may we vote and we vote on that?” • Teacher: “Why are we here.” Teacher: “Shhh!” to the group… “We listen when a child answers.” • Teacher: Hey! Wait a minute. We all are going to listen to each other.

5. Solidarity in community • “Solidarity,” as we use the term, is a form of social cohesion characterized by mutual respect, reciprocity, commitment, connection, and accountability to the group. It simultaneously supports students’ developing a feeling of “we-ness” in the classroom, while at the same time promoting the wellbeing of each member of the class.

6. Solidarity in community: why we are here? She tells the children they are going to share why they have signed up for the after-school program. “Why are you here?,” she says, but writes: “Why we are here.” One child blurts out something. She uses her “Shhh” then says, “You know what, we’re listening, you need to listen. Once again using the inclusive “we,” even when she is correcting an individual child. The “you need to listen” is paired with “we are listening” (or, you need to join us in listening).

7. Solidarity: shared status/condition • The teachers rarely isolated particular children for praise or for problems. She treated most situations as if all children could learn from whatever someone else was doing. Children were thus encouraged to identify with one another. • This had the effect of simultaneously encouraging solidarity as well as communicating to children that they were capable of and had a responsibility to regulate the classroom community. It was another way that children were held accountable to one another; they had to actively trust and respect one another.

8. Solidarity:the teacher as member-learning When asked to say why she is in the after-school program, a child says, “To do science”. The teacher exclaims “Oooh, you better know it. Who likes science in here?” A number of children respond enthusiastically. She exclaims, “Oh, you do? I’m glad I brought something today that’s for science.” Two little girls looking at each other and exclaim with excitement: “Ooooh.” She asks, “How would you say this [on the board]”? She then repeats what the child says to the class as a whole—almost savoring the words as she write it on the board: “To do science.”

9. Solidarity:The teacher as member-experience & integrity • The teacher asks children who had gotten in trouble and had everybody fuss at them. Then, the teacher says: “When I was little, …” and proceeds to share a childhood story in which she got in trouble as a child. • When still learning the children’s name the teacher says to the class: “If I made a mistake in my spelling, I think it is your job to tell me, okay?”

10. Solidarity:Teacher as member: empathy • The teacher is discussing how to deal with the demands of a lot of children needing your attention with other teachers after the lab. She says that she might dramatize the situation in front of the children and say, “’How does this poor teacher feel?’ Or ‘How does the teacher feel?’ And then get them to think about, you know, ‘Sometimes I get my feelings hurt because I…’ You know? ‘You know, when you want to do your drawings, I want to help. And when you want to spell a work, I want to help. And you want to get a box off the shelf and I want to help you, I just feel terrible. I wish I was an octopus, but I’m a teacher.’ And you know, just try to get them to see your side of it and what they can do to help and be sure that they know they’re going there.”

11. Teacher-student interactions and the development of school identities • Teachers also tended to use the highly public nature of teacher-student interactions to promote positive social identities in children through how they interacted with children, and managed students’ classroom behaviors. • General (casual) interpersonal interactions • Instructional interactions • Disciplinary interactions

12. Initial teacher behaviors-general 1. She is physically proximate to the children; sitting in the circle. Sitting at the same level as the children. 2. She reinforces connection or “we-ness” by bending forward to hear children; making eye contact, and through the inflection of her voice. Her tone is playful and pleasant; her style is engaging. • However, she maintains control—even when she jokes with children, reminding them her authority (which is never relinquishes) through both verbal and physical cues, and without harshness and addressing the group as a whole, and not individual children. • She also asks information of the children, listens carefully, and engages their answers.

13. Initial teacher behaviors-boys The teacher demonstrates her comfort level with African American boys, and the even-handed way she interacts with them. Her tone remains friendly; her humor is engaging. She does not condescend, nor do she give up her authority. She continues to make eye contact, positions herself physically in such a way as to create a momentary dyad (i.e., she draws closer to the child, giving him her full attention), and maintains the friendly tone. She invites a relationship with the children—boys as much as girls. She makes it apparent in her interactions with the children that they please her—that she likes them, and that she is interested in them (asking them questions about themselves—not just for information, but because she is really interested in who they are).

14. Initial teacher behaviors • From day one, the teachers provided all children with opportunities to participate in low-stakes activities that established respect and trust. This allowed children to develop and demonstrate existing and/or emergent competencies, and become familiar and comfortable with her expectations. (Transference of authority/practice of minimal intervention)

15. Initial strategies: getting to know you Teacher: “Okay, I’m going to remember [each] one of [your] names.” She repeats each child’s the teacher is getting to know children by calling their names individually and asking them questions like, “How do you spell your name?”) The teacher (to a child): “I have a question for you. What happened to your teeth?” The little girl explains that the tooth fairy gave her a dollar for her tooth. Teacher: You sold your teeth?! (She focuses on this child a while, then opens up the question to the whole group): “Has anybody else sold their teeth?”

