Voices from the Middle - All Together Now: Embracing Our Diversity, Sept 2004

A teacher with vivid memories of a childhood of poverty in Appalachia helps launch a community-based, participatory action research project with adolescent girls from the same background. Applicable to all marginalized students, the results of this research highlight the importance of seeing and hearing oneself in stories and of sharing stories with family and others who mirror the same experience.

Using an Around the World unit to introduce students to over 30 nations, Wilson proposes “trail mix” over “melting pot” as a metaphor for multiculturalism. Students kept a travel journal as they explored different cultures, and a schoolwide celebration of diversity included trying out the dress, music, and language of each.

As eighth graders write journals from the perspectives of fictional characters they’re reading about, their sensitivity to issues of diversity is heightened.

Involvement with the Wrinkle Writing Program at the University of New Mexico led Dupre to encourage playwriting in her classroom as a means to understand and respect differences.

A student who confesses he is gay and a teacher who must hide her sexual identity make us question how much has changed in the past few years and what we need to do hasten change now.

Fishback describes the positive impact on his school when, with the support of the administration and other teachers, he comes out to his students. An interview with him follows the article.

Crutcher reminds us that diversity isn’t just about race or sexual preference or physical limitations; it’s about knowing that every student in your classroom is “different” in some way. In the end, teachers must address issues of competency, power, and belonging to reach each one.

Critical inquiry can be used to reframe what we do in school by asking relevant questions around “real world” topics, thus inviting marginalized groups into full participation that has meaning for their lives.

Allen offers 3 specific strategies and a graphic organizer that will help students discover and retain an expanded and interesting vocabulary.

Burke offers 10 Academic Essentials, which he defines as a list of tools to help students succeed with in-school and out-of-school challenges. One essential, skimming and scanning, is expanded upon as an example of how these tools can be taught.

Daniels highlights flaws in the thinking behind No Child Left Behind and conclusions from the 2000 report from the National Reading Panel, urging teachers to consider stands on education when choosing candidates at the polls this fall.

Jago values the first-person narrative as a way for a student of any culture, any geographical location, any socioeconomic level to live inside another person, gaining perspective and knowledge of the unfamiliar or, perhaps, finding common ground. Such reading can humanize and contextualize informational texts later on.

Not every marginalized student looks marginalized, Probst reminds us. Most students, no matter how mainstream their looks, income, and habits, feel marginalized in some way. Offering books that feature characters suffering the same sense of disconnection can draw students into discussion in a safe environment.

Writing fosters thinking, and sometimes our students need to think about topics that are uncomfortable and difficult. In an environment of respect and honesty, Rief’s students learn to know themselves and their peers through writing.

This is the first in a series of columns that will define and explore what it is to be a literacy coach or a classroom teacher working with a literacy coach. This first column offers a detailed definition that includes a helpful graphic.

“We cannot embrace our diversity until we bridge the digital divide,” says Patterson. She encourages teachers to fight for technology in their schools, convinced that accessibility is critical to ensuring an equal education for all students.

Reviews of: Confronting Racism, Poverty, and Power: Classroom Strategies to Change the World; Listening: A Framework for Teaching across Differences; What Keeps Teachers Going?; “It’s Our World Too” : Socially Responsive Learners in Middle School Language Arts; Inside City Schools: Investigating Literacy in Multicultural Classrooms; Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children’s Literature.

Every teacher has a “comfort zone” when it comes to literature, but your students represent a wide variety of “comfort zones.” Here is a list of newer YA books with a little something for everyone.