Here is the beginning of a study I will be doing as part of my TE 803 Common Assignment. I will be focusing on two disengaged African American male students in my first hour–in light of our 803 discussions of cultural capital and 804 discussions of male students and textual lineages.

As a teaching intern at the Detroit School of Arts, a performing arts high school in Detroit, I find that one of my biggest struggles is recognizing that my students are individuals rather than a collective whole, with a shared body of cultural capital and growing body of knowledge. While I know that each student comes to the classroom with their own strengths and weaknesses, attitudes and biases, which may promote or hinder their individual learning in my classroom, I also recognize that this awareness is not consistently reflected in my teaching practice. Consequently, it is essential for me to recognize these differences and to determine how to adapt my teaching to ensure optimal learning for all of my students.

In a school of around 850 students, I have the opportunity to work with around 80% of the senior class, which is composed of about 180 students overall. In addition, while all of my students are African American, they come from an array of socioeconomic backgrounds. On one end of the spectrum, I have students who come from upper to middle class families, with parents who work in the medical, legal, and educational sectors. On the other end, I have many students who come from lower income households, where parents may not have finished high school let alone attended college.

 

This socioeconomic diversity prompts me to question what learning dispositions and cultural capital my students have—and whether my instruction is promoting the experiences, knowledge and skills of certain students over others, thus leading to inequity in the classroom. This is particularly relevant when considered in the context of “cultural reproduction,” which suggests that “curricular content tends to glorify the acts, practices, and activities of the upper classes while ignoring or denigrating those of the lower or working classes” (DeMorrais and LeCompte 14). In evaluating the Detroit Public Schools pacing chart, this certainly seems to be true for the 12^th grade English curriculum, which suggests that it focuses on British and World Literature—but places a much greater emphasis on British literature. In scanning through the pacing chart, the required texts include Macbeth, Gulliver’s Travels, excerpts from the King James Bible, and poetry by John Keats, Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth—all canonical texts written by “dead, white men.” Likewise, the tasks my students are expected to accomplish focus largely on formal writing such as an editorial essay, handbook, and research paper, which should all reflect Standard English semantics and syntax. Certainly, such texts and tasks are commonplace in an American English classroom—and in light of what cultural capital will make my students most successful in college and beyond, are very much necessary. However, they fail to reflect the home literacy practices and capital of many of my students.

Because of my educational background and literacy experiences, I know that my teaching practices also tend to promote the literacy practices of middle and upper class students—simply because I am most familiar with such practices. Growing up in a middle class, European American, Christian household and community, I have been a member of several dominant groups in American society, whose literacy practices and cultural capital have consistently been promoted in my educational experiences. As a result, I know that I often assume that my “own [literacy] behaviors and beliefs as the way it’s ‘supposed to be,’ as unbiased, objective, universal, or at least as ‘American’” (Kucer 198). While I am very much aware of these assumptions and the negative consequences they have for my diverse body of students, I know that they undoubtedly continue to infiltrate my teaching practices. Therefore, it is critical for me to not only be aware of these tendencies, but also to push myself to disentangle them from my teaching practices in order to ensure that I am not handicapping or devaluing my students because their home literacy practices and cultural capital do not align with the pacing chart or my own instinctive tendencies in instruction.

Unearthing these biased practices from my teaching in order to ensure that my instruction reflects awareness of my individual students’ backgrounds, needs, and capital must be a gradual process, and consequently, I will be focusing on two male students in my first period English 8 class, Eric Green and Jeff Cupples, who are not as successful as I believe they can be in my class. Period 1 has 29 students, with seven male students and 22 female students. It is also important to note that 14 of the students are dance majors, eight are radio/television production majors, five are visual arts majors, and three are band majors. The fact that half of the class is dance majors means that these students are together for the majority of the day—and have been since they were freshmen. Consequently, they are a very cohesive group of outspoken and energetic students who need to get on their feet frequently. This dynamic coupled with the fact that Period 1 starts at 8:05 a.m. helps explain why Period 1 tends to be my most difficult and unfocused class of the day.

My two focus students are very similar with regard to their low classroom engagement and academic success as well as their backgrounds, gender, and ethnicity. Eric and Devon come from working class homes, with parents who did not complete high school. In addition, Eric and Devon have limited computer and internet access. Eric must go to the library or a relative’s home in order to get online or type papers whereas Devon can only get online at his father’s home, where he is every other weekend. Finally, Eric and Devon share similar deficiencies in their literacy practices, particularly in their writing. Both students received a 2 on the MME Writing test, which suggests that their writing is below grade level. Specifically their essays “[show] little understanding of the issue in the prompt, or takes an unclear position. Support may be so minimal or unclear that organization may not be apparent. Language may be simple. Errors may interfere with meaning.” These statements also apply to their in-class writing, which is often very brief, with many grammatical and spelling errors as well as undeveloped ideas.

In evaluating Eric and Devon’s literacy practices further, it is also evident that both boys tend to use African American Vernacular English in both their spoken and written language. The use of AAVE in the hallways and during discussions in class is not an uncommon practice among my students; however, the majority of them seem to be adept at code switching between AAVE and what is considered Standard English in formal talk and writing. Eric and Devon, on the other hand, do not transition between the two dialects in their writing or formal in-class discussions, tending to use AAVE, which is grammatically inconsistent with Standard English. While I accept informal language in discussions and creative writing assignments, I must enforce the use of Standard English on formal writing assignments since it is the vernacular that is valued by society. Consequently, Eric and Devon are marked down on their writing assignments when their writing does not align with the semantic and syntactical rules of Standard English.

Outside of these similarities, Eric and Devon are very different. Eric is a visual arts major who tends to be more reserved than some of the other students. In addition, Eric has been diagnosed with a learning disability, which affects his reading comprehension, math and logical skills, and ability to express himself clearly in writing. Eric is very respectful inside and outside of the classroom, but noticeably disengages from the lesson during reading and writing activities. In addition, according to Eric’s special education teacher, Mrs. B., Eric tends to avoid doing his work when it appears to be too difficult—and seems to be doing this more this school year, perhaps because it is his senior year. This was particularly apparent during a recent writing assignment, where my students were asked to write a satirical short story. I had provided a great deal of structure for this assignment, giving students two weeks to brainstorm, draft, revise, and publish their stories. Despite Mrs. B.’s assistance and additional support that I provided in class, Eric did not complete the assignment, only publishing a portion of the story to his blog. This instance demonstrates Eric’s tendency to disengage in class, particularly with writing tasks.

Devon, on the other hand, is a very outspoken dance major who enjoys having the spotlight, explaining in his personal narrative essay that he wants “to be remembered by more then just the frown on my face or the volume of my voice.” Devon’s outgoing nature seems to explain his disruptive nature in class; I have had to have several one-on-one conversations with him to quell his side conversations in class as well as his tendency to be off task, reminding him that his behavior disrupts his learning as well as his classmates’. In addition, Devon has also demonstrated in his behavior and his writing that his one and only priority is dance; consequently, his academic classes tend to be pushed to the back burner. When pushed, Devon has shown that he has the aptitude to do very well in class; during the first term, he went from an F to a C. However, his performance during this term have demonstrated that he is slowly slipping back into his old habits of disrupting class, neglecting his homework, and not giving 100% to the assignments he does complete.

Interpretation, Stakes, Plan, and Assessment to come…