16. Initial teacher behaviors: setting the stage for AA boys’ positive identities Early on the first day, she indicates that she is going to need helpers and asks D (AA boy) to get her red bag. When something happens off screen that involves other children and D she says to the other children, “Let him do it…Look, he’s in charge of his body.”” This is a good example of how she uses the public nature of teaching to create a positive social or public identity for an African American boy. Being in charge of one’s own body is one of her core values and themes, and she uses an African American boy in a positive way to communicate this expectation. Moreover, she treats it as normal and expected—it is not surprising.

17. Democratization of support, opportunity, and participation • Through our analysis of teacher behaviors, we identified what we call the democratization of support and opportunity as one of the salient features of the classroom. The teacher provided repeated opportunities for children to show they can be trusted to be responsible and responsive to one another. She also provided children with supported opportunities to develop and demonstrate emergent academic and social competencies.

18. Opportunity structures Teachers provide structures of opportunity that establish trust, and provide supported opportunities for children to demonstrate and develop existing and emergent competencies. • The transference of authority and the practice of minimal intervention

19. Opportunity: child mediated conflict • During a table activity there is Example; a conflict between two students. • Student-1: “M, stop pushing over me.” • Student-2: “Sorry.” The teacher was aware of the conflict but did not intervene. She noticed when the students resolved the conflict.

20. Teacher-student interactions and the development of school identities • Each teacher created a classroom that became an artifact of the children’s lives (i.e., that validated and meaningfully incorporated children’s knowledge, interests, and experiences).

21. Opportunity: group mediated conflict Student (1) is sitting on a chair that another student (2) claims was sitting on before him. Another student (3) advocates for the student (2). Student 1 does not want to stand up and give the chair to Student 2. He also claims it was previously his seat, and says, “I've been sitting here since I came.” Student 2 then seeks the help of the teacher. The teacher tells the student 2 (who is standing up) that she could sit in another chair…or that both children can go outside and decide who is going to sit where and miss the party. Student 2 is still claiming that she was sitting on the chair before Student 1. Another student (4) advocates for Student 2:

22. Opportunity: Group mediated conflict Student 4: “Yes, she was sitting there before him…he was sitting right here (pointing to the actual chair where the student was seated before). The teacher then acknowledges that the other students (2-3-4) were right. She addresses Student 1, saying that Student 2 has been “diplomatic.” Student-2 then decides to give up and sits on the other chair…The teacher then says to the Student 2 who decided not to fight anymore for her chair… “That’s a big thing for you to do...and I applaud that.” (11-15; 22:24)

23. Conflict resolution: Teacher mediated/modeling During a table activity, two students are arguing about something (inaudible). The teacher notices the incident and approaches the table. Teacher: “Listen, let me tell you something (bending over to table). The other students at the table still are talking)…Wait, listen to me…especially you and you (the student with the earlier conflict)…we don’t solve things by (teacher mocks the students). You don’t do that. You solve it by saying…(inaudible).

24. Dispositions Dispositions: These are the behaviors and attitudes she encourages children to develop with respect to participating in a classroom community, and that are needed for learning. They can be communicated explicit (e.g., rules) or implicit to how she treats children (modeling).

25. Dispositions: making decisions When the teacher opens up a question, Teacher: “Who wants to draw another picture of self?” The children exclaim in the affirmative, shouting and waving their hands. The teacher corrects them, explaining what she expects, “We don’t decide that way. We vote.” The teacher models the expected behavior. A child raises her hand and the teacher allows her to speak. The student follows the teachers model. (The teacher models expected behavior—disposition of self-regulated behavior.)

26. Disposition: be ready for anything Teacher says, “I’m going to call on A. because she has her hand up first. “But,” (emphatically followed by a brief pause), “wait,” followed by another brief pause and holding her hand up, “sometime I don’t call on the person who raises their hands first. Sometimes I call on somebody who doesn’t have their hand up.” She then moves over and gets face-to-face with a little boy who is sitting in the circle. He meets her gaze. She backs away, returning to her more general gaze and says, “You never know.”

27. Disposition: thinkers and problem-solvers During the “Why are we here?” activity, one child responds, Child: “To get out of school.” T: “To get out of school? (with smile) This is after-school, and guess what, we are still in school, so we’re not going to say that. You are out of school, but you are in school. Hmm. We got a problem here.” Child: “When we get out of school.” T: “When we get out of school? What, why are we here, to do what when we get out of school?” Another child responds, Child: “To go home.” T: “You need to raise your hand. Did you come here to go home? If you did, you took a bad way to get home. Come here and sit in a chair. You know what? I don’t get it. We are out of school, but we are not here to get out of school.” Child: “Ok, then to learn”. T:“Ok, to learn--maybe you are here to be back in school. You are back in school, you know that don’t you? To learn more.”

