Homespaces

Reading the “Gender Identity Development” section of Nakkula’s Understanding Youth made me think of so many of my students.  Not only does society make assumptions about male/female roles, so do many schools.  I was interested in what the author’s said about girls of color, particularly African American girls.  I find African American female students tend to be so loud and actually aggressive sometimes that I have reprimanded them to cool down and to not get so fired up about everything.  But Nakkula mentions that “black mothers with their tongues of fire” have actually taught these girls to be aggressive and to fight for what they want and need in order to survive in a white person’s world (pg 113).  I never really thought about this before.  Delpit writes in Other People's Children about the black communication style in which mothers tend to bark orders at their kids in a loud, commanding way which explains why some students need that type of communication in order to get through to them in the classroom (Delpit, 2006).  However, I did not think about the black female student socially in regard to their aggressive type behavior until Nakkula.

When the author’s talked about the importance of “home spaces” and “homeplaces” I thought about all the school activities my school has to offer kids.  The Gay Straight Alliance has given kids that are gay and their friends that are straight a space to talk about where they are with their sexuality and how to navigate within a predominantly straight society (both in and out of school). This organization has contributed greatly to the accepting culture we have at my school.  Another group that was just started this year is the Nerd Herd which has 35 students that participate.  Yes, 35 and growing from what I here.  The Nerd Herd, in my opinion, is saving kids both academically and socially.  This group has a trivia question of the week that is usually related to a comic, graphic novel, superhero, Animee, or other such thing that these kids love.  I have learned about Cosplay and ComicCon and all kinds of things through these kids.  This school activitiy is the ultimate in homespaces!!  The teacher leader of this group is very passionate about all the same things these kids love and has coined himself as the Nerdiest Teacher in the building for many years.  What a win/win for both the teacher and the students.

Hope + Hard Work = Accomplishment (?)

As I was reading Nakkula, I thought about something that I feel is probably part of my teaching philosophy/belief in some way.  My job is to foster a sense of hope in my students.  If we expect students that have been passed along through No Child Left Behind to pass high stakes testing, these “high goals must be met by realistic hope – hope cultivated by successive, ongoing experiences of accomplishment” (pg. 63).  How can we expect our low performing kids to feel good about school and working hard when we really haven’t cared too much about that ourselves?  As a system, we have cared mostly about socially promoting students to the next grade level, at least that’s what I see has happened by the time many of my students get to the high school.  Then, all of a sudden the high stakes test comes along and we do so much ramp up that we lose them even more.   Many of my sophomores are taking three math classes just to get them ready for NECAP next year.  That means we have taken away their electives, their joy essentially.  The only way these kids can experience the hope that they matter or the hope that they can go to college or the hope that they are worthy of challenge is to give them an experience where they feel a sense of accomplishment.  It doesn’t have to be through core academics, it could be through sports, activities, a teacher or staff person that cares.  But somewhere along the line our kids need to feel there is hope for them.  Maybe it could be in the form of a writing assignment that might not be great overall, but has some great thoughts that can be cultivated.  Maybe a math problem doesn’t have the correct final answer, but by looking at the student’s work it is obvious that they are heading in the right direction.   Perhaps if a student hears they are on the right track, it may give them the hope to try harder. Then they have a sense of hope that the next problem or writing piece might be hard, but they know they can do it.

Additionally, in Chapter 4 Nakkula writes about Skill Theory and how through the experience of building skills, the student also builds their confidence and a sense of competence.  The more competent and confident a student is the more likely she is to venture into new learning activities.  At first I thought this was quite obvious but when I read this, I appreciated the reminder that hard work and seeing a task to the end is an accomplishment in itself for my students.  Especially if I can tell a student they did a good job.  It’s not always about the reward of the grade, sometimes it’s the reward of a teacher seeing a student’s hard work and giving them a verbal award that the hard work was noticed.  This made me think about the graphic novel and perhaps this is my belief (or part of it?):

“I believe adolescents learn by a challenging teacher that fosters a strong sense of emotional and intellectual hope in order for the student to feel a sense of confidence and competence.”  

Well, a work in process anyway …