DHHE 645 Bell Ringer 1

Bell Ringer

Directions:

Read the quote
Consider the prompts
Compose a response (recorded or typed)
Submit your response

Quote:

"When students' language, culture, and experience are ignored or excluded in classroom interactions, students are immediately starting from a disadvantage. Everything they have learned about life and the world up to this point is being dismissed as irrelevant to school learning; there are few points of connection to curriculum materials or instruction, and so students are expected to learn in an experiential vacuum. Students' silence and nonparticipation under these conditions have frequently been interpreted as a lack of academic ability or effort, and teachers’ interactions with students have reflected a pattern of low expectations which become self-fulfilling."

Jim Cummins
— Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society (1996), pp. 2-3

Prompts:

Would you share your experience with or thoughts about how the ideas in this quote have affected you as a learner?

Consider the misinterpretation of student behaviors mentioned in this quote. As a teacher, what student behavior triggers do you have? What are your reactions to those behaviors? In what ways do you need to be aware of your potential to “reflect a pattern of low expectations” with your [future] students?*

*If you do not yet have teaching experience, you can still provide insight into these questions. Consider your own "triggers," the behaviors you do and don't have patience; engage in a mental practice - thinking through - of what this might look like for you as a teacher.