28. Disposition: respect • Teacher: “What is mind?” Some children confuse it with “mine”. [T solicits a variety of answers which she responds to, increasing children’s understanding of what the ASL is about.] At one point, she asks the question of a child who stops to think. In the silence another child begins to share her idea…. • Teacher: First hand first” [T. implies what is expected behavior to be called on.] • Teacher: “When someone’s thinking, it’s best to be nice and quiet because when you are on a hot seat, you want to be able to think” [T reminds the children of the rule; instead of simply stopping/correcting one child’s behavior, she encourages all to put themselves in the child’s situation; empathy.]

29. Disposition: accountability The teacher asks an AA boy who has a reputation for being challenging if he used his self-regulation today. He motions with his hands rather than answering. She says she doesn’t know what that means. He says, “Kinda,” and begins to pound his chair with his fists. “Kinda? What does kinda mean?,” she asks. “I don’t know,” the boy. responds, continuing to pound the desk with a bit of an attitude or strut. Another child is apparently about to answer for him, but she says she wants him to tell her. She goes over and moves each of his hands from the chair seat. He shifts position. She models for him how he should respond. He shrugs his shoulders.

30. Disposition: accountability The teacher asks: “You want me to ask other people?” Another child volunteers that the AA boy talked back to a teacher. “Talkin’ back?”, she says, “That’s worse than talkin’—sit up in your chair.” The boy doesn’t respond. “Sit up in your chair, I’m not kidding. You were talking back to your teacher? (The teacher asks the other child) What did he say (to the other child). The other child volunteers that he yelled at the teacher. The teacher is incredulous in her tone of voice and facial expression. Nooo! You didn’t, yell at your…? Nooo! I don’t want to believe that. Is that true? I don’t want to hear that again; I mean it.” She seamlessly moves on to the next child.

31. Dispositions: accountability & support • Teacher publicly corrects AA boy, Y, using his name. She proceeds to elicit the help of other students to ‘remind’ Y how he is to behave. Teacher, to the helping student: • “Oh thank you. I’m sure he appreciates you reminding him.” The entire interaction is less than 15 seconds. Thus, she addresses Y’s behaviors, while also reinforcing solidarity and support. This occurs within the context of instruction, but only briefly interrupts the flow.

32. Disposition: support & self-regulation Y is fidgety in a way that is different from (more than) other children.The teacher does not ignore the behavior totally, but addresses it selectively, and in general briefly. She deals with it directly, but often uses her interventions to teach values to all of the children and to do so in a positive way: • Teacher: “It looks like Y has forgotten the rule. Let’s give him or her time to correct their behavior. We must be respectful; we want to have fun; etc.”

33. Opportunity structures Opportunity structures: meaningful (comfortable) participation (classroom as an artifact of children’s knowledge and experiences) • Who gets to help, and in what ways? • Opportunity to make choices. • Who participates in instructional activities? • How does she make the lessons relevant to the children’s experiences? That is, how does she provide opportunities for children to draw from their personal knowledge and experiences?

34. Teaching with Integrity • It is the holism of the teachers with whom we worked, their “integrity,“ that we believe help them find more ways to connect with children across the diverse personalities, abilities, and needs the children represented. • In this way, the teachers created a classroom environment in which the integrity of each child was welcomed and respected. We feel this undoubtedly played a role in establishing trusting relationships with and among the children.

35. TEACHER: Yeah, for everybody. If I’m really straight and narrow in doing things and I never take the time to just let them react. If I do, it just gets out of hand and it takes a long time to get control of the room. TEACHER: You said a time limit, you did. You said “It will take me just a minute to get....” TEACHER: And it was such a human thing and we need that you know, we need to bend. That’s what you’ve allowed us to do. It validates them as people. And I just found that remarkable and it’s such a little thing, I hadn’t thought of it. I’m scared to try it, but it’s so neat. It’s so neat. And I think in their success in doing the next thing and being able to make a transition because they don’t carry to the next transition with frustration. Teaching with integrity

36. Classrooms of integrity: loving Black children • Y is having a difficult day and is sent out of the room by T (though he is allowed to come back when he is ready). When he returns, the teacher publicly apologizes to Y for sending him out of the class when he was “acting obnoxious” such that they could not work. She apologizes because she realizes that what he needed from her was “to know that she loved him.”