Throughout this semester, Jimmy McKenzie, Adam Miller, Davina Miaw, Brandon Rheinhart, and I collaboratively read and discussed a book entitled “Other People’s Children” by Lisa Delpit. Our group had weekly meetings throughout the semester, and each meeting was comprised of different things. While we read the chapters assigned for a certain week, we all contributed the key points of the chapter, any questions we had, strengths, weaknesses, and then interesting ideas about the section of the book we read for that week. By doing this so steadily throughout the semester, for the final culmination of this assignment, we simply had to reflect on the ideas we had brought up previously, instead of panicking and cramming to finish the assignment at the last minute. This was overall a very enjoyable experience, with meaningful learning, and discussions with great people!
Reflection
"Other People’s Children” has opened my mind far beyond I had imagined. Through reading and experiencing Delpit’s experience and passion for equality and the understanding of diversity, I have learned an immense amount about empathy. In addition to this, I have learned things about other cultures that I was absolutely unaware of before. For example, Delpit discusses the difference between Home and School culture in children. (Delpit, 2006, pg. 167) In this section, she discusses that children of different cultures may respond differently to a teacher depending on how he or she addresses the child. Some students may be more used to a demand or question that is more strict or straight forward (“Go put that back on the shelf, now.”, while others from other cultures may be more accustomed to a more gentle command (“Can you go put that back for me, please?”).
Through ideas like this, I feel that I can apply these to many aspects of my teaching. Using this example, I can better formulate the ways I address my students to ensure that they are comfortable, but are also able to follow the rules that I provide to them. It will also help me problem solve if needed be. This may also have to come with a great deal of compromise and consolidation when it comes to addressing my students as a group. Especially if faced with multiple cultural backgrounds, I will have to be able to address them all in a way that works amongst all of them. By considering a student and their cultural backgrounds, whether it be by ethnicity, or just their regular home life, I can determine how I, as an educator can better address their needs and teach them in a way that is most effective toward their learning. The entire process of a book study has taught me an immense amount of time management, and cooperation with others. Our group worked very hard to rationalize our work throughout the semester to ensure that we weren’t all cramming to last-minute put together our project. We divided up the chapters we were reading per week, and our group met weekly to discuss the topics that we had discovered in our readings. We also set up a google doc to input our ideas, questions, critiques, and praises for each chapter/section of the book. That alone taught me a great deal of teamwork. We couldn’t have completed this assignment if only one person had done all the work. We all read the book with the full intentions of learning from it, and we all contributed to make this assignment meaningful to each of us. |
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