In July, Cathy et al at Refine andReflect are hosting a #cyberPD summer reading discussion based on
Peter Johnston's Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. In preparation (and while waiting
for Amazon to deliver Opening Minds), I decided to re-read Johnston's
Choice Words. It is a good reminder about the power of teachers'
words in designing the classroom environment and creating students'
identities.
Johnston begins with quoting Vygotsky
(1978), which I think is a very powerful thing to remember, "children
grow into the intellectual life around them" (p. 88). What kind
of intellectual life am I creating in my classroom? What am I
modeling through my words and actions about how to access and create
knowledge? These are some big questions to answers - and it goes
beyond naming the content and materials of the course. The
foundation of teaching is the relationship between teacher and
student, and since speech is action (Austin, 1962) teachers have the
daunting responsibility of "naming" students - who is a
good reader or struggling student? I need to be aware of how my
language positions students in my classroom and be intentional in
creating positive identities and attuned to how my students are
rejecting, accepting and modifying the identities available.
Johnston then elaborates in each chapter the power of particular ways
of using language in the classroom.
When people are apprentices to an
activity, any activity, they have to learn the names of
things/actions and the importance of these things/actions. Students
in my classroom need to learn the language of classroom activities,
ways of thinking and doing, I can't assume they know it. Once
something is noticed (and named) it influences the continued
perception of everything (ie. I can't "un-notice"
something). In the classroom, I need to help my students develop the
language and habit of noticing and naming their thinking and actions
using phrases such as "Did you notice ... What kind of .... What
process did you use to ..."
Teachers have great power (and with it
comes great responsibility) in creating identities for children.
Naming one child a great writing and another a struggling reader can
have long-range consequences. "Building an identity means
coming to see in ourselves the characteristics of particular
categories (and roles) of people and developing a sense of what is
feels like to be that sort of person and being in certain social
spaces" (p. 23) Yes, children have agency to reject, modify or
accept the identities available, but some do not know how to use
their agency. "Teachers' conversation with children help the
children build bridges between action and consequences that develop
their sense of agency" (p. 30). Agency is easy to feel when
there is direct cause/effect, but so much in learning is delayed.
Writing a story often doesn't have an effect until it is read by
another person, and even then the effect is subtle. I need to help
my students create and tell stories (narratives) about themselves
that include them having choices, control and positive outcomes.
Phrases may include things like "How did you figure this out?
What problems did you encounter? What are you going with this?"
In my research and literature review of
discussion in the classroom, I have seen that it is still prevalent
to have the traditional IRE pattern of discussion in the classroom,
which Johnston confirms. The teacher Initiates with a known-answer
question, the student Responds with an answer, and the teacher
Evaluates the answer and moves on. Whoever poses the questions
determines the topic of conversation, and most often, the questions
are surface level or shallow. "Learning to act as a recipient
of information and to display receipt of information ... [ is not the
same as] building on ideas in a shared endeavor [ in which]
participants' roles can vary widely, such as leading a shared
inquiry, playing around with an idea together or closely following
other people's lines of thought" (quoting Rogoff & Toma,
1997, p. 475). Knowledge building requires authentic questions,
space for trying out ideas, and ways of connecting ideas together.
Often students are asked to work in
groups, not as groups. As I begin designing lessons, one of my goals
is to help students learn the skills of creating a community that
supports each other and depends on each other, while bringing out the
best qualities of each individual. “Democracy is neither a
possession nor a guaranteed achievement. It is forever in the making;
it might be thought of as a possibility—moral and imaginative
possibility. For surely it has to do with the way person attend to
one another, care for one another, and interact with one another. It
has to do with choices and alternatives with the capacity to look at
things as though they could be otherwise” (Maxine Greene, 1985, p.
3).
A teacher's conscious and unconscious
expectations of the student in front of them is evident in the way
the teacher speaks and treats the student, and students will
internalize and act accordingly, either accepting or rebelling
against the perceived identities. One question I need to ask myself,
and help my students ask is "What image of humanity is inherent
in it [this situation]" (Young, 1992).
“I've come to the frightening
conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my
daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a
tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be
a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or
humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that
decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a
child humanized or de-humanized.” Dr. Haim Ginott
