PROMPT 6: Relating to Shor

To be a culturally competent teacher we need to show our sensitivity to sociocultural and linguistic differences. We have to come up with different techniques that will encourage our students to participate and interact so they can learn. In my classroom we have different days were we have to do stations, and that day we had to do Phonics. The point of this section was to help students learn how to spell words. These kids seemed so bored that they didn’t want to do the work because it didn’t keep them interested. Melissa said, “Do we really have to do this? It’s boring.” She just wouldn’t sit still. I sat and thought for a second and I knew I had to come up with something that will interest them and will also help them learn. We had a board of pictures that were meant for something else. The thing that came to mind was that I had to come up with game, so I did. I decided to use the board with the pictures and I asked the students if they wanted to play a game like Bingo. They were excited and said “YEAH!” I told them that we had to look for something to use as chips and one of my students went to grab the bag that carried the plastic pennies. We had the flash cards but I knew the game would be too easy for them so I told them this was going to be a little bit more different then the real Bingo. The rules were that every time they had the picture of the word I said they will have to sound it out and tell me the first letter it started with. Then if they had the whole board full they will have to say “ALPHABET” to let us know they won. In the end they will have to sound out all the words to the rest of the students. They loved the game and they thought it was fun. They thought they were just playing a game when in reality they were all participating and learning.

The action that I took to have these students participate reminded me of Ira Shor who wrote “Empowering Education”. In this article Shor says, “Participation is the most important place to bring because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence” (pg 17). What I did with this group of students was that I paid attention to what they told me and I used new ideas to change the traditional classroom. We showed the communication that the students and I had. So they were able to participate and learn in a way that they had fun with.